For The Love Of Music

When I was seventeen, I was lucky enough to visit Abbey Road recording studios. My school had funding from the British Arts Council to send one student to join a group of others from around the country on a tour of the EMI music group, including the famous recording studio. My music teacher put all the students’ names in my music Technology A level class in a hat, and he picked my name.

The two things I remember about Abbey Road studios were that we had to start our tour at 8:00 so we could be out of the way by the time the working day began at 11:00, and every room seemed to be full of Bower and Wilkin’s 800 speakers. Each of the recording studios and mastering suites had a 7.1 surround sound setup, and the live rooms and corridors had seemingly randomly placed speakers throughout the building.

B&W 800 speakers are iconic; they have large rounded cabinets, a large ‘turbine head’ for the midrange, and a ‘Diamond dome tweeter’ mounted on top. A pair of 8000 D3s costs £23,500 and represent the ‘pinnacle of audio perfection’. I will never forget the awe we felt as a group of working-class kids who has probably never listened to a stereo costing more than £100. We were standing in the most famous studio in the world, in a perfectly prepared room, listening to a surround sound mix of an orchestra through possibly the best reference speakers ever made. I have been a B&W fan ever since.

I have owned various B&W products since that day. I started with a set of 303 bookshelf speakers when I began working as a Music Technology lecturer, then upgrading to 606’s around ten years ago when I started to earn a bit more money. Then I got a set of P5s headphones for my train commute and office working. These speakers and headphones are great. The 606’s speakers are now connected to my living room TV to enjoy films as I no longer make music of my own. I recently upgraded the P5s to the PX7’s, and they are on a different level.

In 2020, I set myself the challenge of running 2000 miles in the year and decided that the PX7 headphones would be my reward. My final run was an eight-mile time trial up to the highest local hill and back on Christmas morning. Before leaving on the run, I ordered my prize, and they arrived after a couple of days. The sound quality, even when using Bluetooth, is like no headphones I have heard before. The only word I can use to describe them is Beautiful; they even brought a tear to my wife’s eye when listening to one of her favourite songs – A little love by Celeste.

So in a deliberate effort to enjoy music during these crazy times, and inspired by my good friend ‘Sein’s Twitter account and the #ForTheLoveOfMusic hashtag, I will start posting a daily song on my Twitter to share the tunes I am enjoying over time.

I am starting with the song I listen to more than any other on Spotify: You & Me – Flume Remix by disclosure, Eliza Doolittle, and Flume

Free will vs determinism

I was thinking about the idea of free will vs determinism today. Much of western culture is based on the premise that we have free will and that good and evil exist. This idea is summarised in ‘moral liberty’ – that we can discern what is good and choose to pursue it over our immediate wants and desires.

Free Will: the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one’s own discretion.
Oxford Languages

Determinism: the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will. Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions.
Oxford Languages

Many studies discount the idea of free will and replace it with cause and effect – that our decisions are products of the environment and our genes. Others argue that there is a space between what happens in our lives and our reactions to it; this is where free will exists. There are two ways you can exercise your free will:

For the small things; make a lot of choices
For the big stuff; Decide what you want and then build habits that make those choices easier to follow

In a world that increasingly believes that your environment predetermines every choice you make, exercise your free will and make choices.

Easter Sunday in England

Happy Easter!

Easter is a Christian holiday that celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the United Kingdom, we have a four day weekend with Good Friday and Monday as bank holidays. Over the four days, Church services are held on Good Friday to remember the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, on Saturday evening for the Easter Vigil, and on Easter Sunday morning to celebrate Jesus rising again.

In the run-up to the Easter weekend, Christian’s will fast for six weeks, excluding Sundays, traditionally giving up wine, meat, and dairy. On Easter Sunday, to mark the end of the fast, there is a big feast. In the morning, Easter Egg hunts are carried out, where chocolate eggs are hidden for children to find. Hot crossed buns are then eaten; these are raisin filled buns, lightly toasted, heavily buttered, and enjoyed with a cup of English tea. At lunch, a Sunday roast is eaten with the family; lamb is usually served, and people dress up and get together with the family for a feast.

Enjoy your day.

Think first, then write

Cal Newport recently published a post titled ‘In Defense of Thinking‘ where he writes about the importance of spending time thinking about what to say before writing. He argues it is the deep contemplation, not the writing, that is important. This idea is in direct opposition to writers’ advice to just sit down each day and get in a predefined word count done.

My working habits are simple: long periods of thinking, short periods of writing.
Ernest Hemingway

When I started studying at the LSE, I had not written an essay in several years. In the first few weeks, I read the university’s ‘Strategies for success’ study skills handbook guidance. The guidance given was that a large portion of the marks came from the quality of the answer to the essay question rather than just writing everything you could remember about the topic. The argument should be laid out in a single sentence in the introduction, with the rest of the writing build around this. The handbook said to think of an essay as a game where you show you can think and have read widely and then evidence your knowledge, analysis, critical skills and understanding.

The typical format of the exam essays was to spend 45-60 minutes on a single question. From this time, we were taught to use 5-10 minutes to plan out the answer and structure of the argument. Within the 45 minutes, the aim was for around 1000 words that included a structured introduction, conclusion, and at least four paragraphs, each covering a specific justification of the answer. This structure was critical in making you think about the reasoning of your argument and structure theories, examples, rules, and texts to support it.

Writing guides like Writing that works by Keith Roman and Ninja Writing by Shani Raja suggest you start by structuring the narrative as bullet points before you write it out in continuous pros. Andres Erricson in Peak suggests that good writers start with what they want the reader to do before building an argument. The 5-10 minute essay plan, the bulleted narrative, and beginning with the call to action are tools to help you think about what to write before you start to put it into extended writing.

Experts do it differently. Consider how my coauthor and I put this book together. First, we had to figure out what we wanted the book to do. What did we want readers to learn about expertise? What concepts and ideas were important to introduce? How should a reader’s ideas about training and potential be changed by reading this book? Answering questions like these gave us our first rough mental representation of the book – our goals for it, what we wanted it to accomplish. Of course, as we worked more and more on the book, that initial image evolved, but it was a start.
Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

When you pick up books on writing that talk about the practice of writing as a method to beating writers blog, question if the approach being given will lead to quality writing. That last 45 minutes of actual writing might be the end product of hours of reading and thinking before sitting down to work. Separate your thinking from your writing and only write once you have something meaningful to say. This practice is about quality over quantity in your writing and about making you more intelligent in the process.

April Fools

This morning I started my ride on Zwift to find everyone riding tricycles. There has been a history of Silicon Valley companies doing something special for the day since Google posted its MentalPlex hoax on the 1st of April in 2000. but to me, no one does an April Fools quite like the English.

Sarcasm is the use of words usually used to either mock or annoy someone, or for humorous purposes.
Wikipedia

To understand April Fools Day in the English speaking world, you need to understand something of the playful English humour. It is common for kids growing up to trick each other, as a battle of wits, with ever-increasingly elaborate statements delivered with complete sincerity at random times. The game is to try and say the most unbelievable thing you can think of at the most arbitrary time and to deliver it as earnestly as possible to catch your friend off guard and get a response that shows they believe it for that first split second.

Quote: “If you say the word ‘Gullible’ slowly it sounds like oranges”
Anon

A similar test of wit is to ask a question so obvious as not to need a response but delivered completely deadpan so that the victim is caught off guard and responds. The best one I have ever seen was a childhood friend who joked with my sister-in-law, who had generously taken a long lunch break to take us to the London Aquarium. My friend asked, ‘Where is the London Eye’ while standing directly in front of, and facing, the 135-meter Ferris wheel, to which my sister-in-law being the caring human she is, responded by pointing it out… we cried with laughter.

These harmless attempts to catch out your friends into believing something ridiculous and beyond reason are often followed by fits of laughter from the protagonist and red-faced embarrassment by the victim. They are funny because they are a never-ending two-way test between friends – it only works if it is in good faith, playful, and immediately obvious that it is a joke.

Gullibility is a failure of social intelligence in which a person is easily tricked or manipulated into an ill-advised course of action. It is closely related to credulity, which is the tendency to believe unlikely propositions that are unsupported by evidence.
Wikipedia

Each year on the 1st of April, these jokes are taken to new levels of preparation and creativity. As long as the prank is done before midday and immediately apparent that it is a prank, anything is fair game. Commonly, as soon as someone has fallen for the hoax, the perpetrator shouts ‘April fools!’ to let them in on the joke.

The BBC and April Fools

Traditionally April fools jokes were about playing a prank on your friends and neighbours, but corporations have recently got involved. The best April 1st hoaxes have been by the British national broadcaster, the BBC.

In 1957 the BBC’s prestigious Panorama investigative journalism show played a segment called ‘The Swiss spaghetti harvest‘ that showed farmers picking spaghetti from plants that tricked many watchers who contacted the BBC asking where to get the plant.

In 1965 and then again in 2007, the BBC told viewer they were testing Smell-o-vision and to call in if the experiment was successful; many did.

In 1976, on BBC Radio 2, the famous astronomer Sir Patrick Moore told listeners that there was a unique alignment of two planets increasing the upward gravitational pull that would result in everyone being lighter at precisely 9:47 am. Sir Patrick suggested listeners should jump at this time to feel a strange floating sensation; many called in to share their experiences.

In 1989, the BBC sports show Grandstand had a segment where the presenter shared his praise for the broadcast team’s professionalism while a fight broke out between staff in the background.

In 2008, the BBC ran a high-quality nature video segment sharing a newly discovered flying penguin colony. The presenter shared that the penguins use their unique skill to summer in the amazon rainforest. People were amazed.

Keep it fun. Keep it classy.

The sunk cost fallacy

Many people continue a degree even though they do not enjoy the subject or stay in a career where they are not fulfilled. This lack of action to move toward an outcome that would be better, in the long run, as not to waste time, money, and effort already invested, is described by the sunk cost fallacy.

The sunk cost effect is manifested in a greater tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment in money, effort, or time has been made. Evidence that the psychological justification for this behavior is predicated on the desire not to appear wasteful is presented.
Arkes & Blume

A Sunk cost is the time, money, and effort you have already spent in the course of action that you can’t get back. We like to think of ourselves as rational and make decisions based on the best outcome for our future, but most of the time, we are swayed by the money, time, and effort we have already spent on our current direction.

The sunk cost fallacy is where we choose not based on the outcome we think will be the best in the future but based on a desire not to see your past investment go to waste. In a study by Arkes and Blumer (1985), they found that those that had a sunk cost in a project were more likely to estimate that it would be successful than those assessing the same project that did not have any sunk cost. They also found that those with theatre subscriptions were more likely to continue to attend, even if they were not bothered about the show.

The Sunk cost fallacy is similar to other psychological theories, including prospect theory (loss aversion) by Kahneman and Tversky 1979. It describes how people weigh loss more heavily than gains when making decisions. Loss aversion cannot fully explain why we make these decisions, as there is no direct way to assess the gains in most situations the suck cost fallacy is present. Other related theories include Overoptimistics probability bias, where we overestimate the future positive outcomes of something we have already committed to, the sense of personal responsibility to continue on a course we are committed to, and the desire not to be wasteful.

Understanding the sunk cost fallacy should help us make better decisions, but in the original paper by Arkes and Blumer, they found that Economics graduates, who are taught the underpinning theories of this idea, were no better at avoiding its effects on decision making than everyone else.

How to use the Suck Cost Fallacy

Pay attention to your decisions. For the small things like reading books, watching films, or attending a show, if you are not enjoying it, think about the event’s opportunity cost.

Opportunity Cost: The loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.
Oxford Languages

If the next best thing you would be doing would bring you more happiness, stop reading a book, watching the film, or leave the show and do the other thing instead. It is even more critical for the big things to calculate what you are missing out on by not moving to that alternative course or career.

Push past the feelings of sunk cost and instead make decisions that lead to better outcomes for your future.

Living on Mars

Award-winning architectural firm Abiboo Studio has developed plans for the first Martian self-sufficient and sustainable city called Nuwa. The city is one of five, each located near specific resources required to live on the surface of Mars. The designs were created as part of a science-based competition run by the Mars Society and SONet, an international network of academics and scientists seeking sustainable exploration solutions off Earth.

The city caters for 250,000 residences and requires very little imported materials from Earth for construction and maintenance. Nuwa contains designs for housing, food and energy production, as well as social and cultural spaces. The team brought together by Abiboo also had to create a governance system, economic models, and provision to educate the population.

For the city to be self-sustaining almost all the materials required for construction needed to be obtained within the immediate region. The majority of the development is made from excavating into a cliffside to create a series of ‘micro-buildings connected by tunnels. Food production is a mixture of crops, microalgae, farm animals and insects to provide a healthy diet for the population and power is generated by capturing radiation from the sun.

Construction could start as early as 2054 and be completed by 2100.

Humility

Most of us are taught from a very young age to be humble. Religions tend to see humility as a virtue. In the Bible, humility is described as being without pride or arrogance and putting others before oneself. It is also the idea that God is all-powerful and that we are insignificant in comparison. I think the concept of humility is essential to happiness as it allows us to reflect on how lucky we are within our situations and genuinely appreciate those around us.

Humble: having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s importance.
Oxford Languages

The opposite of humility is narcissism and hubris.

Narcissism: selfishness, involving a sense of entitlement, a lack of empathy, and a need for admiration, as characterising a personality type.
Oxford Languages

Hubris: excessive pride or self-confidence.
Oxford Languages

I was reading a book today and came across a definition of humility that emphasised recognition of greatness in others. This type of humility, where you recognise and publicly celebrate others’ excellence, is vital to Level 5 leadership from Jim Collins.

Humility implies an aptitude to learn: a willingness to listen: a recognition of the greatness of others.
Percy Cerutty

We all want to develop mastery and become successful by whatever definition we give success. Success requires a deep level of belief in ourselves and what we can achieve. This personal belief does not sit well with the simplicity of the Oxford Languages definition of humility. It feels much easier and more appropriate to focus your efforts on others rather than develop humility by focusing on your ego. We need to understand how much we still need to learn, understand that everyone can teach us something, and appreciating other people and their skills as a route to humility.

In a world becoming more narcissistic, be a person of humility.

Start here page added

I have now posted 125 times and felt it was time to add a ‘Start here’ page. Creating the page allowed me to look at my most read posts and look for a few favourites that have not had many views. I have included the list below but Click on the ‘Start here’ link at the top of the page to look at the full introductory content.

If you enjoy my blog or want to start a conversation about anything I write about, please contact me via Twitter: https://twitter.com/samueljtanner. I will respond to all messages.

On Learning Design

On Running:

On Strength and conditioning

Technological change: Culture always pays the price for technology

Neil Postman gave a talk in Denver, 1998 titled Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change.

Postman’s speech suggests that technology cannot solve the human race’s most profound problems and creates new ones. He provides five ideas to help understand these new problems.

Here is a summary of the five ideas using cuts of Postman’s words:

All Technological change is a trade-off. Culture always pays the price for technology.
The advantages and disadvantages of new technologies are never distributed evening among the population. There are always winners and losers in technological change.
Embedded in every technology, there is a powerful idea, sometimes two or three powerful ideas. The ideas are often hidden from our view because they are somewhat abstract in nature. “The medium is the message” Marshall McLuhan.
Technological change is not additive; it is ecological. The consequences of technological change are always vast, often unpredictable and largely irreversible.
Media tend to become mythic. The best way to view technology is as a strange intruder, to remember that technology is not part of God’s plan but a product of human creativity and hubris, and that its capacity for good or evil rests entirely on human awareness of what it does for us and to us.

The full text of the speech is freely available on the internet. It is worth the read.

We must view and acknowledge the change to culture brought about by technology and start to use these tools to improve our lives rather than changing ourselves to fit the technology. Many of us now provide our undivided attention to our phones whenever notifications request it, or open social media’s endless scrolling feed and never allow our brains to be bored or fully assimilate new information between tasks.

We have just been forced through a cultural shift that has required significant technological change. We are beginning to emerge to a new work culture that we can either deliberately design to meet our needs, then build technology to enable it, or allow the current technology to shape this culture for us.

Maybe take a few minutes over the weekend with some paper and a pen, turn off the phone, and sit in a quiet space and start to design.