[ychen306]

Athletes and musicians pursue fundamentals because they have time; their “work” occurs in intense but short bursts of performances, leaving them the rest of their days to practice. Knowledge workers don’t “practice” because their job (long-term research or whatever) demands much more time and commitment.

[abletonlive]

perhaps if you have a very narrow definition of what a "musician" is.

a modern music producer will literally spend 700 hours on a single song.

[jameshart]

Does that kind of musician also spend time practicing?

Because the comparison we’re being offered is to a concert musician, and their work routine is likely very different to a music producer.

[FractalHQ]

I would argue the process of producing a song falls under “practice” of the craft.

[Jensson]

Programming also falls under "practice" of the craft, but we aren't talking about that kind of practice, we are talking about training sessions.

[johnnyanmac]

It's all relative of course. But keep on mind that 700 hours is about 4.5 months of full time work. I sure have had epics lasting much longer than that. And the "concert" is just shipping/launching whole I'm already working on the next epic. Maybe later on we bug fix, but we never truly get to "own" a feature the way a musician owns a song and gets to re-perform it in their repertoire.

I'm not really trying to establish which is harder or easier. Just that the pipelines and layoffs differ immensely.

And

[ychen306]

In this instance what would qualify as “pursing fundamentals” for a producer as defined by the author?

[nradov]

Some of this is covered in the book "The Creative Act" by noted producer Rick Rubin.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717356/the-creative...

[Juliate]

Resting ears. Ear training. Doing your scales. Training your taste. (re)learning old/new tech/tools/instrument/history/theory of music. (re)listening to known/new music from separate styles/periods/cultures. Listening to artists you work for/with. Training/mentoring others.