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Comment by alabastervlog | Hacker News Reader

External validation and being useful to others matter. A world of everyone playing violin in a closet for nobody is a dystopia.

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This view that you can't just do an activity for your own joy, you have to do it for the approval of other, is the actual dystopia. I wonder how old you are because this seems very much like the attitude of someone who was born in the age of social media.

That would be sad. Did you mean to respond to some post that was about that?

Yes, I responded to yours.

Weird, since that notion appears nowhere in my post.

Given that I'm not the only reply you received reading it that way, perhaps you should consider that you did not communicate what you think you did.

Please point to any part of my post that reads best as "you can't just do an activity for your own joy".

You can just admit you made a mistake. It's fine.

> a dystopia

i think this part gave people the impression that you meant that doing something "for nobody" (eg. for your own joy) was somehow bad/malevolent

See the comment below.

You can just admit you communicated poorly. It's fine.

My niece would disagree. She loves playing violin just for the playing of it.

It's not that nobody enjoys doing anything just for its own sake—it's the destruction of ways to provide for others, socially. Humans really, really like doing that. The two things may as well be completely different activities, scratching totally different itches. No amount of solo activity will make us feel whole in the same way feeling that our abilities and passions are helpful to and desired by—not just humored by—others we care about will.

You cannot share happiness with others if you don’t create it for yourself first as you will have no happiness to give away.

only inasmuch as a world where everyone playing violin in the streets is a dystopia, too...

A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the bagpipes but chooses not to. May also apply to violins.

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