Paul's Posts — 04 December 2011
By Paul McGowan
I came into the sound room to play something yesterday and it didn’t sound right. After investigating I discovered someone had moved one of the speakers for some reason or another. I was angry and took it personally.
After calming down I started questioning why that mattered so much – and then it occurred to me: our high-end systems are more than the sum of their parts. They are our creations.
There’s no such thing as high-end in a box. The closest to this is when a dealer assembles a system for you and sets it up, but even then, you made the choices at his suggestion.
We pick and choose our components and build our systems and they stand as proud creations.
We build upon these creations when we change a cable, perform a tweak or get an upgrade to a piece in the chain.
This idea of building something personal and with great value is a major differentiator between a commodity and something we assemble with pride.
The next time someone messes with your creation, it’s ok to take it personally.
It is yours.
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Phil Gan
Passion and striving for perfection is great, but so is perspective. When I see and treat people in their 30s, 40s and older with cancer or other life threatening diseases, I see their perspectives and priorities in life change. There are things in life to be annoyed about, and things to be angry about. In a quiet moment, contemplate what these are. (And I’ve been guilty of anger too at things which I look back on and say, hey that was annoying). Love your blogs.
Paul McGowan
Thank you Phil. Boy, you have that right and it’s especially poignant this time of year when we are reminded about how lucky we are in this society and that for every one of us, there’s 1000 people who would do anything to take our place had they the chance. Our problems pale in comparison to many. I am quite thankful of all I have.
oliver T. Finch
Don’t get angry. In all probability it was unintentional. Just remember that ignorance is bliss.