7 ms·
Taylor Swift telling you to put everything into your dreams of becoming a pop star is like a lotto winner telling you to spend your life savings on lotto ticket
by crusso 10y ago
Taylor Swift telling you to put everything into your dreams of becoming a pop star is like a lotto winner telling you to spend your life savings on lotto tickets
Except for the fact that you could spend millions of dollars on lotto tickets and have absolutely zero to show for it besides the loss of money.
However, if you put in the hard work to learn to be a musician, perform in front of others, go through the fire of creating your own music and sound, market yourself, etc. ... Even if you don't achieve Taylor Swift success, you've still got a lot of skills and knowledge and maybe even a decent career to show for it.
- graphitezepp 10y agoI certainly agree that your better off throwing your full efforts at well, anything other than lotto tickets, is the better decision but it is extraordinarily unlikely in the example of music that you achieve something resembling a decent career regardless of talent and hardwork. More like you get more popular at parties.
- crusso 10y agoIt varies. My uncle had a band and toured the small venue scene in South Louisiana back in the day. My mom was a chorus singer in the New Orleans opera company. Both made varying levels of careers out of their talents and hard work. Both were popular at parties.
- reallydontask 10y agoisn't this a case of survivorship bias? after all, just because it worked for you uncle and mother doesn't really mean that it works for anybody else.
- crusso 10y agoI'm perfectly willing to accept some scientific data on the subject in lieu of my anecdotal data if you have any. In the absence of a lot of data, I make due with what I have and in general find the notion credible that working on being a successful musician has other benefits even if you don't achieve Taylor Swift levels of success.
- sqeaky 10y agoThe gap between a typical musician and a superstar is much larger than the gap between a programmer and tech company founder with a successful buyout. It is entirely possible to be a professional musician and not make ends meet, it is entirely easy to be a shitty programmer and comfortably support a family with 3 kids. Some fields just pay better. Doctors, Lawyers, Construction Managers, Programmers... will be better risks Singers, Painters, Professional Bowlers...