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When are people going to wake up and realize listening is a skill?

Thirty years ago I realized my lifelong dream of owning a 911. This is a fast car and so first thing I did was join PCA to get some track experience in order to be able to drive safely at speed. Of course I already knew how to drive. I was a "good driver" much better than most, etc, etc. 

PCA Driver Ed begins with several hours of classroom study. Track rules, safety, and some car control skills- braking, steering, throttle control. Yeah, yeah, whatever let's go!    

Then at the track they put you in your car with an instructor and you head out onto the track driving so freaking slow, actually normal freeway driving speed but it seems slow because, race track. So we play follow the leader with the instructor pointing out cones. Braking cones, turn-in cone, apex cone, track out cone. Each turn is numbered 1 thru 9, and there's turn worker stations, and they have flags, and you need to be watching and know what they mean, because you screw up and that is it your day is done. One full 20 min session, all the excitement of a tour bus.  

Bear with me. There's a connection here. Trust me. 

It goes on like this all day until finally we are signed off to drive solo but then there is an accident, flat bed, that's it for the day. 

Next time out I am so super confident instead of novice I sign up for Intermediate. Same cars, only the Intermediate drivers are supposed to somehow be better. Whatever.   

So out I go and Holy Crap everyone is passing me! I am driving as fast as I possibly can and being passed by everyone! Not only that, if you have ever driven as fast as you possibly can then you know this means braking as late as you possibly can, cornering as fast as you can, all of it. Which without fear of police is pretty damn fast! So fast I am not at all used to it, and so by the end of 20 min am literally sweating and exhausted!  

But I keep at it. Turns out all that classroom talk is about driving skills that are absolutely essential, not only to know but to be able to do. Threshold braking is braking right at the edge of lockup. Right at the very edge. Those cones are there for reference, to help you delay braking as long as possible. The turn-in cones are where you start turning, apex cone where you are right at the inside edge of the turn, track-out where you come out the other side. Do all this while at the very limit of traction and you are going very fast indeed. Without- and this is the essential part- without really trying to go fast.  

Learn the skills, practice the techniques until you are able to execute smoothly, efficiently, and consistently, and you will be fast. Without ever really trying to go fast.   

The connection here is, everyone thinks they hear just fine. Just like they think they drive just fine. In the classroom they talk about threshold braking, the late apex line, and controlling weight transfer with throttle. Just like here we talk about grain, glare, imaging and sound stage.   

I left one part out. All the track rats, they all start out talking about horsepower, springs and spoilers, thinking these are what makes the car fast. They are, sort of. But really it is the driver. By the time I was an instructor myself it was easy to go out with those same Intermediate drivers and it was like the commute to work it was so easy. My car was the same. Only my skills were greater.  

So when are people gonna wake up and realize listening is just like this? Nobody expects to become a really good golfer, tennis player or rock climber just by going out and doing it. Why are so many stuck talking watts? When are they gonna realize that is just like track rats talking hp?


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barts's avatar
barts
712 posts
 
@tomic601 
No he didn't lap me even though his Lotus is supercharged and has an LSD, upgraded wheels, brakes and tires. I had been to the Ron Fellows Corvette Driving school in Pahrump Nevada for their Advanced level class. Great fun to beat the snot of the school's cars (all sponsored by GM).  As with any high performance car its virtually impossible to even come close to its potential on the street as you well know. 

We were at High Plains Raceway which is east of Denver a bit. Great track, if I lived out there I'd certainly be a member.  Anyway they told me
that a good time for a decent driver who is a novice to the track is anything below 2:30.  My best lap was 2:11, so I was happy with that.

I passed everyone except one Porsche, I could hang with him but he would slowly widen the gap.  It was a GT3.  Not fair LOL!

My son did beat me at Hawley Drag Racing School in Gainsville FL.
We were driving pro comp dragsters 572 chevys.  I went 8.3 @ 161.52 and he went 8.3 @ 161.67 mph.  I can't let this stand! 

Regards,
barts

streamerdude
54 posts
 
Hey folks, just a reminder that malignant narcissists, such as the OP, believe any attention is good, negative or positive. All of my friends who became psychiatrists admit that the affliction is frankly untreatable. One hundred percent of the conversations they start are self reverential and if you start the conversation they soon turn it into that. In real life they give you the options of fight, flight or submission. Whenever I beat them on the track or out diagnose them in practice they always have an excuse or blame something external. My silent knowing smile enrages them when that happens. I love it.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,180 posts
 
Words of wisdom. 
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
Thanks @streamerdude for your contributions towards restoring balance in the universe.  You continue to nail it with your spot-on characterizations.  With a sincere knowing smile ;-)
bikerbw
108 posts
 
Short answer to the question posed - never, if you don't realize it's a "problem" in your listening habits, and I would contend that you will never, ever find someone (self proclaimed audiophile or not) who would call themselves "a lousy listener".  Now, onward.                                                                                                                                                               It's easy to spend money on equipment, get the most exotic cables made from unobtanium, niggle and pick over this spec/that spec and so forth, because it takes little effort and certainly no need for personal improvement.  I would, however, advise against trying to turn your listening prowess into some form of competition; if you feel that your hearing (or any other skill) needs improvement and you want to put toward the effort to make that happen, then by all means get after it.  Competition needs a standard by which to judge oneself against others, and in the OP's driving tale he shows exactly that with the comparison of speed, but listening has no such standard, and if even if there was, trying to compare your listening acuity to others denies the experience you are looking to achieve for yourself when enjoying music.  It is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby after all, and the OP has mentioned here and there about listening for one's own sake and not relying on what others to tell you what you are hearing.                                                                                                                                                                                                 I will add my own self-absorbed (but much shorter) similar tale.  I was active in mountain biking in my younger years, riding everywhere.  My neighbor saw me on my mountain bike and asked "So, you're into mountain biking?"  I say "Yes." - made sense.  He responded "So do you race?" I said no.  He came back with "Well then, what's the point?" which took me aback at the time, because racing was something I was aware of but not something I was interested in, and didn't consider it to be a part of my enjoyment that I was lacking.  The neighbor missed the entire point of why I liked to ride, and to be good at racing was never something that I was chasing.  Mountain bike racing "tracks" are semi-groomed and nothing like what you'd encounter on a rough, non-groomed path through the woods or over rocky terrain, and to turn my outings on my bike into training sessions would've sucked all of the enjoyment out of it for me.                                                                                                                          The OP initially admits that he thought of himself as a pretty good driver and was no doubt pleased at his own perceived skill before the classes, but then when shown that personal improvement could be made (by being shown the advanced prowess of others), there was a dissatisfaction of his own skills.  He could've gone three ways with this: to disparage the drivers more skilled than he (and not try for improvement), to recognize that he could indeed improve and pursue that for greater achievement, or to acknowledge that other drivers were more skilled than he but improvement was not something that he wanted to put effort into to be able to be a "better" driver. 
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