22 hours agoMember-onlyImprovising Is One Of The Hardest Skills To Learn — But A Skill NonethelessTeaching and learning it takes huge courage — Improvising is hard. We tend to agree that it is a natural gift, something we are born with or not. I don’t concur. I think we can learn to improvise. However, the difficulty may seem daunting, so much so that we end up ascribing it to innate talent so we…Life3 min read
1 day agoMember-onlyWe Don’t Listen To Music AnymoreYet we hear it more than ever — Background Music Generally, I write each of these articles with music in the background. One of the inconveniences of being a musician is that the more you work on music, the less music you can listen to. Indeed, a couple of years ago, I sat down to reflect on something…Life3 min read
2 days agoMember-onlyRemastering Music Is Music RevisionismWhy this urge to judge the past by present standards? Won’t our current standards be outdated soon enough? — I have written before about remastering records. I deplore the practice with an abnormal passion. Digitally Remastered Rant As I was listening to Selling England By The Pound by Genesis for what must have been the tenth time this week, it hit me again: all that added compression from the…Life3 min read
3 days agoMember-onlyIt’s In Your Head, That Makes It RealOpportunities and dangers when dealing with the mind — Real? There is nothing more real than what is inside our heads. If it exists in our minds, it is undeniable. Indeed, the belief in a nation or a god is far more evident to an individual than the microbes living in the fabric of the armchair said individual sits…Life3 min read
4 days agoMember-onlyStricter Is A Two-Way StreetOur instructions must match our expectations — What Many Managers Forget Loftier expectations demand sharper instructions. Ambitious leaders will always seek to achieve more with the given resources. Thus, successful teams are doomed to fail since their captains will continuously raise the bar. When a team reaches its limit, the choice is between increasing or improving its…Life3 min read
5 days agoMember-onlySingle Sources Of Truth Were Born To Be SingleInformation technology lessons for everyday life — In information technology, there is an essential concept known as a single source of truth. It isn’t difficult to grasp, but it isn’t always easy to implement. Or rather, it is tempting to violate the rule. The idea is that all the data used by a model comes only from…Life3 min read
6 days agoMember-onlyTrue Value Goes Beyond Being CoolPopularity may be fleeting but our output should be good enough to remain relevant at least for a minority — Some of the things I love the most were never cool. There never was a majority of people who liked them. They were never mainstream. In contrast, other things I am equally passionate about were popular. Within these, few have stayed cool to this day, while most others have either…Life3 min read
Aug 10Member-onlyLet’s Not Underestimate The Value Of Anything That Makes Us Feel This GoodFootball, love and other conditions — Young Eccentrics I was still very young when I realised I was an eccentric. I might be a subdued eccentric in that I do not often display my bizarreness in public, but an eccentric nonetheless. One of the few things that have kept me connected to a part of the…Life3 min read
Aug 9Member-onlySpeaking About Problems Is Both Generous And Self-PreservingBad days are better shared — Good Will Collision We all can have bad days, personally or professionally. Sometimes, both worlds collide and blast us out of our stability. It is the sort of day when we wish we had stayed in bed. When this happens, I prefer to stay inside and not meet anybody. I…Life3 min read
Aug 8Member-onlyThe Freedom Of Accepting That Not Everything Is FreeVictims of inertia or agents of change? Do we have a choice? — Free Junk There are few more alluring prospects in life than something free of charge. The power of something given to us at no cost is such that we may end up hoarding mountains of junk we would have never considered purchasing. This marketing mechanism is so irresistible that we…Life3 min read
