shane-parrish

The Reward Comes After

Richard Feynman Is Another Guy with Good Advice on Making [Audio] Progress

But first let’s check in with Shane Parrish, who writes:

You have to train before the race, not after. You have to build the skill before you get the job that requires it. You have to be trustworthy for years before anyone trusts you with something important. The bill comes first. The reward comes later.

The universe does not offer financing.

This is hard to accept because modern life trains us to expect the opposite. We are addicted to “Buy Now, Pay Later.” You live in the house before you pay off the mortgage. You get the degree before you pay off the loan. You eat the meal before you ask for the check.

We are conditioned to enjoy the benefit today and pay the cost tomorrow.

Achievement reverses the transaction. It requires full payment in advance (and regular payments forever). If you want a fit body, a calm mind, a healthy relationship, or financial independence, the cost is non-negotiable. You must do the work before you get the result.

This is why most people quit. They pay a little, see nothing, and stop. They never make it far enough to see the first return arrive.

Some of this comports well with my audio experience over the last fifty years or so, but some of it does not. I feel the need to add some context to Shane’s advice when it comes to the hobby I have devoted most of my life to.

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Earned Wisdom Versus Borrowed Wisdom

Record Experiments Taught Us Practically Everything We Know

Shane Parrish writes:

Borrowed wisdom breaks under pressure because you haven’t earned it.

You’re trusting someone else’s compression without knowing what created it.

Earned wisdom, on the other hand, holds up because it’s rooted in your actual experience.

You know when it works, why it works, when to ignore it and when to bend it because you created the compression.

It’s amazing how far you can get in this hobby if you’re obsessive enough and driven enough. (See links below for more on these two drivers of success.)

To achieve real success you must be willing to devote huge amounts of time, money and effort to the pursuit of better home audio.

You will really go far if you’re willing to let your ears, not your brain, inform your understanding and appreciation of the sound of the various pressings you play.

If we thought like most audiophiles — that money buys good sound and original pressings are usually the best — we would currently be very unlikely to have a business selling a million dollars or more worth of Hot Stampers every year.

(For those new to the idea, here are the short versions of what they are and how you go about acquiring them.)

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“Ninety percent of success can be boiled down to consistently doing the obvious thing for an uncommonly long period of time…”

More Entries from Tom’s Audiophile Notebook

“Ninety percent of success can be boiled down to consistently doing the obvious thing for an uncommonly long period of time without convincing yourself that you’re smarter than you are.” — Shane Parrish

Everybody knows that practice of any skill with the idea of challenging yourself will more than likely make you better at practically anything you choose to do. But where have you ever seen those concepts applied to bettering your own audio skills other than right here on this blog? (And Robert Brook‘s of course.)

Just how would you go about challenging yourself as an audiophile?

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“We want the outcome, but we need the journey.”

Experiments Taught Us Everything We Know about Records

Thought for the Day

We want the outcome, but we need the journey.

Falling in love with outcomes doesn’t move you forward.

Falling in love with the process does.

Shane Parish

It’s amazing how far you can get in this hobby if you’re obsessive enough and driven enough. (See links below for more on these two drivers of success.)

To achieve real success you must be willing to devote huge amounts of time, money and effort to the pursuit of better home audio.

You will really go far if you’re willing to let your ears, not your brain, inform your understanding and appreciation of the sound of the various pressings you play.

If we thought like most audiophiles — that money buys good sound and original pressings are usually the best — we would currently be very unlikely to have a business selling a million dollars or more worth of Hot Stampers every year.

(For those new to the idea, here are the short versions of what they are and how one goes about acquiring them.)

(more…)