Tony Pierce’s Post

Money = Experience Loss (and Road To Hell) = In Washington DC, at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, a man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After about four minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule. About four minutes later, the violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk. At six minutes, a young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again. At ten minutes, a three-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly. At forty-five minutes: The musician played continuously. Only six people stopped and listened for a short while. About twenty gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32. After one hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all. = No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music. In an experiment initiated by The Washington Post columnist gene weingarten, Bell donned a baseball cap and played as an incognito busker at the Metro subway station L'Enfant Plaza in Washington, DC., on January 12, 2007. Weingarten won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for his article on the experiment. The Washington Post posted the video on YouTube and a feature-length documentary, Find Your Way: A Busker's Documentary, chronicled Bell's experience. A somewhat inaccurate retelling of the story went viral. = Why am I doing this post? To illustrate the simple equation: Money = Experience Loss Typically the equation is known as: Money = Time (to get Money you give away your Life) or Time = Money (you need to spend Time to earn Money) But the general form of the equation is Money = Experience Loss Millions of techies are now unemployed and underemployed. They are frantically searching for the next best employment, to regain lost glory also known as paycheck. Searching for jobs is the worst job there is - you put 10+ hours per day with very slim chance to get the interview or be ghosted after rounds of interviews. You are rushing through life missing Joshua Bell. Listen.