We all have a personal set of standards. These bar-setting rules determine just about everything in our lives from how we dress, eat, interact, advertise ourselves, choose our friends, and listen to music. Especially listen to music.
The types and quality of music I listen to must meet a specific standard. Shrill, bangy, loud, and trying, are not forms of sound I am comfortable with.
Yet, our standards are plastic. What worked for us a few decades ago likely doesn't resonate as well as today.
Given that our standards are a moving target—a target that changes every time we reach a new level of understanding—can we ever truly say we have our standards and insist what we interact with must live up to them?
Every time I hear a system better than my own a new bar is set. A new standard has been registered in my list. What used to pass as minimum viable has been surpassed and now I seek a higher level.
This describes the seemingly endless cycle of wanting better. Better, not because what we have isn't good. Better, because our standards have been raised and a new bar from which to judge has been set.
We need standards by which to judge what we interact with.
What we don't need is the sense that our standards are inviolate.
Let's be comfortable with change.
