> If you had a year to live, you would definitely want to be productive.
No, I'd want to be happy. It's the uniquely American Calvinist view that conflates these things.
No, I'd want to be happy. It's the uniquely American Calvinist view that conflates these things.
It's perfectly possible to practice guitar and attain some level of proficiency, while detesting the concept of playing the guitar. As in, looking at the instrument, how to play it and how to get better at it from a strictly utilitarian point of view. e.g. I learn to play the guitar because I need to become good at it because I want to get a well paid job in the music industry as a musician.
Inevitably, though, you will be wondering why you are pushing yourself through the pain as you drag yourself to your weekly guitar practice sessions.
Conversely, it's perfectly valid to simply pluck at the strings, gradually explore the instrument and what it can do, and become increasingly more interested, motivated, incentivized to play as time marches on e.g. because you like the sound, the feel of the strings, finding like minded spirits, enjoy the rhythm, the way it allows you to express how you feel and so on.
You becoming more proficient, in that regard, is subservient to the above. It's a function of the fact that you are intrinsically motivated to keep playing. Because you play the guitar for no other reason then that doing that resonates with who you are.
I get that misunderstanding the parent comment is an easy excuse to signal your disdain for American cultural norms but it's really not necessary in this context.