Those Who Chase Sounds
The Old Guitarist, Pablo Picasso
(edited in January 2025)
My favorite gym in the world is in a little railroad town that sits somewhere under the Big Sky of Montana.
The average age of members floats around 65. The most common profession has something to do with the railroad. The second most common has something to do with the refinery.
I really admire these guys. They are masters of a craft who persist in doing the reps for decades, without applause.
That’s a stark contrast to the younger gym crowd, who feel compelled to end every workout with a photoshoot.
I never see the veterans frown or scowl at the sight of this. But even if they did, it wouldn’t matter. The young bucks wouldn’t notice. They’re too busy smiling down at their phones, replying to comments, and comparing likes.
***
Quality effort and excellence should be rewarded. That promotes progress.
But wait.
What if rewards ceased to be exclusive to quality work and were instead extended to any work, as long as it led to more attention? What if the attention felt good? Good because, well, it’s attention, but also because of how quickly it could be received.
It wouldn’t be crazy to imagine people starting to chase that feeling, especially if that attention was quantifiable. Because then it would become somewhat of a game: comparing your rewards with everyone else’s.
Well, not everyone—just the people you see through a screen.
***
If you had to choose between an unrewarded pursuit of quality and excellence, or a lifestyle of average effort rewarded frequently and occasionally handsomely, which would you choose?
If you choose the latter, you will be comfortable. You will stay in the middle of the pack, never dropping far enough back to feel shame, and never pulling so far ahead to feel the excitement that comes with the unknown.
The road to excellence is lonelier. There will be years, if not decades, when your pursuit could go unrecognized. That isn’t comfortable, risks never are, but there’s a promise hidden in that struggle.
In the pursuit of excellence, you begin to appreciate all forms of excellence: music, literature, a quality coffee mug, an orderly gym that’s clean and built to last. Your life then is enriched. By doing the quality work, you learn to recognize what quality is—or isn’t—and are able to cut through the fat and simplify down to the beautiful.
If that were the only reward for your consistent efforts, it would be enough to justify the whole pursuit.
But it’s not. There’s more.
Striving for excellence demands personal growth and discovery, which, in the long term, lead to authenticity and originality—qualities that increase in value as our society continues to quickly, but shallowly, reward and consequently multiply the sea of homogeneous automatons.
Thus, there’s no actual need to choose. The rewards will come. You just have to be willing to work(out) without the sound of applause.
“For whom, for what, was that bird singing? No mate, no rival was watching it. What made it sit at the edge of the lonely wood and pour its music into nothingness?”
–George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
