Steve Westman graciously invited one of the most controversial members of the Audiophile Community — that would be me — to appear on his youtube channel for a half hour chat. When he couldn’t shut me up, it ended going for an hour.
I want to thank him for putting up with me while I spent the time mostly criticizing all the modern reissues he seems to favor.
Please read the comments and feel free to post your own if you have something you would like to say. I read them all.
Say whatever you like, I can take it!
Unlike the Tom Port of twenty years ago, and some rather famous reviewers still writing today, my skin has grown quite thick since I started causing trouble in the vinyl community with my crackpot ideas and uncontrolled greed. People seem to enjoy beating up on me and the snake oil they think I am selling, but more than a thousand years ago one of the great Stoic philosophers offered his advice on how to deal with the criticisms of one’s detractors. This is advice that I have tried to heed myself for lo these many years, not always successfully.
Below is an excerpt from an article in The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday.
The secret from Marcus Aurelius for when we get flak or insults or judgment from other people? He said we should look inside their soul.
“Get inside him,” Marcus wrote. “Look at what sort of person he is. You’ll find you don’t need to strain to impress him.”
His point was that too often we blindly “accept” what haters throw at us without stopping to actually examine who these haters actually are. You wouldn’t take driving advice from a bad driver, or be guilted about your finances from someone who knows nothing about money.
Nor should you listen to people telling you you’re not good at this or that, that you’re failing here or there, whether you should act in one way or another, if you don’t respect that person and their own choices.
If you want to stop caring what other people think, take a second and actually look at those people for a second. You’ll quickly find that there isn’t much to be harried on about, that you’re doing just fine.
In response to some of my critics, I wrote a commentary entitled a kinder, gentler approach to record reviewing.
Check it out if you have time.
Further Reading