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A comment on The greatest juggler alive quit to open a construction business. Parent comment

Re:The greatest juggler alive quit to open a construction bu... by jay-anderson on Wednesday April 30, 2014 @02:13AM (#7671867)
Gatto seems to prefer the well-honed live performance to the recorded performance that may have worked on the 100th take. This is a matter of taste. It's also difficult to judge the skill of a performer in a recording (are they that good or did they edit their video to just have their successes).

This makes me think of classical music. Live performances have certainly been on the downward trend for many years. Glenn Gould devoted himself to just recording instead of live performances seeing this as the future of music (see http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/06/06/050606crat_atlar...). I think there's room for both live and recorded. Seeing only perfect performances can create unrealistic expectations in people's minds.

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Re:The greatest juggler alive quit to open a construction bu... by mcguire on Wednesday April 30, 2014 @04:13PM (#7676086)
If your specialty is getting things perfect (almost) every time, and you are competing in an arena where the other people only have to keep trying until they get it right once, then you are going to have a bad day.

The comparison with live and recorded performances is spot on. There's probably a reason the major "live" performances of popular musicians are pre-recorded.

There may be a lesson here for those who are spending years perfecting technical skills when your competition are taking three-month bootcamps.

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