Anti-Education At Its Most Heroic
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008As most of you know, I am a rebel, or perhaps just an iconoclast. My computers run AMD processors; I have refused to upgrade to Vista; Two of my systems are running Linux. I would be a mac guy, but I just can’t afford it–I am a cheap iconoclast. I enjoy the flexibility of knowing an operating system well and getting my computers to tapdance the way I want them to. Whenever I take on a learning project (like trying to figure out Linux), I try to make sure that there will be some value in the learning. So far, so good.
Imagine, if you will, anti-learning. A tool or process to be mastered that does not result in value, but that actually produces negative value. You learn–and it takes away abilities. To me, that would be anti-education.
You know, of course, there is such a thing. It is the family of software products called “Guitar Hero” (hereafter referred to as GH). So, what do I mean? I’ve only done a perfunctory examination, so I’m jumping to a few hasty conclusions based on my experience and the experience of others. This should be no surprise: I’m opinionated, therefore I blog. So…
- Those who are real musicians tend not to be good at GH and its derivatives, even though many of these people could be classified as real GHs.
- Those who master GH find it almost impossible to transition to the real instrument. The techniques they mastered have no relevance to genuine musicianship.
- It takes time to master GH, and according to two sources, it takes almost as long as it would take to develop passable skills on a real guitar.
I admit, I’m an old curmudgeon, but this kind of thing makes no sense to me. It seems to be a tragic waste of one’s talent, dexterity, time, and competitive spirit to seek false glory. No, most people will never be heroic musicians, but the ability to jam with friends is worth a lot.
One more thought, then I’ll shut up. Heroic musicians? How does one get to be a GH in real life? Do they stumble across the scene of an accident, and tell everyone, “please stand aside–I’m a GH.”
I sure miss Pong.