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Comment by drblastoff | Hacker News Reader

I’ve fallen victim to this, though perhaps fortunately with digital synth plugins that take up no physical space.

This is related to another problem of mine: ignoring things I’m naturally good at, and fixating on things I’m naturally bad at. In this case, I have no real musical talent, can’t play instruments in rhythm, can’t arrange a song, and I’ve nevertheless been pursuing this in my spare time for a decade with no results. Sometimes I buy new gear thinking it will help, but people with musical talent can do much more with much less.

On the other hand, I showed promise for visual arts but never pursued it. My frustration with being bad at something seems to overpower my desire to be really good at something.

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You don't need to be good at something to do it. What is good or bad anyway? It's comparison with others.

If you enjoy it, it doesn't matter if you're good or bad at it, if joy itself is the aim.

If your aim isn't joy, but success, then of course you'll lack joy.

It is very liberating to do something, knowing you're "bad" at it, but doing it only for enjoyment.

I relate strongly to the comment you're replying to, and I can tell you that it's very frustrating to have a vision of something you want to create and be unable despite struggling towards that goal for a long time.

It has nothing to do with other people. My art doesn't live up to my own standards. That's frustrating as hell! It's not a simple as comparison to others -- who cares about them if I just can't seem to create the sound I want to create?

> All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

- Ira Glass

I very much suffer from the same thing when it comes to music. I'm a pretty decent guitar player, all round - but I still struggle mightily to make music I'd want to listen to. But such is life, I guess.

But if you're enjoying the process, then does it matter?

If it does matter and you're not enjoying the process or results ... why continue?

I can relate to this. I have 8TB of orchestral libraries and other virtual instruments (many, many, many thousands of dollars), but after a decade I still haven't been able to crank out 8 bars of convincing symphonic composition. On the other hand, I can crank out a convincing and interesting rock song on guitar in real time... but I don't invest in that because it's "easy."

Sounds similar to what you describe: we shun the things we're naturally good at because they feel trivial and don't provide a sense of accomplishment, meanwhile we bash our head against a wall for years because the accomplishment of breaking through would be so amazing.

> I have no real musical talent, can’t play instruments in rhythm, can’t arrange a song

Have you heard of dubstep?

Actually, acid house might be the genre for you, since "it’s true that if you gave 100 monkeys a TR-808s and a TB-303 each, you’d probably get at least 70 decent acid tracks". [1]

[1] https://www.factmag.com/2014/01/22/20-best-acid-house/

I get its a joke, but dubstep is actually one of the harder EDM genres to make, in my opinion. As in, how much skill/work it takes to make a "mediocre" dubstep track, especially for the more commercially well known "brostep" variety. Minimal techno, ambient, noise or lo-fi beats are perhaps electronic genres that are (again IMO) easier to make mediocre tracks for. Great tracks are hard to make in any genre, of course.

I wonder if you are getting more internal reward and stimulation from the challenge and novelty of something that is a struggle than from the steady success something you have natural talent for is offering. If so and that is troubling to you or puzzling, it may just be the way your brain is setup, but there are psychologists good at unraveling this sort of thing.

I do a similar thing. I like learning new things so much, I spend most of my time on new skills that I perform poorly, instead of using & continuing to hone my expert-level skills.

I'm skeptical of the claim for musical talent. Especially the case that you lack any 'real' one. Rhythm, interval recognition, composing are all skills that require practice and dedication. The lack of results point to a bad method, not lack of talent. Have you considered getting instruction?

Honestly most of the time the second I get good at something is when it stops being fun, I think this is pretty normal.

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