It hit me this morning that as human beings, we are suffering creatures.

After all, suffering is basically written into the very code of all existence; to exist itself is to go against entropy, to summon together the forces of energy against decay, life against death – to work to create in a world of other people’s eyes and ears and judgments and socialities, minds in the full simulacrum of our brief temporal moment; to think and plan in a world of social relationships to do good and bad, right or wrong, ever to refine or polish, to push forward into the void, or to push against fate and the results of our own inaction.

Whether it is currency, social esteem, attraction, mates, or a future, a person is likely to suffer for these things; and if one is so lucky as to not suffer for one of them, one is likely to suffer for other things.

What are you suffering for today, and what are you willing to suffer for?

Are the things that you are suffering for things you deserve to suffer for?

Are they things that you truly want, or are the things you suffer for things that merit that suffering?

One of my current obsessions is learning beatmatching – it is a skill that DJs must have, such that the result of using that skill is that you get two different songs playing at the same beats per minute, in phase (the beats hit at the right time), in phrase, and importantly, you don’t stare at a screen while doing so.

Beatmatching involves making small changes to tempo (speed) that are either temporary (using the jog wheel) or permanent (using the tempo slider), in rapid response to what you are listening to (a topic that warrants another blog post, I think), until again, the beats are in phase, the speed of the tracks is the same, you get it right at the correct parts of the track (in phrase), and you don’t look at the screen while doing so.

Seems a little trivial? Well, contrary to what you might think, it is from this (apparently) simple skill comes our parties, celebrations, EDM festivals, and pretty much almost every kind of show that you can think of – it is that crucial.

To me, it is really interesting to think about how to develop that skill, as it involves asking a lot of questions in the head all at the same time, while running the program over and over again:

1. When should I play the track…
   • In relation to the incoming beats?
   • In the overall track?
2. When I do start playing the track…
   • Can I reliably and quickly tell:
     • Whether my track is fast or slow?
     • What adjustment to make and in what order?
     • How to perform a sequence of operations to make that adjustment?
     • How to calculate on the fly that sequence of operations?
   • Do I have the physical dexterity to make that adjustment while performing that listening?
   • Am I aware of what is coming next in the song that I may adjust to it?
3. As an artist…
   • Am I able to create an interesting experience for the listener?
   • Through track selection and curation of a bespoke and varied experience, can I sustain the vibe of the listener, how they feel…
     • In that moment?
     • Throughout the night?
   • Can I create not just an interesting experience, but also a memorable and significant experience that they will remember deeply in some meaningful way as a part of their one and precious lifetime?
   • Can I develop my technical mastery to blend skill and experience, form and essence?

I am sure that there are many other questions that we could ask and many different things I haven’t considered, but the ones I’ve listed here are some of the more interesting ones I have in mind.

Of course, I could just use beat sync all the way and stare at a screen, but that wouldn’t be all that interesting, would it?

Certainly not, when it feels like what I’m doing in learning this is somehow evolving my brain in a strange way that I had never considered before, but that somehow is my privilege now and in the immediate hereafter.

Lots more to come – looking forward to creating more fun experiences for the world!

I’ve been watching a range of language podcasts featuring David Perrell and also this other guy named William Fitzpatrick, and their conversations have been pretty interesting and sound; I’m not sure why this started, but I suppose there’s an internal part of me that is unconsciously trying to level up and thus is drawn to this kind of thing, that I inwardly and intuitively feel is needed to improve myself as a thinker.

I was particularly drawn to a single reference in Perrell’s conversation with Steven Pinker, though: 

The Curse of Knowledge – the idea that people who are specialized or expert level in their field of knowledge find it difficult to communicate with others, because they are precisely so well-informed that they think everyone knows what they know when they absolutely do not – and because they use abstractions in order to be able to compress higher level concepts and speak about vast bodies of knowledge even outside of appropriate context, they fail to communicate their ideas. 

I find that I am deeply afflicted by that curse, and that a lot of the things I do – create content – write – learn how to speak that little bit more articulately – visualize images more clearly, accessibly, understand the psychology of other people – are things that I am unconsciously doing with a small conscious aim of getting rid of that curse, getting rid of assumptions that don’t belong, and getting myself to be able to better communicate, and generally just get better at being a human being and participating in society – but not just getting better to the level of being some better communicator or otherwise, but to be able to somehow use it to the hilt.

It is a vain little aspiration on my part, but I hope it will come to light 🙂