Serious

... I call the arts “subjective truths” because, unlike math or chemistry, where there is only one solution, there are nearly infinite solutions to, say, a camera angle, colors to use, or an interpretation of a symphony. These solutions need not be right or wrong; they need only to be appealing. Something can be right and pleasing as much as it can also be wrong and pleasing. I immerse myself in these subjective truths.

I am an emotional person. I engross myself in what I play or what I write. I take the very extremes of emotion and empathy, and stretch them even further. My brother once said that it takes a sort of emotional genius to bridge the gap between the arts and beauty. In order to make true art, I must sacrifice part of myself to know what true beauty is. That’s how the deaf Beethoven wrote masterpieces; or, in a more modern setting, that’s how Nina Sayers from Black Swan was a showstopper. I want to think that I have not sacrificed something yet, so that when I finally do, I can finally be proud of my musical ability.

I am proud of the people who support me. It feels good to have people admiring and respecting what I do. From experience, standing alone onstage and acknowledging a thousand people—people I know, people I don’t know, people I may never know—is one of the best feelings in the world, because regardless of whether I know them or not, I will always have a lasting impression on them.

And as right as it was, or as wrong as it was, I will always be satisfied, because I know it pleased them.

Daylight Saving Time Was a Social Experiment

Daylight Saving was originally a social experiment created by professors to see if college students would be more productive if they had another hour to work.

It might be the most spectacular backfire in history; instead of seeing it as an academic advantage, students saw it as an opportunity to drink non-alcoholic beverages in excess, sleep, or watch funny cat videos on YouTube,

In the hopes that students would eventually catch on to their extra hour, they continued the experiment until an arbitrary date, in which they eventually gave up. To hide their shame, they gave Daylight Saving its name, made the arbitrary time official-sounding (2nd Sunday of March), reversed the start and end time, and then chastised students for not paying attention to trends in clock-changes.