Life is a Mix Tape: Max Richter & Limitations

Walking home after work, I was listening to Radiolab's podcast The Obama Effect, Perhaps, which discussed the result Barack Obama's presidency may be having on the stereotype threat or the influence of group stereotypes to affect intellectual performance.

Since Obama's presidential nomination, some researchers have noticed a performance gap between whites and blacks narrow (on a 20-question test). *The findings have yet to be peer reviewed, and further replication is expected. However, the stereotype threat is a well documented phenomenon that can affect all groups of people.

While Radiolab's Jad Abumrad was discussing the power of stereotypes to distract and then discourage achievement, the song "Vladimir's Blues" by Max Richter played.

The music made the metro car glide on the rails, rather than speed forcefully onward. People began waltzing past, instead of rushing about gracelessly. And I stood at the center of it all, waiting for my train, wondering about my limitations.

The real subtle power of a stereotype isn't that it prevents you from doing what you want to do, it distracts you, for just a beat, from doing the thing you want to do. And that may be all the difference.

- Jad Abumrad, Radio Lab

This is another gem by Max Richter, "Fragments."

I also recommend "The Nature of Daylight."