anchor.diff:  > "My greatest achievement?"
   > He looked around his workshop, looking at hundreds of artwork he had created…
   > "This…"
  -> He did not point at any sculpting he made. He raised both his hand, and showed me his palms.
  +> He did not point at any sculpture he made. He raised both his hand, and showed me his palms.
   
   For an artisan, achievement is not really the end product. Or at least it was not always the end product. For this one particular wood sculptor, it is all about the process in the middle the new discoveries and the steps he took to create numerous work of art. The small iteration he added to his experience, the knowledge he gained in order to determine how to navigate an unknown wood block, the intuition he had acquired when every piece of wood reacted to his hammering, his snap judgements. And eventually, his expertise.
   
  -As a researcher, I don't think it's the research result that are the main achievement. But rather, the acquired experience of it. Research results are just like an artists' artworks. It's like a piece of music, a paintings, and a sculpting. In the end, it's just objects. It could be timeless, and it could be meaningless. But In the end, it's just a vessel for the artists' self development and journey of discovery. 
  +As a researcher, I don't think it's the research result that are the main achievement. But rather, the acquired experience of it. Research results are just like an artists' artworks. It's like a piece of music, a paintings, and sculptures. In the end, it's just objects. It could be timeless, and it could be meaningless. But In the end, it's just a vessel for the artists' self development and journey of discovery. 
   
   The same could be said for a researcher. We're artists of our crafts. The main achievement a researcher can get, is always about the experience, the knowledge we gain in order to navigate an unknown phenomenon, the intuition we had acquired when interviews and observation data is presented to our eyes, the snap judgement we have when we're in the field, and the attention to new details in each every research project. 
   
  
positive.code: ### On mistakes, trial and error
  > "Not every stone, wood, are the same. They can react differently even when you use the same tools. Learnings are made, not prepared for, just as those discoveries are found…"
  
  He explained to me on how he created a statue of Wishnu out of a chunk of mahogany, and failed. The failed wood sculpting is left half-sculpted on the god's lower body, and then the wood cracks into two pieces. He made a mistake when trying to carve an opening with a flat-edge chisel. He didn't throw away the broken pieces, instead of pivoting into creating another sculpt, the torso of the god himself, and the lower body transformed into another block of wooden flowers.
  
  Just like research work. We dive into the process, and we found out that some of our tools and frameworks did not generate the kind of data we wanted. The interview guide we executed failed to dig deep into insights we're hoping for. It's normal. The artisan taught me, when failure in research arise, it's not wise to discard the result, or the ongoing approach. 
  
  
negative.code: Research methods, toolkits, and sandboxes are just like a sculptor's hammers and chisels. The point of it is not to debate or to collect it, but to use it, to familiarize ourselves with it, to fully support us in our research vision. But eventually, most of the time, it's more about working with what we have at the first place. Know what you have, and more forward. Remember: Limitation of tools shouldn't stop you on creating high quality research.
  
  ### On vision and execution
  > "Yes, before I start, I usually imagine how a sculpture would look like in the end, but to blindly believe that it should be exactly the way we imagined is sometimes a folly."
  
  In every art discipline, be it music, visual arts, or performance arts, there are at least three aspects that are the main focus: Conception, Execution, and Perception. 
  Conception is the realm of initial ideas and vision. A production of art work is the result of a conception process. A creative process that usually involve imagination, interpretation of initial stimuli. The ideal form of an art work, a world without constraints. 
  