[HN Gopher] The Problem with Music (1993)
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       The Problem with Music (1993)
        
       Author : brudgers
       Score  : 96 points
       Date   : 2023-04-02 14:09 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (thebaffler.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (thebaffler.com)
        
       | somesortofsystm wrote:
       | I have been making music for decades. Not professionally of
       | course, but only for myself.
       | 
       | I think in the rush for fandom we forget that it is quite
       | possible to be the best musician you know.
       | 
       | Music is one of those healing substances that will always work
       | and doesn't require you to invest heavily or be addicted or sign
       | a subscription. It will just heal you.
       | 
       | The fact that this has been industrialized and indeed weaponised
       | in the Western world is a bit of a travesty - but we must never
       | forget that our music schools produce 4 - 5 million new musicians
       | a year.
       | 
       | This is why I say, the only rock and roll industry is the one
       | where the guitars are being made and new instruments designed and
       | fashioned - for us all.
       | 
       | The idols come and go. That old synthesizer will have a lot, lot
       | longer use than the CD rack ..
        
       | 650 wrote:
       | Not knowing too much about sound engineering myself, I tried
       | comparing it to software engineering. At the end of the day what
       | matters is your output and learning along the way. It seems the
       | author has a gripe with people calling themselves producers.
       | 
       | If someone said I can't call myself a software engineer until I
       | had interned at XYZ company and understood Kubernetes, Docker,
       | Typescript, AWS, Rust, etc. I would say ok and?
       | 
       | I know there are thousands and thousands of producers and artists
       | making content that isn't of the highest quality, but at the end
       | of the day they are creating. Setting an unreasonable bar of
       | skill is not the way forward.
        
         | boomskats wrote:
         | "The author" in this case is Steve Albini[0].
         | 
         | [0]:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Albini_discography#As_an...
        
         | ehutch79 wrote:
         | The date on the article is actually important here. Music
         | recording is MUCH different then it is today, 20 years later.
         | 
         | The best you could do for a home recording was a (comparative
         | to today) shitty 4 track cassette recorder. You really needed
         | some training on the equipment to know what you're doing. The
         | resources just wern't there otherwise.
         | 
         | The analogy for the worst cases here is more 'I've turned a
         | computer on, so, Mr Torvalds, heres how a kernel is written'.
         | 
         | Of course there were a few brilliant producers. There mostly
         | mediocre producers who just got the job done, that you'll never
         | hear about. Only the outliers, the best and worst get
         | remembered.
        
           | danieldk wrote:
           | 30 years later (I started listening to a lot of music as a
           | teenager around that time, including Albini-engineered music,
           | realizing that that is about 30 years ago makes me feel...
           | old?)
        
             | ehutch79 wrote:
             | Oh.... yeah... now i feel even older
        
               | olddustytrail wrote:
               | I had one of those last week when I was watching "Back To
               | The Future" and realised that in a current remake, Marty
               | McFly would be going back in time to the Olden Days of
               | 1993.
        
         | bryzaguy wrote:
         | I do understand sound engineering. I think their gripe is
         | people claiming they understand how to make something sound
         | good with no actual knowledge of how to do it then making up
         | words along the way. Imagine you have a manager tell you to
         | make the site more "zazzy" with a straight face. Imagine all
         | managers start doing this.
        
         | dahart wrote:
         | The issue is that producers have no bar at all for the role,
         | and the role is not well defined, unlike software engineers
         | that typically have a 4 year degree, 2 year degree, or at the
         | very least a code camp, before being hired. Would you hire
         | someone for software engineering who had no engineering
         | training or experience just because they can talk lucidly and
         | in detail about what software they like?
         | 
         | Maybe a better software analogy here would be to compare
         | producers to product managers. Great PMs are truly gold, but
         | the PM role's technical requirements are nebulous, and there
         | are plenty of PMs who don't know how to write code, and don't
         | know how to craft a good product, and don't know how to
         | communicate with customers effectively, essentially having no
         | skills required for the job, but able to talk convincingly to
         | enough of the right people to get hired and keep their jobs.
        
           | livelielife wrote:
           | > unlike software engineers that typically have a 4 year
           | degree, 2 year degree...
           | 
           | they do NOW. Back when a lot of us started getting involved
           | with this, most 'engineers' had physics, engineering,
           | mathematics, and other various backgrounds because software
           | engineering degrees were too freaking new.
           | 
           | In the near-future (10 5? years? possibly sooner?) kids are
           | gonna graduate with specialized PM degrees having gone to
           | highschool thinking about being "product manager" when they
           | grow up. When I was in highscool i wanted to be a Webmaster!
           | now a webmaster is 15 people between desiginers, PMs,
           | backend, frontend, QA, testers, blah blah blha
        
             | dahart wrote:
             | It's a good point that things have changed a bit, but in
             | 1993 when this article was written you couldn't get a web
             | job based on code camps, neither really existed. There was
             | no role called webmaster yet. Webmaster today is a team
             | only if you're managing a large site, but not for small
             | sites, and it doesn't require many specific skills for
             | small sites. Like you said, most engineers had degrees of
             | some sort. For the purposes of comparing to a producer job
             | (which has existed in film, tv, radio, and music for ~100
             | years) engineering has always had higher skill & technical
             | requirements.
        
         | somesortofsystm wrote:
         | >people calling themselves producers
         | 
         | The music industry has just as big a headache with imposter
         | syndrome, the Flynn factor, and the Peter principle, as any
         | other industry.
         | 
         | The issue is that the music industry is extremely exploitative,
         | while being undeniably competitive. You don't get coders going
         | to the extremes that members do, for their art. (Not sure if
         | that is a good or bad thing, personally.)
         | 
         | >producers and artists making content that isn't of the highest
         | quality, but at the end of the day they are creating. Setting
         | an unreasonable bar of skill is not the way forward.
         | 
         | Its not skill. Its sell-ability. It doesn't matter if you threw
         | lemons at a piezo and called it done, if someone is willing to
         | pay to listen to it - because it _interests_ them - then you
         | 've got a hit.
         | 
         | The ability to sell music is a very, very difficult thing to
         | attain. Music is immediately free upon creation.
         | 
         | We, of course, have imposed a great deal of arbitrary limits on
         | its production and reproduction and broadcast and distribution
         | over the years - but the fact we still have musicians out
         | there, mind-blowingly great ones in fact, _who will never get
         | discovered in their lifetimes_ is a clue: music is language.
         | 
         | It therefore cannot and should not, ever, be limited by
         | government - or its adherents - in ways which prevent the use
         | of this language.
        
           | TheOtherHobbes wrote:
           | If you're going to apply that argument you should apply it to
           | everything - music, art, software, money, property of all
           | kinds.
           | 
           | But you won't, because the argument always comes to down to
           | "Stuff I want should be free because I want it. Stuff that
           | profits me personally should have legal and moral protections
           | unless I personally have the luxury of choosing otherwise."
           | 
           | That aside - it's skill too. Of a specific kind. Producers
           | have - actually have always had - two jobs. One is the admin
           | side of delivering the project on time and on budget - which
           | is not as easy as it sounds when band members may be drunk,
           | high, unreliable, on the verge of a personal or professional
           | breakdown, or at war with each other.
           | 
           | The other is having the taste and instinct to hit the market
           | just where it wants to be hit.
           | 
           | Taste and instinct are incredibly nebulous and hard to
           | define, but music buyers know them when they hear them.
           | They're the difference between a record that sounds polished
           | and a record that somehow has a life of its own.
           | 
           | With respect to Albini, having an EE degree has absolutely no
           | relevance to this. If anything it will get in the way,
           | because EE degrees teach you nothing about taste and
           | musicality.
           | 
           | Nor - unfortunately - does talent in the abstract. Some
           | musicians are just too talented for the mainstream. In a
           | saner culture we'd subsidise them - somehow - without relying
           | on the middle-of-the-bell-curve markets to do something
           | they're fundamentally unable to do.
        
         | throwaway1777 wrote:
         | The bar will only get lower with ai assists. Gatekeeping is
         | either essential or futile depending on your perspective.
        
         | jeffreygoesto wrote:
         | Sorry, but creating and engineering are on two different axes
         | IMHO. Engineering is about using math and science to achieve
         | things, kind of "the way". Creating is about "the goal". You
         | can create beautiful things by just trying random stuff...
         | 
         | For me, the vast majority of software is not engineering.
        
           | livelielife wrote:
           | I agree with software not being engineering.
           | 
           | but I disagree that engineering is just execution. I disagree
           | even harder that you can create something by throwing random
           | stuff,, you may well find something cool like that but I
           | think creation does require more of a clear intent than
           | random throwing and finding as if by chance.
        
       | vanjajaja1 wrote:
       | People conflate music with the drama that is the allure of quick
       | and easy fame.
        
       | livelielife wrote:
       | they are talking about the recording industry more than about
       | music; so I suppose I agree?
       | 
       | the recording _industry_ is the problem that music has. But this
       | 'problem' is not limited to music.
        
         | someweirdperson wrote:
         | > the recording industry is the problem that music has. But
         | this 'problem' is not limited to music.
         | 
         | In most other industries the individual isn't part of the
         | product, but replaceable a lot more easily.
        
       | vrglvrglvrgl wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | hippich wrote:
       | I wonder how these calculations changed with the rise of
       | production using computers, especially for electronic music,
       | where even a studio is likely not a hard requirement anymore?
       | 
       | I am sure also a lot changed with the rise of various streaming
       | platforms and services allowing to distribute your music to these
       | easily.
        
         | dclowd9901 wrote:
         | Many (most?) new prominent acts get their start in their
         | bedrooms with SoundCloud. It's beautiful.
         | 
         | I don't think there's ever even a case where they _have_ to go
         | through the industry ringer. They can just keep cleaning up
         | using self promotion and Spotify royalties.
         | 
         | Of course if they want to tour, that changes the equation a
         | bit.
        
           | bombolo wrote:
           | Radio is still a thing, and studios decide what goes on
           | there.
        
             | brandall10 wrote:
             | Olivia Rodrigo was launched into the stratosphere by TikTok
             | - yes with label support.
             | 
             | Billie Eilish I think came by way of Soundcloud, no?
             | 
             | Can't imagine radio, being a means of discoverability, as
             | more than a minor factor in this current era of Spotify.
        
             | mikeryan wrote:
             | Is it though?
             | 
             | I grew up in the Bay Area listening to "Live 105" the local
             | Alt-Rock station. It doesn't even exist anymore. There's
             | maybe one station on the dial that caters to a demographic
             | younger then 40.
             | 
             | I'm not sure radio is still relevant for anyone under the
             | age of 30.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | bombolo wrote:
               | > Is it though?
               | 
               | Yes.
               | 
               | > I'm not sure radio is still relevant for anyone under
               | the age of 30.
               | 
               | Maybe you don't drive? If you drive and you get tired of
               | listening and re-listening the stuff you have on your
               | phone... radio it is.
        
               | te_chris wrote:
               | Internet radio is real and thriving. I listen to NTS all
               | the time, e.g.
        
             | mb7733 wrote:
             | I can't imagine radio is relevant at all to an up and
             | coming musician at this point.
        
               | bombolo wrote:
               | Exactly my point. But it's relevant to listeners :)
        
       | okareaman wrote:
       | The beauty with the internet and now AI is that it greatly
       | reduces the power of and need for gatekeepers who take most of
       | the profit
        
         | atoav wrote:
         | Sure. I as a musician that practised for years to play the
         | right note in the right way the right moment will truly
         | appreciate it when the unique style I developed with my band
         | over years of work and sweat will be cloned in mere seconds by
         | a multi-national corporation and their AI. Or it could be a 13
         | year old teenager that has the AI create music in the style of
         | someone else.
         | 
         | Not that I am against sampling and remixing, but I have yet to
         | see that AI based cloning of music can truly become an artform
         | with it's own merits like sampling has become -- or whether it
         | will destroy the filaments of reality to such a degree music
         | will have to become something entirely different than it is
         | now.
         | 
         | What I am sure of, is that those who have power today will find
         | ways to hold that power tomorrow.
        
           | okareaman wrote:
           | There will be two groups of people: those who figure out how
           | to use AI to their benefit and those who don't
        
             | atoav wrote:
             | And those who figure it out and still won't benefit,
             | because bigger entites do what bigger entites always did
             | when technological promises loomed at the horizon.
        
           | teolandon wrote:
           | You are not the authority on what counts as an "artform of
           | its own".
           | 
           | I agree with your last statement though.
        
             | atoav wrote:
             | I am the authority of what counts as an artform of its own
             | -- to myself. I mean I also have a MA in arts, so I know
             | about art forms, but I didn't attempt to represent an
             | authority here. So I am sorry if you perceived I was acting
             | as an "authority" when in fect I was speaking a out my very
             | own perspective and nothing more.
        
         | bombolo wrote:
         | Bullshit.
         | 
         | You can't run your own AI, so the AI is gatekept.
        
         | 52-6F-62 wrote:
         | In exchange for a deafening level of noise.
         | 
         | One of the things those recording engineers used to battle was
         | a high noise floor in the signal. AI lowers that signal<>noise
         | ratio (applying the analogy to producing music or "content").
         | 
         | The issue isn't the barrier of entry in terms of skill or
         | technical expertise, it's malicious and greedy business
         | practices. And tech is ripe with that in all new ways of its
         | own. Institutionalized, codified psychopathy is on trial here.
        
         | NeuroCoder wrote:
         | Just by virtue of how the human brain transducers auditory
         | signals versus visual signals there is a big disparity in being
         | able to automate music production. We fill in many gaps for
         | vision but to a much smaller degree for music. There's a lot
         | less room for AI to fudge the difference between human and
         | generative model derived music.
         | 
         | It will be interesting to see how this all plays out as I'm
         | sure AI will found some use in music that has broad application
         | and influence. But it will take a lot longer than generating
         | pictures
        
       | simoneau wrote:
       | See also "Courtney Love does the math" (2000) for a similar
       | analysis of the music industry:
       | 
       | https://www.salon.com/2000/06/14/love_7/
        
         | UberFly wrote:
         | That was a good read, thanks. I'd like to know how the last 20
         | yrs have effected things and if musicians are still getting
         | just as screwed. Sadly I'm guessing yes.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | georgeecollins wrote:
       | Here is something that may be of use. When someone sends you or
       | hands you a contract, read it. If they hand you a contract and
       | expect you to sign it on the spot either ask to look at it
       | overnight or sit down and read it in the spot. Anyone who expects
       | you to sign something without reading it should feel shady.
       | 
       | Read it with a pen in hand. You are allowed to change things in a
       | contract. People often give you things as pdfs or paper with the
       | implication that you shouldn't make any changes. If you don't
       | understand something in the contract you may just want to cross
       | it out.
       | 
       | It's true that many contracts are take it or leave it deals, but
       | you never know until you try. And you want to know where you
       | stand. Also the back and forth leads to a lot of clarification.
       | Always be very polite.
       | 
       | Get your own copy of the signed document.
       | 
       | All of this applies to employment offers, leases, work for hire,
       | etc. IANAL
        
         | slaymaker1907 wrote:
         | From what I read in the article, you need to also avoid signing
         | anything that says you'll sign something else later (why in the
         | world is that kind of contract legal?).
        
           | lisper wrote:
           | Your question makes a mistaken assumption about contracts.
           | Contracts are not "legal" or "illegal", they are "binding" or
           | "non-binding". And a contract that stipulates that you will
           | sign something else later is generally non-binding. The
           | people who ask you to sign such contracts are counting on you
           | not knowing that.
           | 
           | There are several criteria that a contract needs to meet in
           | order to be binding. Interestingly, being written down and
           | signed is not one of them. Verbal contracts can be binding.
           | The reason for writing them down and signing them is to avoid
           | he-said-she-said type arguments if there is a dispute.
           | 
           | One of the criteria for a legally binding contract is that
           | there has to be an actual "meeting of the minds", i.e. that
           | the two parties have to _actually agree_ on what their
           | obligations under the contract actually are. An obligation to
           | sign some unspecified thing in the future does not meet that
           | criterion because you don 't know what you are agreeing to.
           | 
           | (For this reason, a ToS "contract" which allows one party to
           | change the terms unilaterally cannot be binding. You have to
           | be given the opportunity to reject the changes.)
           | 
           | But most people don't know these things, and so they allow
           | themselves to be manipulated by charlatans who do.
           | 
           | Disclaimer: IANAL. But I've signed a lot of contracts, some
           | of which I shouldn't have.
        
             | freedomben wrote:
             | > _Verbal contracts can be binding._
             | 
             | Yes this is true, although most jurisdictions impose fairly
             | low upper limits on the amount of consideration that a
             | verbal contract can cover. As of 2012 the most common value
             | was $500 or less (and probably is still the same level or
             | close to it in most areas). Anything involving
             | consideration valued at more than $500 USD was not binding
             | unless written.
        
             | Kranar wrote:
             | Contracts absolutely can be legal or illegal.
             | Binding/unbinding contracts are a related but separate
             | concept.
             | 
             | A legal contract is a contract whose terms do not violate
             | the law or public policy and whose terms are enforceable. A
             | binding contract is legal contract that has been signed by
             | all parties involved. It is perfectly valid to question
             | whether a contract is legal or illegal, regardless of
             | whether that contract is binding.
        
               | lisper wrote:
               | "Legal", "enforceable", and "binding" are all more or
               | less synonyms in this context. Yes, it's true that a
               | "legal" contract is a thing, but it's really just a
               | synonym for "enforceable", which is really just a synonym
               | for "binding". None of these things mean the same thing
               | as "legal" in the sense that it is, say, "not legal" to
               | rob a bank. There is nothing illegal _under contract law_
               | in signing a contract to rob a bank. Such a contract is
               | not binding /enforceable/legal but there would be no
               | legal repercussions _under contract law_ if you signed
               | such a contract. If you robbed the bank you 'd be charged
               | with bank robbery, and if you didn't rob the bank you
               | could be charged with conspiracy. But under no
               | circumstances could you be charged with a contract
               | violation (which is always a civil matter anyway, not a
               | criminal one).
               | 
               | > A binding contract is legal contract that has been
               | signed by all parties involved.
               | 
               | That is just flat-out false. Verbal contracts can be
               | (legally) binding and hence enforceable. It's not common
               | because of the practical difficulties of ascertaining
               | what the terms of a verbal contract actually are or were,
               | but it's not unheard of.
        
               | Kranar wrote:
               | I think you're way out of your league here if you're
               | saying that there is nothing illegal under contract law
               | to sign a contract to rob a bank. Not to mention that
               | you've now gone from trying to be pedantic about the fact
               | that there's no such thing as a legal contract, to now
               | saying that it's actually just a synonym for binding
               | contract. If all you cared about was the overall
               | intention and meaning instead of trying to get into the
               | nitty gritty, there'd have never been a point in you
               | posting to begin with.
               | 
               | With that said, if you're under that impression then I'm
               | afraid there's likely not much of a point in discussing
               | this further with you and you're welcome to continue
               | believing what you like.
        
               | lisper wrote:
               | > I think you're way out of your league here if you're
               | saying that there is nothing illegal under contract law
               | to sign a contract to rob a bank.
               | 
               | Could be. Like I said at the beginning, IANAL. But if you
               | are any less out of your league than I am, it would be
               | pretty easy for you to cite the specific provision of
               | contract law that would make it illegal, and how it would
               | be prosecuted. Would it be a criminal offense? Felony or
               | misdemeanor? Or would it be a civil suit? Who would be
               | the plaintiff? Under what provision of contract law would
               | they sue? What would be the actual damages?
               | 
               | At worst, signing a contract to rob a bank _might_ be
               | evidence of a conspiracy [1] but conspiracy is not part
               | of _contract_ law. Merely signing such a contract in and
               | of itself is not an illegal act. I could sign such a
               | contract, for example, as part of an April Fools joke and
               | that would be perfectly legal _even if_ the contract that
               | I signed were drawn up by a lawyer and was prima facie
               | valid and enforceable.
               | 
               | ---
               | 
               | [1] https://www.justia.com/criminal/offenses/inchoate-
               | crimes/con...
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | AlbertCory wrote:
       | > That's why few self-respecting engineers will allow themselves
       | to be called "producers."
       | 
       | btw, HN'ers, I'm preparing a new Substack post about "music
       | movies you haven't seen" and one of the ones I saw when it came
       | out was _about a recording engineer_! Imagine that. I think Tom
       | Dowd is the only engineer anyone would make a movie about.
       | 
       | It's _Tom Dowd and the Language of Music_ and now I can 't find
       | it anywhere. Can you?
        
         | kodt wrote:
         | I found it on a community specializing in out of print media.
         | I'll see if I can get a copy.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | kencausey wrote:
         | This is the cheapest copy I could find in 30 seconds:
         | https://www.ebay.com/itm/155484714542?epid=30902174
        
           | AlbertCory wrote:
           | Thanks. Yeah, I don't need to _own_ it; just watch it again.
           | No Amazon Prime, no Netflix, no Kanopy.
        
       | omar_alt wrote:
       | I wonder what would be a good Steve Albini type plugin to get one
       | of those increasingly rare young bands to sound like they had
       | just recorded Rid of Me or Surfer Rosa? ;)
        
         | Applejinx wrote:
         | Soothe into OTT. Clearly.
         | 
         | ;)
        
         | throwaway743 wrote:
         | Oooo or Atomizer
        
       | CuriouslyC wrote:
       | The irony of this is that a lot of the sound engineering stuff
       | isn't a thing anymore for recorded music - the producers won. If
       | you mic properly and choose a space with the right acoustics you
       | can achieve almost anything with walkthrough GUIs using a DAW and
       | some plugins.
        
         | still_grokking wrote:
         | Now I'm confused.
         | 
         | Isn't the "DAW and some plugins" part actually the core of
         | sound engineering nowadays?
        
           | CuriouslyC wrote:
           | They are, but the engineering aspect is greatly diminished,
           | which is why these days in music everybody is a producer and
           | audio engineers are more likely to work events or film/tv.
        
         | PUSH_AX wrote:
         | Mics? Chances are (unless you're a vocalist) you can either DI
         | straight into a plugin or use a VSTi to just midi program a
         | sampled version of your instrument both performed and
         | engineered to a higher standard than you can reach.
        
           | CuriouslyC wrote:
           | While I've certainly done everything in software, there are a
           | lot of genres (such as metal) where micing is a part of the
           | sound. If you listen to metalcore vs a lot of metal, you can
           | hear it.
        
             | PUSH_AX wrote:
             | I would disagree on that, as a hobbyist metal guitarist
             | myself, software like Neural DSP, Bogren etc has made such
             | strides in amp modelling that you can get the same sounds
             | in the box. There are a number of releases I've heard where
             | you simply cannot tell the difference, arguably nor should
             | you bother trying, they sound fantastic.
        
               | CuriouslyC wrote:
               | I own a copy of bias fx, but I still feel that the
               | nuances of mic positioning and acoustics can give an
               | organic feel easily, much like how good musicians swing
               | beats in an aesthetic way that beat swing plugins don't
               | quite live up to in most cases.
        
               | ironman1478 wrote:
               | A lot of amp modeling software allows you to place the
               | mic virtually in different positions because it affects
               | the sound. I think when using a Kemper to profile an amp,
               | it models the microphone + amplifier
        
               | progrus wrote:
               | The cabinet and speaker are also modeled, and in some
               | ways those are more important than the amp:
               | 
               | https://youtu.be/-eeC1XyZxYs
        
       | motohagiography wrote:
       | Now do startups. But seriously, while I have not got to
       | investment stage, I have been in shitty bands in the early 90s
       | where I know the names of the people in the article, had partners
       | in the model-acting-whatever game, written as a freelancer and
       | lived with authors and publishing people, and then also worked on
       | hopeful startup products for myself and others, and even
       | sometimes help VCs choose decks from the slop pile. It's the
       | _exact_ same grind across all those industries.
       | 
       | Reality is, you are either money side, or talent side, and there
       | is almost nothing in between, other than the "judas goat" roles
       | of the A&R guy, writing course adjunct, model scout, VC
       | associate, where you get a job bringing talent into the funnel.
       | 
       | If you thought your dev job was different, your recruiter is
       | probably getting compensated with 20-30% of your first year's
       | salary if you persist in the job for 6mos, and if you are in the
       | contracting game without negotiation skills or leverage, the
       | company you work for is paying anywhere from 20% to 100% premium
       | to your agency where you do work, an they did their work.
       | 
       | Around the time of this article in my late teens or early 20s I
       | was sitting beside a pool at the vast country estate of a friends
       | very wealthy parents, and I asked him, "How do I get this?" He
       | told me something along the lines of "the reason you don't make
       | any money is because you want money for what it gets you, like
       | freedom, approval, acknowledgement of your talent, status,
       | appreciation, and maybe some nicer versions of what you need to
       | live. You don't actually want money, you don't make it for its
       | own sake, and you don't use it or manage it to make more of it,
       | you use it for these other things." I responded, "Of course, why
       | would I want to be a slave to making money? What an empty life. I
       | don't want to be some douche bag bridge and tunnel tourist
       | working at a bank." He said, "If you want this, you need to only
       | want that. You don't get this from what money gets."
       | 
       | The lecture didn't land at all. I was always a bit of a punk ass.
       | I went on to do some really interesting stuff, where decades
       | later I make a passable living having done some interesting and
       | even legendary things I get to dine out on the stories from, but
       | while I don't have many regrets, I am conscious of the attitude
       | in this article and how it plays out. If you want money, make
       | money. if you want something else, own that. Thinking you're
       | going to be wealthy from your talent and efforts is practically
       | the definition of magical thinking. Money is made by managing it,
       | which means getting some, leveraging and investing it and
       | extracting value from the risk and growth.
       | 
       | There's nothing wrong with not being wealthy, I do it very well,
       | but attributing our ignorance about money to injustice, as a way
       | to protect our magical thinking about the untested value of our
       | talent, is to be stuck in a kind of adolescence.
        
       | tptacek wrote:
       | producer : music :: architect : software.
        
       | ChancyChance wrote:
       | I first read this article in the book "Commodify Your Dissent",
       | which is a collection of phenomenally accurate critiques of
       | post-80's culture
       | 
       | https://store.thebaffler.com/products/commodify-your-dissent
        
       | analog31 wrote:
       | >>>> Especially "Punchy" and "Warm." Every time I hear those
       | words, I want to throttle somebody.
       | 
       | I've seen this first-hand. I'm a bassist. When you ask any
       | bassist about their sound, they all say that they want it to be
       | "punchy." Every bass, amplifier, and speaker is described as
       | "punchy." If not, it doesn't even make it to the market.
       | 
       | Protip: To overcome any problem with your sound, turn the volume
       | up a bit. This is also a known trick in the studio, and the
       | equipment showroom: Make a few arbitrary adjustments, then play
       | it back again, but with the volume turned up.
        
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