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There's a component of human psychology where it just feels good to optimize a thing. It seems to be particularly prevalent in men, especially those of the tech
by munificent 5y ago
There's a component of human psychology where it just feels good to optimize a thing. It seems to be particularly prevalent in men, especially those of the technical persuasion.
The funny thing about it is that it feels good to optimize a thing regardless of how important that things actual performance is. So you see all kinds of hobbies where people spend inordinate effort eking maximum performance out of shit that just doesn't matter:
* Audiophiles, as you note
* CPU overclocking
* Punkin chunkin
* Hypermiling
* Tether cars
(These hobbies always have names. I think it distinguishes the pursuit of optimization for its own sake from simply trying to improve a thing for functional reasons.)
The point isn't the performance, it's just the enjoyment of making a number go up. In many ways, the less useful the number is, the more enjoyable it is top optimize. Because when the performance doesn't actually matter, it means the stakes are lower, failure isn't harmful, and it feels more like play and less like work.
It's easy to criticize people for putting huge effort into improving things where the benefit is not at all commensurate with the effort. But the thing to realize is that the optimization isn't the justification for the effort. It's the joy of doing it in the first place.
- president 5y agoOptimizing things makes people feel good because we enjoy progress as it gives us a sense of productivity and accomplishment.
- akaij 5y ago> * Audiophiles, as you note I am not an audiophile, but I hear some variation of this mostly from people who have never listened to exceptional masters using really good audio equipment. Sure, the cost/performance ratio is usually prohibitive, but once you have that experience, I don't know how it can be objectively called "shit that just doesn't matter". There is also using the aforementioned setup when high. For people who like doing it, the difference is even more obvious, and the ratio starts looking reasonable.
- munificent 5y agoAudio is tricky because, yes, there is a part of the quality curve where better gear and setup really does matter. But there is a large segment of the curve beyond that where it's like... homeopathic electronics. A $50,000 HDMI cable is not going to improve your listening experience. I think of "audiophile" as encompassing a little more of the latter than the former, but yes the term is ambiguous.
- chrisBob 5y agoMechanical keyboard enthusiasts aren't necessarily into speed typing which would be a more apt comparison to the optimizations you listed (minus audiophile). I have always thought of them as being more similar to people who develop a palate for fine wine: the goal is to be haughty and say that you can't stand anything that cost less than $400. I caught myself going down the mechanical keyboard path and settled on a Kinesis Freestyle Pro before I got in too deep. I have modified the layout just enough that it difficult for me to sit down and use any other keyboard. That probably counts as a success.
- jeffreyrogers 5y agoAudiophiles are different from the other groups you listed since the things they care about aren't measurable and probably don't exist or have a real effect on performance. There are audio electronics designers (e.g. Doug Self) who work hard to minimize distortion, but that's an engineering endeavor not an audiophile one.
- ghostpepper 5y agoI’m not sure this is quite accurate; there are scientific measures of audio quality such as bit rate, sample rate, total harmonic distortion, dynamic range, etc.
- munificent 5y agoYes, but most aren't relevant at the point where audiophiles are sinking a lot of time and money into it. Essentially all audio today has a high enough bit rate, sample rate, THD, and dynamic range such that a human listener can't tell a difference.
- akaij 5y ago> Essentially all audio today has a high enough bit rate, sample rate, THD... Some technical aspects have vastly improved over the years yes, but still important is the skill of the person doing the mastering, especially wrt: > ... dynamic range ... This is most definitely noticeable between good work and otherwise. I don't mean stuff like "warm-sounding" or "clinical", but as a simple enough comparison, try a pair of open-ended headphones and a closed one, and tell me there is no difference.
- kstrauser 5y agoSure, some of that is real. It's when people get into "oxygen-infused copper CAT-6 wiring to reduce the harshness of violin attacks" that engineering types start saying, ok, wait a minute now...