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[PookyNMR]

I posted this on Lynn Fuston's forum, but this is so approriate that I thought I'd post it here too.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/93

Sometimes too much choice is not a good thing....

[downrazor11]

that is how i feel when i sit down to write... great video

[amorris]

I disagree with him completely.

[McAllister]

Awesome.

Fucking brilliant.

I had feelings of this for a long time, but it's nice to hear them articulated.

Thanks for posting - I will pass it on.

M

[ella]

Personally, I think that the real issues arise when one is trying to define oneself through choices made, as opposed to having a clear definition of self that then informs choice.

It's the difference between a poor craftsman buying every tool in sight and then blaming them for inferior craft and a good craftsman determining exactly which tools are needed to efficiently express through. Both have the same range of choices at hand.

[littlehat]

Cool post.

Kudos.

[Andrew Hamilton]

I love counter-intuitive revelations, and this is one.  I like analog gear with stepped switches for this very reason.  Digital eqs usually have sweepable center frequencies, which, for surgical repair may be nice, but do offer the choice of, say, 432.3 Hz versus 432.4 Hz, etc...     On the analog equivalent, however, there are huge gaps in what you can boost or cut.  While this approach is less surgical, per se, it also allows you to A/B and get on with life without wondering if it should've been the other setting, only a tenth of a cycle off from what you went with.  




Andrew

[Berolzheimer]

He makes some good and thought provoking points, though I don't agree with him entirely- We don't all deal with choice the same way.  He's talking about his own experience, and doubtless lots of others too, but not everyone responds that way.  It's a matter of attachment I think- If you're attached to always getting the best, you'll often be disappointed that you didn't get it, but if you're happy just to have some good opions, you can have a world of possibilities and enjoy them, appreciate the ones you got to experience, rather than lamenting the ones you missed.  I think the attitude he's referring to is heavily conditioned into us by our consumer culture, but the solution is to learn to think for ourselves and set reasonable priorities, rather than limiting choices for everyone.

[patrick_wilson]

No.
It's not really that hard to get over yourself and take a chance.  

[Fletcher]

This "paralysis of analysis" has been a growing and continuing trend in audio... the bitch being that people think they can read about gear and understand how it will apply to their application... the reality is that reading about it is all well and good but you'll never know whether or not the hardware will suit your application until you try it.

[calaverasgrandes]

Like a lot of "speakers" he deals in absurd absolutes and math gimckry.  The several million possible stereos? Yeah but would you really put the $20 KLH speakers on the $1000 Harmon Kardon?
And dude at least wear your GOOD T-shirt with your jogging shorts.
That and I was waiting for him to just touch one of the laptops behind him.

PS. I do feel paralyzed by choice when I look at the list of plugins on my DAW. But not by their number.

[Fenris Wulf]

When someone starts talking about how freedom is bad for us because we're too stupid to handle it, I wait for the inevitable punchline. Sure enough, at the end of the video he proposes that the government should seize most of our income and redistribute it to people in the Third World, for our own good of course.

I find it hilarious when AE's profess these anti-technological ideas, when in their everday lives they INSIST on having certain mics, certain preamps, certain guitar pickups, certain guitar amps, certain tubes, et cetera, out of a range of several thousand choices, and they often prefer vintage gear that is impossible to reproduce because the materials and manufacturing techniques no longer exist. Ditch all the high-tech and stick to recording acoustic instruments on shellac 78's, and then we can talk.

Come to think of it, I've been listening to Pablo Casals' recordings of Bach's cello suites, made in the 1930's, and they blow away modern recordings musically AND sonically. I take it back, this Schwartz guy is a genius.