transcript
“Pretty shitty how baseline human activities like singing, dancing, and making art got turned into skills instead of being seen as behaviors, so now it’s like ‘the point of doing them is to get good at them’ and not ‘this is a thing humans do, the way birds sing and bees make hives.’”
My baby niece started bobbing up and down when a song came on, happily waving her little fists and shaking her little diaper butt.
I was like “that’s terrible, you’ll never be a star, keep your day job you untalented hack!”
thought i was on linkedin for a sec
Lemmy is LinkedIn for NEETs
This only applies if you give a shit what other people think of you doing innocuous things.
Paint a terrible picture and have fun doing it. Dance your way down the sidewalk when the mood strikes you. Sing whenever you want. Sometimes I’m in the grocery store and they start playing a banger on the speakers, damn right I’m gonna sing along to it while I’m evaluating the pros and cons of competing spaghetti packages.
I mean… Those things are all skills. They are skills anyone can develop barring some kind of disability (you’re probably not gonna be singing if you don’t have a larynx, for example).
maybe they could learn to whistle? Does that require a larynx? For that matter, does whistle count as singing? Now I have so many questions.
That’s a good question. Personally, I think it should but I am pretty sure I’ve seen it classified as playing an instrument once.
I guess it’s really no different than a flute… I also can’t play a flute worth a shit as well as whistling so yeah. Makes sense as an instrument.
And if you show any ability above terrible, everyone starts telling you about how much money you can make.
Fuck off. I do this for me.
I’ve mostly heard that from boomers. I thought it was some weird post war mentality and upbringing that you need to be doing profitable work all day and sleep all night and breed and that’s all that matters.
I’ve been playing music for over 14~ years and I personally love that it is difficult and I always have something to work on
I want to be good at it. I will be good at it. I don’t feel bad because I’m not a gifted musician. I play for myself and improvement is an amazing feeling as a musician.
Sometimes I imagine how human life could be like if we weren’t trained to live within such narrow uncomfortable lines and it’s kind of sad
My partner made up a word - Dysfunctionlust: the pleasure you get from doing something that you feel no pressure to be good at.
She’s quite a good writer but super hard on herself about it, whereas drawing is a dysfunctionlust for her and so quite relaxing.
It’s based on the German word funktionslust: the joy of an organism doing what it’s meant to do, like a dog running.
Can’t not see the “Dysfunctionslut” in there, though. 🤷🏽♂️😅
That’s also great! Dysfunctionslut is much cooler than just saying “I have really bad ADD”
I was envisioning those select few who, born with genes that make them sexually attractive to most others, seem to apply just as much effort and skill to the act itself — often to the ironic disappointment of fellow participant(s).
As long as it’s not your sole source of income why would you give a shit about being good at it as long as you enjoy it?
Capitalism causes us to commodotize everything. I saw this switch as well during the 2000s in Internet culture. It went from people making websites about their cats and stuff to people chirping out “but how will that be profitable?!” in response to most ideas.
I remember 11 year old me trying to monentise a crappy weebly site I made.
Real I’m 14 and this is deep vibes.
Nobody’s gonna stop you from doing any of that. Well, maybe from singing in public but that’s less about skill and more about not disturbing others by being loud and obnoxious.
And making art in public is vandalism, dance and maybe someone will think you’re on drugs and call the police. Spend your time doing human things alone for no profit and maybe society won’t let you have shelter or medicine. People are absolutely going to stop you unless you’re really good at fighting for it.
Be the change you want to see, no one will stop you. I certainly won’t.
I don’t get it. Do all of it if it makes you happy, but get paid if you can and love doing what you do…
I think these things still exist on the full spectrum of “feels human, so do it!” to “you’re so great, it’s a skill you can use to earn a living.” There are tons of things like this. Cooking, massage, comedy, playing an instrument…nearly any service or entertainment skill. Believe me, ain’t nobody gonna pay to hear me sing (maybe to stop…), but I still sing along at the top of my lungs (when it won’t torture anyone) because it makes me feel happy!
ETA: This is nothing new. See “bards.”
Only if you let them. I do all these things without regard to skill. Maybe surround yourself with more laid back people?
Counterpoint, modern art has desperately tried to move into the territory of “things people just do” and its terrible.
Fine arts and the old arts are pretty goddamn spectacular in comparison.
Skill and effort should be celebrated, and people should also be able to just do.
