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Adam Gopnik - The Mystery of Skill and Mastery

How To Academy Podcast

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The Unique Addition of Human Illusion to Music

When we love a musician it's almost invariably the deliberate addition of a kind of human imperfection that they blend into their mastery. This is actually something that psychoacousticians as they're called guys who study music scientifically have demonstrated if you program a computer keyboard to play anything a Chopin Nocturne or Bill Evans piece note to note the way it's written it sounds mechanical and dull but there is a beautiful sweet spot that's universally recognized where between mechanical reproduction and then all of those elements legato vibrato. We read and love writers for their voices which is once again the ability to create deliberately create the quality of failable humanity on the page.

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