Chance favours the prepared mind.--Louis Pasteur
People always get very nervous when I say that observing and acting on random events is a better way of creating really innovative products and services.
Last night (10th April)I was cooking a meal and listening to BBC Radio 2's The Record Producers with Richard Allinson and Steve Levine focusing on the talents of Hugh Padgham, a man who successfully made the transition from engineer to producer, often with the same artist. During the programme they concentrated on how artists were looking for an edge to differentiate their music and so increase the chances of a winning performance and how the people around them often spotted opportunity in the technologies around them. Hugh Padgham was introducing new technology into the recording studio... such as a device that allowed two-way communication between the producer and engineer and the performers...it had been producer/engineer to performer only until then. Hugh was looking to help Peter Gabriel [I think] come up with a new sound on the next record .....but as Hugh said
"It's much harder to make a simple record than a complicated one."
One day, Phil Colins drummed while the communications link was open and Hugh heard an unusual sound as Phil played around with the drumkit. It was the comms microphone that was mediating the usual drumming sound and turned into something unique. It was the signature sound that defined Phil's playing for years. So the random event plus a prepared mind gave birth to a string of successes for many bands including Police.
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