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This post is about Gemini

A woman wrote a song. It was a very good song and very simple, so she taught it to some friends who played drums and bass so they could perform it together as a band. It was great, and everyone liked it.

After hearing the band, a friend offered a suggestion: What about adding some keys? He already had a great part in mind, and it would really add to the song. She agreed, and they performed as a quartet. It was even better. They wrote more great songs and everyone liked it. They even went on tour. Why not? It was easy and cheap with only four instruments, and then lots of people could hear their music.

Another friend offered another suggestion: What about adding a violin? Having a counterpoint to the melodies would make things even more enjoyable. She agreed, and the band was still pretty good, though touring became harder since they had to buy a bigger van to fit all five of them.

More suggestions came. They added a trumpet, and then a whole brass section. They added a cello, and then a whole string section. Some felt that the music wasn't enough — after all, they were performing live, and they should have a visual element so people didn't get bored. So they added dancers and a huge screen with artful videos.

To make things easier, they needed to bring in a record label to manage the money, the schedule, and the logistics, and they hired a whole team of support staff to deal with equipment, lodging, and the like. Soon, they were touring with nearly 50 people, and they were all extremely talented. But the shows became very expensive, both for the extremely large "band" and for the audience. But they were entertaining enough.

The woman didn't write many of the songs anymore, since now she had to keep in mind not just guitar, bass, and drums, but also the strings, the brass, the dancers, the videographer, the projectionist, and the DJ (they had a DJ now too). Instead, the label sent in songwriters and choreographers to help keep things together. They added a director and a manager to coordinate all of this as well. All the woman had to do was show up to practice and perform. It was easy enough, though the director and managers were stern and crude, and they only talked about money.

The record label started taking surveys of the audience to see whether the "band" was performing the kind of things people liked. They'd analyze the data and send the results on to the director and writers and choreographers — and when they felt like it, to the woman too. Then they'd write songs to match, and whatever instrument or performer they needed to make it work. This was the most efficient way to keep everything going — after all, now there were hundreds of people whose livelihoods relied on the "band."

And they were still pretty good. People still liked them, actually more people than ever. But the woman wasn't happy. All she had done was write a song and show it to her friends, but somehow she was now part of a giant multi-media, multi-genre production. She liked the performers, but now she was surrounded by managers and experts and numbers and money — a whole lot of things that didn't have anything to do with her music and that she didn't especially like.

So she quit. After a while, she started writing songs again, and they were very good and very simple. She taught them to a few friends and they performed as a band. Eventually, someone offered her a suggestion: Wouldn't it be great if you added a violin?

"No thanks. We've got all the instruments we need." she said. "But you know what? I think you'd like my old band too. It's already got a violin."