“Don’t think so much lah! Just do!!!” – Voice in my head.

Recently, I got scolded in my DJ class.

Oddly enough, it felt correct that I would get scolded, and it ended up influencing a big part of my current behavior and probably will in the days ahead.

The scolding was this:

Don’t just “think” so much about things – just do them.

The person who scolded me was saying this in light of some of my theorizing about DJ sets and trying to make certain techniques happen, after which he asked if I had done any of the things I had said; I replied “no”, and then he said “then why talk so much about it?” – in the same conversation, he may or may not have used the term “stupid” several times in relation to something I had done.

Sounds bad? Terrible? Demoralizing?

I actually didn’t think so.

See, I think I’ve come to a realization: The person who has the right to scold me is the smart person – so if you are a smart person (as in you’re actually a smart person – not someone who THINKS that you are smart, as there is a huge difference), please scold me!

Like anyone else, I don’t enjoy getting scolded (ok, I’m sure there are some weirdos out there who do but that doesn’t apply here) – but if the person who is scolding me is THAT talented (which he is – the man is an absolute artist; more on this later), I’m totally good with it.

But I will not completely agree with it without processing.

The spirit of the idea is quite simple:

Rather than playing with words and paragraphs to describe something you would like to do, do the thing. Do not be theorizing constantly – without bringing something into reality, you have no foot to stand on except that of self-satisfaction – and that condition will not last, as you will just topple over.

Importantly, practice what you have learned in the context and manner in which you are going to use it.

On first glance, most of this makes sense and is sensible advice for someone like me, who likes to theorize about things – I like to research different things, watch tutorials, and understand things in depth even when it’s unclear that there is an application for these things. (You could call it a personality flaw perhaps, though I might call it interest!)

But I think it would be remiss of us to throw out theorizing and understanding in lieu of practice.

I would like to say “studies have shown” that the main blocker of effort is not laziness but rather a lack of clarity, but I can’t in this case – I can only attest to my own experiences of being frustrated and not knowing where to go, how to progress, what to do to the point that an infinity of other things just seems preferable – and that what my instructor calls “theorizing” could rightly be called planning, which in any case I don’t think I’ve done enough in life and that I am discovering as I am learning this new skill, one beat match at a time.

I freely acknowledge that I do not know enough about DJing yet; though I am progressing quickly, I do not have the necessary procedural fluency, the musical knowledge, sense, awareness of structure, and so many other things that the DJs I appreciate and respect have gained in the course of learning this skill.

If a person hasn’t learned things well enough yet, doesn’t have the facility of mind, ability to parallel process, anticipate, mentally chunk together the different structural patterns needed for the thing that they want to do, it is unclear that they would be able to “practice” things that they’ve learned.

I will not ignore the advice of the scolding, because it is sound, but I will say this:

I will not eliminate theory in favor of practice.

To the end of reaching my highest manifestation…

Theory, planning, and practice:

I will do it all.

One of the fun little things that I’ve been engaging in recently is essentially a whole block of learning. Every single week, I take part in a set of two different music classes: one for cello and the other for DJing.

Along the way, I spend almost all of my time making myself a little bit more fit, developing my knowledge, and learning small things related to the things that I want to accomplish in those areas. The more I think about it, the more I can’t help but feel like I’m going through this whole process of commodification, of refining myself towards some specific end.

Of course, DJing probably is commodified in that way, or in some sense.

Maybe it seems a little strange that I’m thinking of even classical music in that way since that seems to be something that shouldn’t be thought of in that sense, but this really is part of the bent of my mind lately – and the fact that cello lessons themselves are relatively expensive itself isn’t very helpful for eliminating that part of the story from consideration.

Either way, I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been influenced by the neoliberal nature of the world or just some of the ideas I have about the economy that we have out there. It feels more and more that life is about representations, about creating things that other people can see and demonstrating parts of myself to create experiences. Somehow, all of that is flowing into a grand machine, whether it’s an AI model or a search engine, or into the soul of an indeterminate number of people that, in turn, will be quantified by an algorithm and converted somehow into monetary terms.

I wanted to start this blog post by talking about how it seems like every part of my life is commodified now and in turn, talking about how these skills were uniquely commodified, and I still will, but I suppose the twist on that thought is that I feel that everyone is commodified now and that’s how society works. 

Everyone – or at least the vast majority of people whom we’d call productive human beings – is constantly trying to sell themselves, to prove their worth to other people, to secure jobs, to obtain customers, and to receive from others what they are willing to give in fair exchange for the intellectual products of another person’s mind or the physical products they may create.

There lies the spirit of commerce and other things along the way – a thing that a person can’t be free from unless they’re a nepo baby, an ascetic far away from the human world, or a forager. (Suddenly, the people dressing up as monks begging for money at restaurants come to mind tho, haha).

I wonder if some of these thoughts are related to my thoughts about money and how it seems like it’s needed for almost every single one of these things, because that’s just how the world works. As I go through life, I see how almost everything requires it, and my mind falls back on it and causes me to view the world in those terms a little bit more than before, only to remind myself, in the interstitial moments like this one, that that’s not what life is all about. That it’s not about that procurement. That the money is a means to an end. That a lot of the things that I’m pursuing in life have their own intrinsic benefits. 

That perhaps I should just be thankful for having the opportunity, willpower, and skill to be able to pursue them to the level that I’m able to do so.

It is true that living in this society means you have to follow the rules of that society to be able to thrive within it. Certain things do need to happen, and in a very real sense, perhaps the question is not whether a person will eventually become commodified, but how, to what degree, and with what kind of differentiation.

This is some interesting food for thought as I move forward, in the knowledge that things are changing and that I am getting better. Whatever aspect of joy or otherwise there may be, I will have to commensurate it with the possibility that it will be something used to secure profit for myself – not necessarily because I am money-minded, but rather because that’s just an inescapable part of the way that society works.