iPod Shuffle Test: Would You Die to This Song?
I recently dug out my iPod shuffle. I sill buy and own enough music so that it's usable. And as anyone else, I'm trying to spend less time with my phone, specifically on my midday walk in downtown Austin. Need a break from the day job stuff, and love to go out and walk while I can. In less than a month, it won't be possible, because we will be hot as the surface of Mars.
Anyway, my goal is to put a gig of unskippable music on it- a continuously looping mixtape that changes every time I turn it on.
It occurred to me that to be totally free from--I don't know, ridicule or whatever, I can't tell people what's on this. It has to be just for me. And as a DJ, I also found out how messed up my library is. So it's going to fix things, too. But mostly, it's really interesting.
I took my first walk today, and I'll say, number one, it sounds better. 2, out of about 50 songs already on it, only had one stinker. I think it was a missed pull. And it was all delightful.
I did reach for my phone once. And realized I didn't have it. And that felt great. When I got back to the office, there was absolutely nothing waiting for me.
So, you know you have one in your drawer. And it's just a great thought experiment: what is iPod Shuffle worthy?
It's like the teachings of Don Juan. When you go do something, make sure you'd die to do it. He's saying, not that I'm dying to do it, but you could die going to do this thing, so is it worth it?
And so is the iPod shuffle music.
If I get hit by a car, what song do I wanna be listening to?