What Distortion Creates

This past February, I wrote an article about "The Mystery of the Piano and Equal Temperament" by Anita T. Sullivan.

The sounds that humans find pleasant are created by simple integer ratios, such as 1:2 for an octave or 2:3 for a perfect fifth. However, if you try to maintain those beautiful sounds strictly, the intervals collapse the moment you change keys.

That is why humanity chose equal temperament.

Equal temperament is a tuning method that divides an octave into twelve equal parts. As a result, the original beautiful resonance is slightly lost. However, in exchange, we gained the ability to modulate freely.

At the time, I understood that as a topic of music theory. However, recently, I have begun to think that it might not have been just about music.

The other day, during a conversation with an AI, the topic of "what is groove" came up.

It started as a discussion about music, but it gradually expanded into topics like "resonance," "vibration," and even "reading" and "learning."

During that, a hypothesis emerged. People don't just read books to increase their knowledge. Perhaps they read books to slightly distort themselves.

I read business books. I also read management books.

But that is not all. I read books on Zen. I read history books. I read novels. Recently, I have even been reading "Harry Potter."

Before, I didn't really understand how those things connected.

What does management have to do with a school of magic? What does Zen have to do with management?

But business stories turn into history stories. Music theory connects to organizational theory. Sometimes, talk of Zen jumps to corporate philosophy.

Knowledge that seems unrelated at first glance is beginning to connect somewhere.

Equal temperament sacrificed perfect resonance a little. But in return, it gained the freedom to modulate.

Perhaps humans are the same. If you only read business books, you might understand management deeply.

However, you cannot modulate with just that. Read history books. Read novels. Learn Zen. Sometimes, read fantasy works too.

By doing so, you create a little distortion within yourself. Then, one day, knowledge will suddenly begin to resonate in unexpected places.

When I wrote that article in February... I read about equal temperament as music theory.

But reading it again now, I feel that what that book was talking about was not the history of music, but the wonder of being able to "modulate."

Equal temperament did not abandon beautiful resonance.
In order to know the new world of modulation, humanity allowed for a little bit of distortion.

Touch upon different fields.
Encounter different values.
Try accepting experiences that might seem like a detour at first glance.

When we allow for such small distortions, perhaps we too can modulate into a new world.