• Question: What's the Difference between iTunes and Life?

    by Alexander Becker on April 03, 2007 | Link

    Playlists. To be more specific, the human interface that makes playlists so easily usable. In iTunes. Let's take a look at real life's playlists.

    There is this software -- iTunes -- that let's us create playlists, our own mix du jour, we listen to what we want and when we want, we schedule our music.

    Enter the shuffle mode. Random playlists and random sequences. There is no such thing as random, there are no misunderstandings either.

    We have the option to control every second of our listening experience, yet we, you, most of us, consciously opt for the delivery of a surprise.

    You could, but you prefer the random playlist. You could control everything but you don't. Why?

    Now, how does this relate to life? Is iTunes somehow related to real life? Isn't iTunes even modeled after real life? Is it not possible to create your own playlists and plans and set up everything in great detail?

    You say it is not? What if it was?

    Say it is possible to not live at random. Would you choose the party-jukebox anyway? Would you consciously choose the random mode just because it's possible?

    What if life is too easy and you need the excitement of the unknown?

    Is true mastery the balancing of preset playlists and the jukebox?

    (...)

    And then you find yourself on shuffle, only to be crazily hitting next, next, next, to get the one you want, the one you hope to recognize by the time it is presented to you. You're asking for more options when in reality, even in your reality, the same options, presented in ever changing contexts are more than sufficient.

    How would the shuffle function know what you want, when you yourself do not know it in the first place?

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