Not Good Enough™
Witches love to try to sell you "Not Good Enough™." Tell 'em to shove it after reading the 4 manipulative marketing strategies the witches use to sell this idea.
Welcome to the first installment of my “™” series, where I will debunk, make fun of, and hopefully convince you to stop believing poisonous philosophies that commonly get suggested to you by clueless people.
And check out my other pieces I’ve written here! If you want. Or don’t. Keep me guessing.
Once upon a time there was a young woman in a blue hat and pink shirt walking downtown eating an ice cream cone. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the birds were chirping, the flowers were blooming, the cars were whizzing by enthusiastically, and the air smelled sweet.
She walked by a store where she saw someone handing out free samples.
“Oh, hello, my pretty!” The salesperson who was wearing a tall, black pointed hat; had an oddly crooked nose with several oversized warts on it; and had a greenish tint to her skin said. “Would you like to try a free sample of Not Good Enough™?”
The young woman (who is definitely of no relation to me) replied, “Free samples are certainly the best things ever, but I’m not sure I want to take anything from someone who looks like a witch.”
“Ah, yes. I really should probably wear something else, but it’s just so comfortable.” The witch odd-looking salesperson said, pulling out a telescopic pointer and flipping open a sketchbook on an easel. “Allow me to outline the benefits of our product.”
“Our product has been studied in multiple peer-reviewed clinical trials, and has been determined by the FDA to be safe and effective. The effects are immediate, and you can expect the following within mere moments!
Crippling self-doubt
Overwhelming grief
Psychosomatic illness
Insuperable feelings of despair
Hopelessness
Misery
Becoming a Little Psycho Ball of Stress™”
Before the salesperson had finished reciting even half of her bullet points, however, the young woman had walked away down the street, certain that her ice cream cone was much better tasting than whatever this Not Good Enough™ stuff was.
I don’t know about you, but I prefer joy and happiness to despair and misery.
You might suspect that most people share my preferences, but in my experience, most people believe in so punishing of philosophies that if I didn’t know better, I’d believe they were serving out a criminal sentence in a penal colony.
So why do people believe in these?
It’s because of witchy salespeople who are constantly coming up with new and clever ways to get you to buy this philosophy.
And if you won’t choose to buy it voluntarily, then to shove it down your throat.
So! We’re going to go through 4 ways that witchy salespeople try to sell you Not Good Enough™ and break down their manipulative marketing techniques so you know not to buy.
Let's begin.
Sales Pitch #1: Vanilla Version
You’re not good enough to teach private lessons.
You’re not good enough to play on YouTube.
You’re not good enough to try out for this ensemble.
You’re not good enough to _______________.
Witches, lizard people, and narcissists love to throw around these kinds of accusations to get you to buy Not Good Enough™. Let me break down how this works:
They get you to believe that “good enough” is an attainable thing that you haven’t achieved yet.
They get you to believe that being “good enough” is contingent on being good enough for Other People™.
If you’re “not good enough” for Other People™, you’re probably not good enough for anyone else either.
If you’re not good enough for anyone, you’re Not Good Enough™.
Alright, simple enough. But where did these Other People™ I mentioned come from?
Simple: this is a rhetorical device from the witches, lizard people, and narcissists. They conflate their opinions and interests with those of the general population so they can pretend their conclusions are more popular and powerful than they actually are.
Narcissists, in particular, love this technique.
Go figure.
The problem with this sleight of hand is (eh-hem) that it isn’t true.
Whoops.
I mean, do you really think that lizard people represent the interests and opinions of the general population?
Obviously not.
They’re afraid of you so they’re trying to get you to submit to their nonexistent authority.
That’s all this is.
So! What do you do instead?
Your options are:
Believe that you're not good enough and watch people who are less skilled be more successful than you. Or!
Try.
I’d pick the second one if I were you.
After all, there are low quality content creators out there with thousands of subscribers. I won't list any examples here out of a desire to remain tactful, but I'm sure you can think of a few.
Also, there are people way worse than you who have reached success because they’re able to market better than you. People like to think that the music industry is a meritocracy, but it’s really not. It’s a marketplace. So learn to market yourself! Even the narcs are doing it with this Not Good Enough™ product.
A side note for those who maybe, (maybe), aren’t good enough quite yet:
Listen, there is a real possibility that you aren’t good enough to do something, and I understand this concern.
If you don’t want to start something until you feel more comfortable at it, I think that that’s a fine reason to delay.
Lots of people dismiss this approach, but it’s important to realize that postponing publishing, teaching, or what have you until you reach a specific endpoint is fine.
The only thing to keep in mind is that it has to actually be specific, right?
It can’t just be a nebulous call into the void of oh, I’m “not good enough” at this.
It’s gotta be, oh, I want to learn more about A, B, and C before I start doing X, Y, and Z because I think that’ll help me in the long run.
This is called strategy, and lots of people seem to pretend that it doesn’t exist for some reason and instead pretend that talent is what’s responsible for long-term success.
Hm. Maybe I should write a substack about that.
Alright, let’s move on.
Sales Pitch #2: New Twist on an Old Classic: You’re Not Gifted™
Every now and again the witches among us rediscover perfect pitch, talent, and age, and then they start throwing that in our faces as proof that you are not gifted.
Kind of like how monkeys sometimes rediscover their own feces and start throwing it around.
Maybe there’s some relation.
Anyway, here’s a debunking lightning round for all of these stupid banalities that narcs love to believe because it gives them excuses to be cruel to others.
Perfect Pitch
Having perfect pitch isn’t a dichotomy. This is a false dilemma.
We know this because perfect pitch can be developed.12
This also means that perfect pitch isn’t perfect since there are stages of development.
And there is no study that supports the 1/10,000 number.
It doesn’t exist.
Whoops.
And never has there ever been found a genetic sequence that confers the gift of perfect pitch upon the possessor.3
It doesn’t exist.
Whoops.
My piece on perfect pitch: link
Next.
Talent
Just like perfect pitch, never has there ever been found a genetic sequence that confers the gift of “music,” “artistry,” “saxophone playing,” “being good at stuff,” “liking music,” “having rhythm,” “being able to differentiate pitches in music,” “blowing bubbles with bubblegum,” “farting on command,” “tone deafness,” “liking the color blue,” “liking pickles more than the next guy,” or literally anything else you can imagine.
Even though they’ve been looking for these things for 50 years.4
They don’t exist.
Whoops.
My piece on talent: link
Remember kids, if they can't specify which genes are responsible for which Talents™, they also can't rule out other explanations for that Talent.
**cough** like the environment.
Imagine thinking that the environment doesn’t play a big enough role to completely confound the results of an experiment you performed to measure the effects of something that you’re not even sure exists.
This is the name of the game with geneticists, though.
Next.
Age
Firstly, you can increase your brain plasticity at any age.5
But the lizard people always forget to mention that part.
Whoops.
Secondly,
Health exists.
Brain plasticity exists.
But these things are not age.
So if your health sucks and your brain plasticity is crap, don’t blame your inability to learn music on your age.
We’ve managed to dismiss the idea that your physical fitness decreases inevitably as you age in the popular discourse. Why not the idea of brain plasticity?
Thirdly, children aren’t born with superhuman abilities to learn things that diminish as they get older.
Why?
Because the burden of proof is on the people who claim that the ability to learn things attenuates as they get older, not on the people who claim that it doesn’t.
And unfortunately, the proof that this is true doesn’t exist.
Because saying that brain plasticity usually diminishes is not evidence that this must be the case.
And that’s the only “proof” they have.
Whoops.
Wrap it Up, Emma, We’ve Got Other Points to Get to.
There seems to be a lot of blabbering on these sorts of subjects and not very much thinking.
This from someone who certainly does a lot of blabbering, but I think my point still stands.
Everything that I just refuted happens to be the default opinion among most people. And as is so often the case, when you don’t do your thinking for yourself, the narcy-narcs and lizard people get to do it for you.
So don’t believe any of any of this nonsense that tries to get you to believe that you’re Not Good Enough™ ‘cause it just simply ain’t so.
Sales Pitch #3: Neapolitan flavor, Because I Said So
In other words: I’m better than you, so you should believe me over yourself.
This rationale is enticing to some people because it can feel like a much safer option, particularly if the person telling you this is actually more skillful than you at music, but it’ll ultimately keep you in a subordinate and childish position.
The problem with this philosophy is there is nothing helpful or useful that can come out of believing that you’re Not Good Enough. Regardless of if they are actually better than you or not.
And stuff that isn’t helpful or useful is usually thrown in the trash can.
Again, there are only two options available for what you can do with this idea:
Believe that you’re not good enough and wither away into a Little Psycho Ball of Stress™
Believe that you are good enough and allow yourself to grow into what you’ve always wanted to be.
Please note that one of those options was not to believe that you’re not good enough and also grow into what you aspire to be. That’s because this isn’t an option. You can’t do it. No matter how much you hustle to get better, be the best, and not ever make any mistakes, none of this will ever be an adequate substitute for actually believing in yourself.
Because believing in yourself is a sine qua non (that’s fancy-pants Latin for “prerequisite”) for success.
To be sure, this will be considered heresy by the musical priest-class, and you might be called names.
Or ostracized from your music school.
Or burned at the stake.
Whatever torment you have to endure to achieve believing in yourself will be worth it, though.
Remember kids, someone being better than you really has nothing to do with whether or not you should believe you’re Not Good Enough™. The only thing that should really matter is your own life. And that can only flourish when you believe in yourself.
Sales Pitch #4: Butter Pecan: You’re Being Prideful
It’s prideful to believe you’re good enough. And you don’t want to be prideful, do you?
(rolls eyes)
Alright, so this comes down to a misunderstanding of humility and pride.
Humility isn’t subservience, obsequiousness, or being a doormat; and pride isn’t sticking up for yourself, or accurately relating how skilled you are.
In fact, both of these attributes are understood better when they’re related to something else entirely: the truth. Humble people readily change their minds when the truth is presented to them. Prideful people do not.
So you can’t be prideful unless you’re unwilling to accept the truth.
So the only way this point still stands is if it is true that you’re Not Good Enough™.
Which, of course, they provide no evidence for.
Whoops.
Final Thoughts
“The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.” -JS Bach
How are we musicians supposed to accomplish this if we’ve been finagled into believing toxic witch philosophies?
So stop buying it, and go sell something worth selling!
As an example, and to combat this never-ending barrage of pressure to get you to believe this Not Good Enough™ nonsense, I'm going to try to sell you a different product.
It’s called “You Actually Are, Totally, Very Much, Good Enough, For Real™.”
Allow me to outline the benefits.
Confidence
Happiness
An increased ability to stand up for yourself
Intolerance of abuse towards yourself and others
Not giving two F’s about what anyone thinks of you anymore
Sounds a lot better than what the witches are selling, huh?
It helps when you have a product that actually provides value to people.
But I guess they didn’t quite think that through.
Whoops.
https://online.ucpress.edu/mp/article-abstract/27/2/89/62439/A-Distribution-of-Absolute-Pitch-Ability-as?redirectedFrom=fulltext
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34253760/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4951961/#CIT0008
https://thegeneillusion.blogspot.com/2020/06/its-time-to-abandon-classical-twin_21.html
https://drnicolecain.com/how-to-promote-brain-plasticity/
But! But! But! If you sell people “You Actually Are, Totally, Very Much, Good Enough, For Real™.”, how will you get them to buy anything else from you??
Right you are, dear Em. I personally have found that it takes much less effort to choose happy. Far easier to feel, and do, good.