No worries.
My house has little hooligans, a cat, and endless dust forming from the entropy though! 
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I’ll be really interested to hear what you think of the book once you get a chance to read it. I also read the article on the Guardian and had been planning to buy the book until I did some more reading on the author. He apparently doesn’t have the greatest academic rigour in his work often being quite selective about chosing studies and such that support his overall narrative without giving equal consideration to studies that suggest otherwise. So, I’ve taken inspiration from some of the things he said in the Guardian article without necessarily giving the “science” behind that much credence.
I think my concentration issues are at play here too. I’m by no means a good player but know some theory and basic strategy, I can nearly always get on top of a game (with someone around my level) but then I chuck it away making 2-3 major, avoidable mistakes. To the point where I have a struggle beating my 9 year old some of the time!
Ironically movies are one of the things I do sit through without breaking concentration 
I’m just starting chapter 4. To be fair, you don’t even need the science so far, it is all pretty self-evident. I myself will not bother to take the time to look at every single source he selected. It isn’t great writing, but I’m a patient reader.
I can’t understand why you’d expect an author attempting to present a particular case to go to the trouble of hunting down evidence counter to his thesis. This isn’t a school assignment.
Science itself is sick with biases (I have worked in research, have friends in research, one even runs a research org) and there’s nothing great about the state of science. Reproduciability is low, the pace at which things are published is too high, the business of publication is at odds with the process of science, agendas abound everywhere. And this book…it isn’t science, it is a social story, a mild moral panic.
I’m reading it because I’ve experienced the issues he describes, and it isn’t enough for me to attempt to address them on a personal level. I’d like to understand how systemic changes could be brought to bear. I understand confirmation bias, I’m not about to go out and buy the book “Everything is Fine: How Being a Scatter Brained Moron is Good for You and The Economy” no matter how rigourous the author.
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Thanks for the thoughts, I didn’t mean to imply that everything I read must be of the highest academic rigour. Rather it was just the other things that I read about the author put me off and it was a few weeks ago now so don’t remember the full in’s and out’s of what I read - it was enough that I thought “I’m not rushing out to buy this at full price hardback” - may end up picking it up at some hence keen to hear what you thought.
Similar to what you describe, I recognised some of the author experience in myself when I read the Guardian, so ideas and approaches to consider are always welcome. Hence why this thread is proving to be really helpful and inspiring for me.
Just about FM level i was told. I did start at the the of 9 though. I entered the English federation Senior championships recently and finished in the top 8. It has kept my mind active for sure.
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yeah, I was a bit snappy then, sorry.
Ok, to be fair to the author, he has mentioned at least 4 times in the first 5 chapters that such and such an effect is controversial, and there are studies/data both for and against. He then seems happy enough to draw conclusions in the direction of his own experience and preferences.
What can I say…it is not a great book, and if you read the shallows, or deep work, or even The Guardian article you probably have the information you need. However, I am enjoying the narrative arc, the device of his 3 month unplugged break, the sense of a globe trotting journalist talking in person to experts spread all over the world. It is fun to read (although there are some terrible lines, bad jokes, awfully iffy statements about empathy and prejudice etc.)
I’ve read ~100pages so far today, and I am hopefully going to finish the book this weekend.
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I can believe you! I have the greatest respect for good chess players. It seems like a super power from where I am sitting. I’m looking forward to trying to get a little better. Seems like a nice hobby, even for a late starter like me.
I plan on getting a couple of books (I heard 1001 Chess Exercises for beginners, and 100 Endgames you most now are good for someone who is learning)
This is what I thought. I have a chess set somewhere but lost in the attic mess. I got another for my birthday and “Chess for Dummies”. The only thing I knew was how the pieces moved - not much more now! It’s a fascinating game with endless combinations.
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Send me a couple of your pgns and i can help. Ive tutored quite a few people this way.
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Piano is a probably the most intuitive instrument for learning theory bcs of the linear order of notes. I wish I had played a bit of piano or guitar when I went to music school for couple of years. Most of the things discussed in the theory classes went over my head bcs I had no melodic instrument to study them with. I played the drums… With the drums almost all of the cool stuff is impossible to be written down, groove.
What I really love about synths is that it makes as much sense to think of stuff in terms of frequencies as it does as notes, and that with audio rate modulation there can be these kind of “nested” notes inside the actual notes. Of course also the fact that the sounds are not limited by the laws of physics.
The main reason I want to learn a bit (not too much) more theory is to be able to understand harmony better. Some chord changes are just so magical I want to open that door a little bit. I bet reading notes would be too much for me. Thinking about something like understanding some basic chords with maybe a few “jazz chords”.
How did you guess that was the reason that I took up viola, and later violin, despite knowing so many other people in the world will always be more skilled than me at playing either instrument?
Yes, I started playing it with the intention of playing experimental music. I did get some formal lessons so I wouldn’t be too lost on the instrument.
So when I watch videos like tips on drive and fuzz settings for electric violin, I don’t worry at all about the other person destroying my violin soul and replacing it with his own. My experiences have taught me to examine any new information i find with a critical eye, question everything, evaluate ,etc. I just take notes that he did this and he did that, and ignore anything he does that I is of no interest to me.
For me, being changed because I got new info is nothing to fear.
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I will, so kind, Thank you!
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Good points and like it has already been stated, understanding the fundamentals is generally a very good thing. Getting a hang of more esoteric tips and tricks is good too.
Still, playing a violin through a fuzz and other effects in an experimental setting is nowhere near as common as electronic music, so the palette of cliches isn’t as overwhelming and the traditions are not so well established.
Imagine a forum this size with this much traffic around piezo’d violin with all the cool and experimental stuff already pretty much normalised by the end of the 90’'s and weekly videos from hundreds of popular youtubers making sure that no technique is unknown to anyone. That might make it kinda challenging to feel any level of originality.
So basically all I’m saying is that you must stop watching those videos immediately because you just cannot go on like that and it’s wrong!!! Wroooong!!!
Acquiring new knowledge is never a bad thing. But having a static mindset is. For example, I learned how to create a Euclidean generator in Bitwig’s Grid from Polarity’s YouTube channel yesterday, but now that I have that knowledge by following his steps, my immediate thought after that is how to break it or make it more interesting. If I took that know how and decided that’s how beats are made now and forever, then that’s a static mindset. But by combining my new knowledge with my old knowledge, I can now create something new.
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I’m not implying that gaining new knowledge is a bad thing, but rather that being excessively aware of what everybody else is doing hasn’t had much of a positive impact to my music lately.
Just a personal view atm. Constant novelty seeking can become pretty distracting, depending on what you want to do of course.
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Sure. Generally speaking, I try to avoid other music during the music making process. Putting myself in a little bubble of my own making.
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Ok, I think I understand your point better.
I have an upper limit as to how many videos I can watch every day. So I have a natural self-defense mechanism against that. I believe some people call it “information overload”.
I have gotten criticism from schoolmates in university for lack of originality or imagination. In the case of a few individuals, I believe they honestly wanted to encourage me to keep growing, and being straight males, this is how they showed their love and care. I also wanted to “be original” and used that as an excuse to not learn certain things, although I can see that is not what you advocate.
I feel however that the desire for originality damaged me in a more important way - I let it prevent me from creating more music and sound art. Too many times I would start working on a track or musical idea, then say “Crap, this ain’t original”, then put the music gear away and spend the rest of the day and night watching TV and drinking beer, or some other mind-numbing time wasting activity.
The forum software is wrong to nag me for replying to you 3 times, btw, as others have clearly been conversing with you too.
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Exactly. I’m sure I’ve got some kind of undiagnosed ADD or ADHD and at times the only solution in order to get something worthwhile done is to shut down the incoming stream of information. 
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Gotcha! I definitely don’t want to sound like I know what’s best for you and tbh wish that my capacity to intake new information would be better but it is what it is.
I have found this conversation very nice and it’s cool to hear your point of view.
We are all very similar in many ways and yet very different in many regards.
Perhaps my use of the word original has some foolish connotations and I meant that finding my own voice in some sense is what I feel the most essential thing atm.
One can make such an infinite amount of different sounds with synthesis that it feels almost paralysing at times and I often times compare the chaos that is the result from that to the simplicity of the guitar for example.
edit: sorry to hear about the discouraging comments from your friends, it’s not exactly the ideal thing to hear while making music, no matter what the intention may have been.
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