High End Validation

05-02-10: Sonicbeauty writes:

We seem to forget that these forums are for public readership - and public criticism also -

I am not forgetting. I am criticising your behaviour.

Regards,

Touche!

This exchange somehow reminds me of a line from one of my favorite films.

Grant, I get where you're coming from, and I think most here probably do, regardless of semantics. Our hobby is basically solo..rather isolating and separatist otherwise. More often than not it can be the subject of ridicule, probably because most people listen to and enjoy music, but not many take it to the extremes that many here do. So it is nice when someone from the "outside" actually gets it. I guess it can feel like a connection, or that you've contributed something to someone's experience, or opened them up to another possibility.

I think sometimes we're so close to our systems, and we polished and re-polished the gem so many times we don't recognize the luster.

The comment from the guy at my door provided fresh ears. He heard music approaching reality to the degree he had to ask if it was real. Frankly, his initial assumption was that it was real. I believe what caused him to second guess himself was the size of our living room, which is not large enough to conceal a piano from the view of someone standing at the front door.

"...."we polish and re-polish the gem so many times we don't recognize the luster"

Oh yeh!~ That's why outsiders think we are nuts. :-)

In my experience though, some times the phrase could use a substitution of the words turd and stink for gem and luster.

But I wish I had a nickel for every time I've rested and thought 'this is so good I can't imagine how it could be improved'. And that thought lasts as long as it takes for me to find a way. Thank god it's fun, otherwise this compulsion would drive us whacko.

I wish I had used a word other than validation.

That really wasn't the point at all.

I, for one, didn’t take the word “validation” in the OP as a sign of ego, narcissism, or anything else pathological. I took it to mean “satisfaction” or “gratification,” the kind that results from another person’s recognition of your success at something to which you have devoted considerable time and effort. In my view, that is a feeling that needs no justification.

I took it to mean “satisfaction” or “gratification,” the kind that results from another person’s recognition of your success at something to which you have devoted considerable time and effort.
Bryoncunningham (System | Reviews | Threads | Answers)

Yes. You understand it.

Yet, prior to the comment about the piano being made, I was still striving to attain the goal. The comment by the delivery person made me recognize that in some measure, the goal had been already been achieved.

Sometimes we need a metaphorical smack up side our head to wake us up to reality.