The Mozart of Massage

[Xerographica]

Today I went with a friend to the Huntington to buy some plants. While there I learned that their previous president had been kicked out after a year because she wanted to direct too many resources to her pet projects, some sort of art. I wonder what kind?

It reminds me of more cowbell. If Mozart had wanted that much cowbell I'm pretty sure that none of us would even know who he is.

Right now, which would make you happier, cost aside, a really good song, or a really good massage? If you picked a song then chances are good that it would be performed by more than one musician. But if you picked a massage I think you're assuming one massager.

Personally I've never been massaged by more than one person at a time. Have you ever been simultaneously massaged by two people? Three people? Four people?? Five people?!?

In theory, coordinating massagers must be possible just like coordinating musicians. Right? So why don't we know of any "bands" of massagers? Well, because the "audience" would only consist of one person at a time. If only one person at a time could have listened to Mozart then none of us would even know who he is.

Not too long ago I heard about some massage robots. I think that they are programmed. Once a massage can be digitized and downloaded, and there are enough people with the necessary robots, then the Mozart of massage will be discovered.

How good will the massage be? Can you imagine it? It certainly must be the most beneficial balance. There wouldn't be the massage equivalent of too much cowbell. What is the massage equivalent of too much cowbell?

My friend became a member of the Huntington. I think that it cost over $100 bucks for the year. The money goes into a general fund that is spent according to the preferences of the president, which are clearly held in check by the board, in order to prevent the Huntington from having too much cowbell. Fact is that neither the board or the president has any idea how much cowbell my friend truly wants. The only way they could find out is if they gave her the opportunity to divide her membership dollars among the garden, museum and library. Then, and only then, would the Huntington achieve the most beneficial balance.

The most beneficial balance depends on individual monetary feedback. The sooner we figure this out the better.

[Heloin]

Are you trying to justify buying a massage chair?

[Esternial]

I think I'm having a stroke, I didn't understand anything in the OP.

What is the discussion here?

[Nono germani]

OP's on CRACK COCAINUS

[Dexterra]

Right now, which would make you happier, cost aside, a really good song, or a really good massage?

Song, easily. Music is a deep-tissue massage for the soul

[Kragholm Free States]

Words

How much monetary feedback do I have to give for your posts to start making some kind of sense?

[Ethel mermania]

Right now, which would make you happier, cost aside, a really good song, or a really good massage?

Song, easily. Music is a deep-tissue massage for the soul

Speaking as someone with a bad back, i will take the massage.

Does it come with a happy ending?

[Antipatros]

Getting some time cube vibes here.

[Vikanias]

OP's on CRACK COCAINUS

Wisest words said today on NS

[Hispida]

oh great it's a xero thread

btw mozart's overrated lol

[Forhillia]

Good food is better than all of them.

[Postauthoritarian America]

Massages creep me out.

[Bombadil]

My friend became a member of the Huntington. I think that it cost over $100 bucks for the year. The money goes into a general fund that is spent according to the preferences of the president, which are clearly held in check by the board, in order to prevent the Huntington from having too much cowbell. Fact is that neither the board or the president has any idea how much cowbell my friend truly wants. The only way they could find out is if they gave her the opportunity to divide her membership dollars among the garden, museum and library. Then, and only then, would the Huntington achieve the most beneficial balance.

The most beneficial balance depends on individual monetary feedback. The sooner we figure this out the better.

Obviously this is the only bit that counts..

..as a major donor on the board I don't care where your friend wants their money to go.

[Thermodolia]

Song, easily. Music is a deep-tissue massage for the soul

Speaking as someone with a bad back, i will take the massage.

Does it come with a happy ending?

Due to the Covid pandemic all happy endings are now Virtual

[Forsher]

I think I'm having a stroke, I didn't understand anything in the OP.

What is the discussion here?

It's just Classic Xero but rather than being about choosing where your tax dollars go* it's about choosing where your membership dollars go.

The massage stuff is, admittedly, extremely confusing. Buried in there there's a discussion about substitutability/fungibility and rivalry and the fourth industrial revolution. Basically, a given masseuse can't be replaced with a generic masseuse and their clientele is theirs (rather than their employer's) because (as every diva in any fictional show will tell you) it simply has to be Marcel or whatever stereotypical masseuse name is used. Music, meanwhile... well, it doesn't matter if the London Philharmonic or the New York Symphony orchestra** is playing Mozart. That's the substitution point. That then becomes a point about rivalry because obviously Marcel can only give one person a massage at a time.

We then transition into the fourth industrial revolution with the idea that the perfect masseuse will be developed. And unlike Marcel, MassageBot will be able to give everyone who wants a massage simultaneously... so, the rivalrous element of a service is removed. (Well, greatly reduced. Obviously there will only be so many MassageBots available. But they will all provide an identical massage.)

Where you've probably got lost, and I'm not a 100% sure this is what Xero means to do with the example but I'm pretty confident, is how we get from that to "cowbells". Or rather from cowbells to Mozart since we had to read it in that order.

Now, in reality, I think the example is absurd. While Mozart probably was subject to some kind of competitive pressures that caused him to be somewhat responsive to his audience, that audience is not us. And even if audience tastes weren't able to change (Dickens, for example, doesn't write anything like major novelists today... probably not even ones that have the same kind of reform agenda as he did... see also: disco) one of the things about people like Mozart is that they're able to bring the audience along with them. To switch away from an arty example to a traditional business school one... did people want iPhones back in, whatever year it was? Not at all. The demand for iPhones was created and the purposive value of a smartphone was recognised only subsequent to the product's arrival on the market. So, yes, if Mozart used more cowbells, we might actually remember him just as well. But setting that aside, Xero's point is that the cowbell is stupid in excess and that its absence has something to do less with Mozart's internal genius and more with his responsiveness to market forces (insert comedy sketch here).

If massages were non-rivalrous and substitutable/fungible, then it follows that market forces would lead to the development of the perfect massage algorithm (i.e. the Mozart of massages) as cowbell elements of massaging are removed. At least, if we assume that massages that have cowbell elements are economically unsound and Massage INCs that develop masseuse robots with cowbell elements go out of business (in reality, of course, innovative tech is strongly zombie like because investors are "ooh shiny" and making billions upon billions in losses is okay, because the next round of funding will bring in more than is lost... while everyone hopes and prays that the technology required to make the business model work becomes viable/exists, or the zombie consumes substitutes, e.g. Uber vs Taxis).

This then brings us back to whatever the hell The Huntingdon* is and its prodigal president. By Xero's analysis, there was no feedback mechanism allowing the former president to know she wasn't behaving in accordance with Huntingdon members, therefore one must be created to avoid cowbells. Thus, choose where your membership dollars go.

Except, of course, the prodigal president was sacked. So, like, clearly, there is some kind of feedback mechanism that appears to be functioning.

*This reminds me... this is actually a minor plot point in Stranger Than Fiction.

**Turns out they're also actually called a Philharmonic, must be thinking of somewhere else. No matter.

***I spelt it wrong. It's a museum & gallery with a botanical garden, basically.

[Ethel mermania]

Speaking as someone with a bad back, i will take the massage.

Does it come with a happy ending?

Due to the Covid pandemic all happy endings are now Virtual

I vote no dollars for this.

[The Two Jerseys]

I think Xero bought the wrong kind of mushrooms...

[Iwassoclose]

if you need a massage, then you should prob get muscle relaxants and a painkiller instead while listening to good music

[Mercatus]

I think I mistook meth for breakfast cereal.

What the fuck is going on here.

[Neanderthaland]

How many times have you been cheered up because you heard a nostalgic massage over the radio?