I want more people to enjoy music, which means being honest with what comes with each method. Piano apps will be easy and cheap, but they have their limitations. Marketing and comments like the parent make it seem like you can just substitute a teacher and practice by using these apps. I also imagine that people can get frustrated if they see that after tons of practice they still don't sound how they like and they don't have a lot of tools to improve by themselves, because you don't get those tools from apps.

And you're not really understanding me. I don't feel like these apps cheapen my effort. I just wish I knew the things I talk about in my comment earlier so that I could have taken the piano classes I had more seriously and I wouldn't have to suffer now the lack of technique, exercise and repertoire I have now.

To digress a bit, I hate this way of thinking.

You're emphasizing boosterism over honesty. If "we" "want" something to be more popular, we should encourage shallow engagement with it, not correct poeples' bad habits, and just shout, "yay! More people in my thing!"

Bullshit boosterism chases me off, and I know it chases others off, too. It tells me you have an agenda that treats me instrumentally, which is an excellent way to make me just ignore you.

So if someone wants to play table-tennis I should constantly remind them of the how they should get a $100 custom bat before they can do anything, use the correct technique by using their body and legs and sweating a lot instead of just letting them have fun? I am always happy when someone joins the club, even if they are good or not, it's their decision how much time, money and effort they want to invest in correcting their technique and improving their skill.

There's a difference between being honest and clear and being a jerk.

Most humans are not so bad at figuring that out.

I agree, although my point was that some people just want to have fun doing something, their goal isn't necessarily to get really good at it or to do it correctly. Many prefer doing things their own way rather than the right way, so they might not like being constantly told what they should do.

Also, perhaps it's mastery vs. creativity.

People who are learning an instrument are arguably at their most creative in fact because they don't know the right way to use the instrument. As they become more proficient it seems they "fall in line" and naïveté and serendipity go by the wayside.

This is so true, as soon as I started learning more music theory I felt that my creativity went down as I started recognizing chords/progressions and I feel slowly getting stuck trying to play by the rules.

> so they might not like

No shit. I said, 'most people are not so bad at figuring this out'.

You're conflating an approach to niche skill development with jerks who don't know how to behave in public. They're not the same thing, and again, most normal people seem more than capable of figuring this out.

The former. We don't need more boosters of things done casually, for fun and a short time; we have knitting, duolingo and sourdough bread for that. I want to promote and help people pursue big things that take time and tremendous effort but have huge pay-off. I focus on a handful of people over my life and others can work at the top of the funnel.

The thing with doing one thing and well is that you are missing on all the other cool things in life. What if you chose the wrong thing? Why is being in the top 99th percentile so much better than being in the 90th percentile? Is it worth the extra 10 years spent working on that if you are still not in the 99.99th percentile? I don't think you should focus on the pay-off or the "OMG, I got so good at this!" part, you should just enjoy the journey and learning process. If you are ok with learning very slowly but always progressing it might be better than spending a tremendous effort in a short time just to quickly reach your ceiling and than hate the thing that you do.

Why is mediocre bread OK but mediocre piano isn't?

Why is people putting a little effort into making something aesthetic and fun such a crime?

Serious piano has no payoff unless you're better than all the professional recordings we already have.