The unplayable piano

A story about (almost) a failure (inspired by jazz)

Back in January 1975, Keith Jarrett was invited to perform in Koln. He arrives in the opera house but when he sees the piano, he understands that it's not the model he had requested - instead of the Bösendorfer 290 Imperial concert grand, he was given a piano used for opera rehearsals. It was in abject condition and badly out of tune (and with malfunctioning sustain pedals). 🎹

Keith obviously doesn't want to play this "unplayable" piano and put his reputation on the line. He doesn't want to perform under these conditions. In the meantime, 1,300 jazz fans are in the seats waiting for the show to begin…

🔶 When facing the non familiar, we all tend to hesitate, we tend to quit and default to what we know best: the ordinary, the safe, the way we do things. However, there are few that know that true #innovation happens when such obstacles appear. When adrenaline kicks in and the mind is asked to be creative in order to provide solutions to such obstacles.

🔶And there are even some who manufacture obstacles for themselves in order to get this missing #creativity and innovation. In the music space, Brian Eno was one of them ("Another green world" is a masterpiece and a result of innovation that Eno got from his musicians by asking them to do improvisations and changing instruments that they were not prepared for).

🔶Fortunately when running a startup you don't have to invent artificial obstacles - they are there anyway. Obstacles of all sorts, from securing funding , understanding your diverse user base, keeping up with tech trends, creating an engaging culture , just to name some. They all seem to me like the piano that Keith was given: far from ideal and without a lot of time to fix properly.

🤔 What would happen if Keith, instead of quitting, he sat on that piano and did his best anyway? Maybe avoid the keys that were most out of tune, embrace this problem and make something great out of it? What would happen if he changed his playing style to adapt to the new piano?

🔮 Well, fortunately these are all non hypothetical questions. Because Keith Jarrett did in fact decide to go ahead and play. "The Koln concert" is the result.

enjoy the magic: https://open.spotify.com/album/0I8vpSE1bSmysN2PhmHoQg?si=G_nHIxSyR5a-z5y7w4A3zw&nd=1

👉When was the last time you had to play with a dilapidated piano (at work or in your personal life)? Sometimes, when having to deal with one, the results can be better than we think. Keith Jarrett is here to remind us the value of some mess in our lives, like Tim Harford, very well described in his own take on the event (link in comments).

PS 1. Read more about the story of this concert here: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/koln-concert-keith-jarrett/

PS 2. An awesome podcast from this magician of finance, podcasting and everything, Tim Harford: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5T0lLZoc5TEsa0Vo0bjYOg?si=9e5e5ba05d314bab

Ps 3. My unplayable piano, ApyHub is launching on PH soon: https://www.producthunt.com/products/apyhub

all feedback welcome.