[rekenaut]

> Or a quote from Kurt Vonnegut's player piano, "Nobody's so damn well educated that you can't learn ninety per cent of what he knows in six weeks. The other ten per cent is decoration... Almost nobody's competent, Paul. It's enough to make you cry to see how bad most people are at their jobs. If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you're a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind."

This advice surprises me. With one foot in the classical music world when I was younger, there are absolutely music skills that take many years if not decades to get to 90% on. And those that have put the work in are absolutely and obviously competent.

Similarly, when I'm working with someone who started off as a machinist, then a designer, then went to school and became an engineer, I find it baffling to think that I can absorb 90% of their knowledge in 6 weeks.

[genewitch]

which music skills? you can learn enough music theory and pop-song writing skills in a few weekends to pump out club/pop music. Sure, playing instruments is a skill that takes a long time to hone, but anyone can download openMPT or something and toss out music. If money comes in and they want orchestra, there's been things like the Vienna Symphonic Library and the like for decades.

i've written and recorded about a dozen hours worth of music in my life and i assuredly did not go to school for it. The quote is about education, not practice. It also mentions "half-assed job" which is what you get in "six weeks" of work.

[danparsonson]

Someone like you is likely not intended to be the subject of that quotation...