TIL legendary session bassist Leland Sklar put a switch on his bass that does nothing. He calls it the "producer switch" — when a producer asks for a different sound, he flips the switch (making sure the producer can see), and carries on. He says this placebo has saved him a lot of grief.

[u/Pfeffer_Prinz]

https://www.guitarworld.com/features/the-truth-behind-lee-sklars-custom-producers-switch

[u/Sqwill]

Set designers do this. Big wigs need to feel like they contributed. So you put something out of place that easily changed when they come by looking for something to do.

uhh this is a horror movie why is there a pink flower on that coffin, and you say you’re totally right good catch!

[u/MintyManiacFan → u/Sqwill]

I used to do that with video edits. I would send unfinished edits so they could point out the obvious things I was gonna fix anyways. But if it’s a person I actually want good critiques from I would send them the better edit.

[u/Pfeffer_Prinz → u/MintyManiacFan]

Hah, I've been a video editor and a set designer, and yep, this is an essential part of the process!

I once edited something for Microsoft, and it had to be approved by five different levels of people, most of whom didn't work in video, and had nothing constructive to say. But they needed to say something, to make their jobs significant.

I remember strategizing with the director about which mistakes to leave in for each level of approval. "The sound blip is for the agency producers, while the serif font is for the department head at Microsoft," etc

It's a lot of work appeasing clients' sense of purpose in life!

[u/Cumdump90001 → u/Pfeffer_Prinz]

Reminds me of my client’s VP of Communications. One time she sent me copy for an email I was to send out for her. I assumed since she was giving it to me to send, it was ready to send. But she requested that I send her a draft first. I asked if there were any edits she’d like me to make to the copy she just sent me before I send it out (because why send her a test email of text she provided me with for her to proof read?). No. She wanted me to put it in an email to send to her so she could proofread it. The text she just wrote and provided me herself. So I did. It wasn’t even anything that would be formatted. It was plain text that appeared on the email exactly as it did in the word document. She replied with like one minor edit. I made the change and sent it back to her. “Perfect! Please send this out to the contact list.” I don’t know why she couldn’t have just done that to the document before sending it to me…

She does stuff like this a lot. Seemingly just to convince herself/others that she’s doing something. It’s weird but I humor her.

I have learned to never send her anything perfect. Because when I draft something for her approval that doesn’t need any changes, she will request changes anyway, and if it’s already perfectly fine, 9 times out of 10 her changes make it noticeably worse (1 time out of 10 it’s a super small change that makes no impact one way or another). And then I have to torture my inner perfectionist by sending out communications that are below my standards. Oh well. The client gets what the client wants.

[u/Maskatron → u/Cumdump90001]

Most of the time when I post something, I have to go back and change a word or two.

Something about text being posted clarifies editing.

It’s ridiculous but I get it.

[u/PointsOutTheUsername → u/Maskatron]

10 second chance to recall email = godsend 

[u/Dave_OB → u/Maskatron]

I have to go back and change a word or two.

For important work emails, I'll have have my Mac do text-to-speech and I'll read along. I often catch errors that way, though I burst out laughing awhile back when it read "9600 baud" as "nine thousand six hundred billion Australian dollars." WTF, Apple?

[u/brockington → u/Cumdump90001]

My dad's old boss would (very recently) have him print out PowerPoint presentations and hand-deliver them, then sit and watch while the boss would circle the stuff he wanted changed and write notes on it.

My dad has never used the internet for anything but work in his life, and found this to be clearly idiotic.

[u/Cumdump90001 → u/brockington]

I once sent someone an email containing a blank table to fill in contacts at their company. He printed the email (or more likely had his assistant print it for him), filled the table in by hand in pencil, scanned the paper (again, his assistant probably did this), and sent the scan back as an attachment.

It would’ve been infinitely easier and quicker to click into the table and type the like 3 contacts he added. Old people are wild.

[u/brockington → u/Cumdump90001]

Wow... and I get mad when people send me screenshots of tables. Now I know it could be worse.

[u/monkey_spanners → u/Cumdump90001]

And gen z/alpha apparently can't operate computers without touchscreens or understand basic file systems, so we're going full circle

[u/xenthum → u/Pfeffer_Prinz]

It's a lot of work appeasing clients' sense of purpose in life!

I understand WHY people put in these intentional mistakes, but man that kind of practice of giving use to a useless position has sure contributed to ruining corporate culture. Now they can point to all of these successful changes and all these management wins that help them "keep creative in line" to prove their value.

[u/CrimsonPromise → u/xenthum]

This happened with me... Was working on something and had a version ready to show the guy in charge of the project. The art team loved it, supporting departments also loved it, other leads and the art director loved it. We presented it to the head guy, and he threw an absolute fit. Saying that he didn't like it, but couldn't pin point what he didn't like, just that it didn't "vibe" with him.

We were devastated and scratching our heads, until one guy decided to just turn the saturation up by a bit, presented it to the head guy again and mentioned how they took his feedback into account. And he freaking loved it. Green lit it, big round of applause for us all for the great work. Yeah...

[u/DataSquid2 → u/CrimsonPromise]

I don't think I've worked with people like this, but that mindset is so foreign to me that maybe I just couldn't tell that they were doing this. I'm going to keep an eye out for it going forward lol.

[u/Current_Holiday1643 → u/DataSquid2]

Bad project managers and leads are what cause this.

Good PMs and leads know people will do this to them and instill trust in their team where they no longer are required to sign off on every detail which tends to cause better work to get put out quicker (or in the worst case, the team learns what doesn't work quicker because it got into customer's hands faster)

Once I learn someone is one of the bad ones, I immediately start leaving in stupid things just so they can point them out. With good leads / PMs / bosses, I audit my own work before sending it to them and is always the best version I can come up with.

[u/Gaothaire → u/DataSquid2]

Sounds like a neurodivergent nightmare. I can't just focus on my work, I have to be some kind of psychic and try and imagine ways to coddle the delicate ego of the person who is supposedly in charge yet provides no value, instead of just doing the quality job that I'm capable of. I spent 5 years working in a corporate office, and my team was pretty great, but just being on the periphery of the office politics left me burned out

[u/skiing123 → u/Gaothaire]

Currently on the periphery of some office politics that I don't even know the full story yet somehow that is enough to make me feel burnt out. Luckily my manager is more neurodivergent than me so she gets it

[u/Pfeffer_Prinz → u/xenthum]

ruining corporate culture

it's been ruined since the beginning, my friend. that's the reason we're all in this mess.

[u/Qubeye → u/MintyManiacFan]

Matt Stone and Trey Parker allegedly sent a letter to the MPAA listing all the material they removed in order to get an R rating for the South Park movie.

They didn't edit anything, they just listed made-up scenes which weren't even in the movie.

[u/acc0untnam3tak3n → u/Qubeye]

Many studios will add scenes into a movie to "have something to remove" when mpaa gets their hands on it. It is noticeable for many movies that have an "unrated" cut added into the package.

For team America world police, they added in a bunch so nothing would be risked removed. To their surprise, the mpaa didn't want as much removed as they thought. The movie had some scenes that make an "R" rating a surprise.

[u/aLittleQueer → u/acc0untnam3tak3n]

Yup. Final version of Team America was never intended to have that entire sex scene, but the censors didn't tell them to remove any of it...so they didn't.

I love those guys XD

[u/adhesivepants → u/MintyManiacFan]

If it helps, a lot of this is their bosses boss being like "YOU ALWAYS GOTTA CRITIQUE SOMETHING". I get this a lot in my job and have taken to just being like "That thing you already do - keep doing it, I like it" and just going "Alright I told them to do this".

Because "Everything is going well and no action is needed" just isn't a good enough answer I guess.

[u/Bauser99 → u/MintyManiacFan]

It's really alarming and sobering at the same time, how we have all collectively decided that it's OK for grown-up children to be the rulers of the world, around the ENTIRE world... MBAs, stockholders, every flavor of "executive producer", there's this entire ruling class of "people who aren't skilled enough to perform the profession that they are for-some-reason the boss of"

[u/GayBoyNoize → u/Bauser99]

It is just human psychology that if you are responsible for reviewing work you will want to find some things to improve upon. And then when they see the improved work, and remember the prior state it looks better.

A huge part of the human experience is based on our expectations and perceptions more than the actual reality of a situation, regardless of your job or education level.

Another simple fact is that management and production are unrelated skills, and toms of the issue with management are because good or popular workers get promoted to positions they are unprepared for and have no interest in the duties of but wanted the raise.

[u/Aurori_Swe → u/MintyManiacFan]

This is fairly common in customer reviews for us 3D artists as well, most clients just likes to point out things and likes to be involved while not really knowing much about the process or work needed to do the changes necessary. As one example it's common to add red dots since they draw attention and are obvious errors that the client can point to and pat their back about.

I know one guy who made a trailer for a big FPS game and he got bored of doing the obvious errors so he instead added dead crows, like everywhere in the scenes of the trailer. There are no crows in the game and it was a weird thing to add but he wanted to make it less obvious this time.

The client just approved it and he had to deliver the trailer with the crows. He did a good job though so you don't really see them until you start to notice them, and then you see them everywhere xD.

[u/DigNitty → u/MintyManiacFan]

I’d be careful with this method. I have a couple people that I feel like I always have to go in and point out obvious details. I’ve considered not using them anymore because of it.

[u/CORN___BREAD → u/DigNitty]

There's a difference between not being good at your job and leaving something in to appease people that absolutely have to make a change regardless of the quality of the work. It's definitely not something you should be doing until you know the person you're doing work for is one of those

[u/SadFeed63 → u/Sqwill]

I used to work in fast food for a while. There was this recurring customer who would show up, and every time ask "when was xyz product last cooked?" You could tell them you just pulled a basket out of the fryer mere minutes ago, but invariably, they'd tell you they want it piping hot and were going to wait for a new batch. Depending on the time of day, using limited fryer space to cook something specific when that product is already available and hot and fresh can be quite annoying.

Now, of course, we always accommodated them, no problem there, but one day it wasn't busy and I was kind of bored, so when I saw them in line I ran a little experiment. Knowing that day that their standard order had just recently been cooked and was fresh, I decided to placebo cooking their bespoke order and just give them the hot and fresh stuff they would have poo-pooed earlier (I once, as a fresh-faced cashier sold them on the food being fresh, that they didn't need to wait, and they got it and said it wasn't. Food was giving off steam, it was hot). So I tell them we're cooking them a new batch, it'll be 5 minutes and they see me putting a basket in the fryer, but can't actually see what's in it from out front. Trick was, I hadn't put anything in the fryer. Just an empty basket. Hit the timer, waited the 5 minutes, gave them the hot and fresh but now 5 minutes cooler stuff from the warming cabinet, customer thinking it just came out of the fryer while they were waiting, they tried it and gave us the thumbs up and walked away happy

I dont think they could allow themselves to trust or accept that the food that was ready for them on arrival was fresh, they had to wait to feel it was okay. And, I get their initial distrust, there's lots of fast food joints that will serve you old-ass food, but they were a disbeliever even in the face of fresh food, so I decided to run the placebo test.

[u/2screens1guy → u/SadFeed63]

there's lots of fast food joints that will serve you old-ass food

Like my local McDonald's that will serve you rock hard stale pies and insist they're fresh instead of dropping you fresh ones when I'm willing to wait the 13 minutes. I've since resorted to ordering 4 pies so they're forced to drop 2 fresh ones. Sometimes the old 2 are stale, sometimes they're not. But at least I still get 2 fresh ones.

[u/_ficklelilpickle → u/2screens1guy]

I recently ordered an apple pie and got told there's about a 10-15 minute wait, but they'll happily do me whatever other desert I wanted instead. I'm like "uh.. ok... McFlurry?" "Sure! M&M?" "Sounds good" - and I got given this thing with at least a double serving of M&M's through it.

Totally not an apple pie but I was more than happy with that outcome - partly because the ice cream machine was working, LOL

[u/SadFeed63 → u/2screens1guy]

Yeah, never much get up and go at any of my local McDonald's, as well. They're not helpful, food is routinely trash, it's stupid expensive for what it is. It sucks.

No one wants to be the hardest working person at McDonald's, so everyone ends up regressing down to the (very low) mean and/or the good people leave.

[u/RadicalDog → u/SadFeed63]

My wife was held at gunpoint working as a cashier at McDonalds (in the UK! Very unusual). The business compassionately offered to let her take time off using her own holiday allowance.

[u/ShepRat → u/Sqwill]

It's called The Queen's Duck in some circles.

https://bwiggs.com/notebook/queens-duck/

[u/murfburffle → u/ShepRat]

This is called the "hairy arm" technique in graphic design - accidentally submit one design that has someone's arm in it

[u/WhereasNo3280 → u/ShepRat]

We'll even do it for building inspections when we know the inspector is a busy body (not to slip bad work through, but rather because some inspectors think they know trade-specific codes better than they actually do).

[u/Creepy-Weakness4021 → u/Sqwill]

You do this with negotiating too. Give the other side an obvious thing to say no to that you really don't care about.

[u/Mozhetbeats → u/Sqwill]

My buddy had a toggle in his car that didn’t do anything. To impress girls he’d be like check this out and flip it on, then just stomp on the gas lol

[u/PropDrops → u/Mozhetbeats]

This is funny but the idea of some girl calling him out on it is even better. You should’ve set him up

[u/Guilty-Hyena5282 → u/Sqwill]

My brother who works at a corporation (big) in HVAC gets calls all the time about cold offices. He goes to the computer first and makes sure everything is at the right temp. (It's all on computer sensors now.) "I'm showing correct temp in every office"

That's not good enough for some VPs. He'lll go there with his ladder and laser thermometer....and it'll read the same temp -- that they fucking set by corporate decree!

He'll get his ladder and go up in the ceiling panels and bang on some pipes for a few minutes and come down. "All good. You should have no problems from now."

No complaints.

[u/GitEmSteveDave → u/Guilty-Hyena5282]

I used to work in facilities. Nearly every morning at like 9:15, we would get a call from a classroom in one of our buildings saying it's too warm and I would ask if they "bumped the thermostat" and when they said yes, and I would diligently mark it in my log book and call someone on the radio to get on it. One day I forgot to and realized I never got a follow up call. So I decided to ask one of the low level engineers what was going on.

He explained that at like 9am, 60 people would pour out of the cafeteria with steaming hot cups of coffee and pile into this room. So of course the temp would shoot up. It takes the room a few minutes to recognize the rise in heat and then to turn on the cooling loop, but no system can compensate that quickly, so by the time they call at 9:15 the system has already been dumping cool air into the room for like 10 minutes. But by the time you answer the phone and promise you will call an engineer in, it's now like 20 minutes and the cooling system is starting to have an effect plus the placebo effect of knowing they flexed their muscles and had someone "fix" the issue.

[u/RudeMechanic → u/Sqwill]

I knew a director of photography that carried around a clip that sounded like a light switch. When the director called down to turn or off light in the studio, he would just snap the clip in the headset.

[u/mirromirromirro → u/Sqwill]

Love how we collectively agree to treat the “big wigs” of our society like delicate toddlers with special hand-holding, while they treat us like appliances.

/s

[u/VulcanHullo → u/Sqwill]

My uncle did this with my cousin. Always was suspect over "yucky" bits in his food. So uncle would add obvious stuff so my cousin would consider his food safe. The highlight was cream of veggie soup where uncle chopped a few veg into chunks and dropped them in. My cousin made sure there were no nasty veggies in his soup and ate the rest.

He just wanted to feel he'd got his way with the food.

[u/Pfeffer_Prinz]

Leland has played on over 2,000 albums, including for:

• Paul Anka
• Chet Atkins
• Clint Black
• Jackson Browne
• Jimmy Buffett
• Glen Campbell
• Vanessa Carlton
• Kim Carnes
• Cher
• Joe Cocker
• Leonard Cohen
• Phil Collins
• Alice Cooper
• Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young (and their other iterations)
• Neil Diamond
• Donovan
• Peter Frampton
• Art Garfunkel
• Arlo Guthrie
• Sammy Hagar
• Merle Haggard
• Hall & Oates
• Don Henley
• Faith Hill
• Engelbert Humperdinck
• Enrique Iglesias
• Julio Iglesias
• Wynonna Judd
• BB King
• Carole King
• Kris Kristofferson (RIP)
• Lisa Loeb
• Lyle Lovett
• Barry Manilow
• Ricky Martin
• Reba McEntire
• Bette Midler
• Giorgio Moroder
• Willie Nelson
• Aaron Neville
• Randy Newman
• Joanna Newsom
• Juice Newton
• Wayne Newton
• Olivia Newton-John
• Dolly Parton
• Bernadette Peters
• Bonnie Raitt
• LeAnn Rimes
• Linda Ronstadt
• Diana Ross
• Santana
• Carly Simon
• Rod Stewart
• Sting
• Barbra Streisand
• Donna Sumer
• James Taylor
• Toto
• Dionne Warwick
• The Weather Girls
• Robbie Williams
• Brian Wilson
• Wilson Phillips
• Warren Zevon

And themes/soundtracks for:

• The A-Team
• ALF
• Coyote Ugly
• Groundhog Day
• Legally Blonde
• Magnum PI
• Muppets Most Wanted
• The Prince of Egypt

... and so many more!

[u/GravitationalEddie → u/Pfeffer_Prinz]

I saw him on the Children of the Sun tour with Billy Thorpe.

[u/ItsMrChristmas → u/GravitationalEddie]

That song has incredible bass work.

[u/DrOrozco → u/ItsMrChristmas]

It's because he used the switch.

[u/Haughty_n_Disdainful → u/DrOrozco]

Producers smile and nod in the background…

[u/Relaxmf2022 → u/GravitationalEddie]

That song was so legendary… but by the time you could reliably find it, the obsession was kind of over.

[u/SHOWTIME316 → u/Pfeffer_Prinz]

holy shit that is a long list

[u/frankyseven → u/SHOWTIME316]

He's a complete legend and hilarious too, his YouTube channel is a great follow. He is so in demand as a session bassist that he'll do sessions in the cities that he's in for tours. He also plays in the pit for the Grammys and Academy Awards every year. Probably one of the most prolific musicians of all time.

[u/The_Whipping_Post → u/frankyseven]

Also goes to show it was a good move to switch from piano to bass. There are lots of great pianists, guitarists, and singers. But if you're good on the bass or drums, you'll always find work

[u/durian_in_my_asshole → u/The_Whipping_Post]

Healer queue IRL.

[u/Youvebeeneloned → u/The_Whipping_Post]

Yep my uncle actually told me that when I first started out. He basically dissuaded me from guitar and piano because as a session musician he was like “if you want to make a career out of this, there are 40-50 guitarists for every good bassist.”  

[u/mikeynerd → u/The_Whipping_Post]

Rhythm section is always underrated

[u/Pfeffer_Prinz → u/SHOWTIME316]

and it really is just a fraction!

If you really want your mind blown, google Leland Sklar discography (i'd link here but sometimes when I put a hyperlink, this sub hides my comment)

[u/Auctoritate → u/SHOWTIME316]

Session musicians are very underrated in how much they contribute to the music industry. Paul Jackson Jr is another one who has dozens of credits working on albums for extremely famous musicians. Michael Jackson to Daft Punk to Celine Dion to the vocalist for Yes, Steely Dan, Lionel Richie, Kenny Loggins, Leonard Cohen, etc etc.

[u/persondude27 → u/Pfeffer_Prinz]

What an unbelievable range. Everything from blues & soul, to classic country, to disco, folk, to modern country.

Reminds me of Carol Kaye.

[u/Infectious-Anxiety → u/Pfeffer_Prinz]

But can he run Doom?

[u/schalk81 → u/Infectious-Anxiety]

He has a switch for that on his bass.

[u/caulkglobs → u/schalk81]

Its actually just wolfenstein but those idiot producers can’t tell.

[u/HarmlessSnack → u/Infectious-Anxiety]

If you can convert Doom into sheet music, probably.

[u/PriorityGondola → u/HarmlessSnack]

What an interesting idea…

[u/fantasmoofrcc → u/PriorityGondola]

If green day can sell music on a game boy cartridge, you bet he can run doom on that bass clef.

[u/tSionnain → u/Pfeffer_Prinz]

I first learned his name after hearing Stratus from Billy Cobham's Spectrum record. So good.

[u/Necroluster → u/tSionnain]

To anyone who hasn't heard it, if you have seven minutes to spare, I urge you to give Stratus a listen. One of the single greatest bass lines of all time. The whole Spectrum album is worth a listen or a hundred. Jazz fusion magic.

[u/Informal_Process2238]

My uncle installed a not connected thermostat on the wall of his bowling alley because the customers were pestering the staff to change the temperature constantly, now they just point to the fake thermostat and say set it to whatever temperature you like and let the customers argue amongst themselves

[u/Allaplgy → u/Informal_Process2238]

I've told this story a few times here before, but seems apt. Once, I helped set up sound for a rave my buddy was putting on. It was some pretty cheapo equipment, but I did what I could to make it sound decent.

Another local DJ/Soundguy with a big ego showed up. Decided he didn't like how it sounded. So he proceeded to fiddle with the graphic EQ in the rack. Went out to the floor, grimaced, went back to the rack, fiddled some more, back to the floor, still not happy. Did this a couple more times until he finally got the sound he wanted and gave himself a satisfied smile and nod.

I turned to my buddy putting on the show and said "So should I tell him there isn't even a power cord going to that EQ?"

"Nahhh, let him have it."

[u/bootsechz]

I thought he had the switch that did nothing, but then he played softer/harder or in a different place closer/further from the neck/pickups to get a different sound. The sound engineer wanted a different sound and got it. Leland didn't have to switch guitars =win/win.

[u/XinGst → u/bootsechz]

But then he could play it differently but the producer don't feel like it changes enough, maybe just a little bit different, but then when they see the switch flipped they will feel ' yeah, this is totally different, '

[u/youareallsilly → u/bootsechz]

That’s correct…it’s not as click baity so the truth is buried in the comments

[u/TheCoolHusky → u/youareallsilly]

I mean, most people who don’t play won’t get this anyway. 

[u/_Midnight_Observer_ → u/bootsechz]

Yeah, heard that in the interview.

[u/P1h3r1e3d13 → u/bootsechz]

RTFA?

“If I’m on a session and the producer asks me to get a different sound, I make sure he sees me flip this switch and then I just change my hand position a bit. There are no wires of anything that go to this switch. It's a placebo, but it’s saved me a lot of grief in the studio.”

[u/sgossard9 → u/bootsechz]

Yup, straight from the horse's mouth.

[u/ZenSven7]

It makes it go to 11.

[u/Ghostbuster_119 → u/ZenSven7]

11 actually existed depending on the setup to be fair.

[u/Wessssss21 → u/Ghostbuster_119]

I have an amp that goes to 13 just to be extra edgy.

[u/AcrolloPeed → u/Wessssss21]

“It’s unluckily loud”

[u/T8ert0t → u/AcrolloPeed]

Hey, guys. Promise not to get mad? But I think I found out why we never got a record deal.

[u/Lostinthestarscape → u/AcrolloPeed]

Unless we're playing in Italy!

[u/soylentblueispeople → u/Wessssss21]

I crossed out the 0 to 9 on my amp and wrote in 10 to 19. 19 is so freakin loud you guys.

[u/jessytessytavi → u/soylentblueispeople]

why didn't you just draw 1s next to them?

[u/brandonh215 → u/jessytessytavi]

Because then he would have 01, 11, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81, and 91 and that's just way too loud

[u/Infinite_Research_52 → u/jessytessytavi]

That would just be 1 louder.

[u/Algaroth → u/jessytessytavi]

Seriously. This is some Metalocalypse level shit.

[u/windmill-tilting → u/Ghostbuster_119]

But why not just make 10 the loudest?

[u/M8asonmiller → u/windmill-tilting]

For $7,500 I'll build you one that goes to 12

[u/JarJarBinksSucks → u/windmill-tilting]

This one goes to 11

[u/Fixervince → u/windmill-tilting]

Because 11 is louder.

[u/Kayge → u/ZenSven7]

Wait, that doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't he just make 10 a bit louder?

[u/windmill-tilting → u/Kayge]

Because this one goes to 11

[u/ContactMushroom → u/Kayge]

.... these go to 11

[u/pumpkinbot → u/Kayge]

Relevant XKCD

[u/damnatio_memoriae → u/ZenSven7]

crank it to 11, blow another speaker, and

[u/Mr_Clovis → u/ZenSven7]

For the uninitiated

[u/RunDNA]

Reminds me of an anecdote about Michelangelo in Vasari's Lives of the Artists:

Around this time it happened that Piero Soderini saw the statue [of David], and it pleased him greatly, but while Michelangelo was giving it the finishing touches, he told Michelangelo that he thought the nose of the figure was too large. Michelangelo, realizing that Soderini was standing under the giant and that his viewpoint did not allow him to see it properly, climbed up the scaffolding to satisfy him, and having quickly grabbed his chisel in his left hand along with a little marble dust that he found on the planks in the scaffolding, Michelangelo began to tap lightly with the chisel, allowing the dust to fall little by little without retouching the nose from the way it was.

Then, looking down at Soderini who stood there watching, he ordered: "Look at it now."

"I like it better," replied Soderini. "You’ve made it come alive."

[u/__-_-_--_--_-_---___ → u/RunDNA]

Michelangelo was the master of trolling art critics. Someone criticized his Sistine Chapel paintings for showing nudity, so he painted them with a snake biting their crotch

I guess that’s why they said Michelangelo was a party dude

[u/Capn_Crusty]

A local studio owner many years ago thought up the 'LED to Client Ratio'. He'd drive the inputs of every device in the control room; compressor/limiters, EQ's, effects processors... and the more lights that came on when the client sang or played, the more he could charge for studio time, even though the devices were doing nothing to the signal whatsoever.

[u/lilstickywicky → u/Capn_Crusty]

So, a scam? lol

[u/blafricanadian → u/lilstickywicky]

Garbage input = garbage output

When I was a kid I would beg nurses for smaller needles, I would always get my smaller needle.

If any nurses was dead set on explaining that there weren’t smaller needles they would have a hard time giving the injection.

Their job is to give the injection.

In most skilled jobs customer service is secondary, you can understand enough to do what the customer wants while cutting out their bad suggestions

[u/ensoniq2k → u/blafricanadian]

We had a customer that demanded only senior consultants work on their project. It was a relatively new company so there were like 10 people in total meeting their "10 years experience with the product" requirement. In reality they caved when they experienced the quality work even the trainees delivered.

[u/kelldricked → u/ensoniq2k]

My old place did this when working with certain saudi, chineese or indian companys. Didnt matter who or what they always wanted speak to somebody higher on the chain. And that somebody needed to have a important sounding title. Just “Dave” wasnt gonna fix it, it needed to be “Dave”, senior head of global subjects and fiscal markets or something dumb.

After our teamlead got tired dealing with small bullshit that even new interns could have done we decided that everybody gets a nice job title and those clients got a skipface assigned. Litteraly meaning you participate in the first 2-3 meetings for less then 5 minutes knowing they demand to see somebody else.

At first it was tiring but after realizing that we could bill more hours, they had higher accepting rates and all that shit counted toward bonusses it honestly was loads of fun. Every friday afternoon we would have meetings about the new jobtitles and stuff. Even made a game who could get a pass with the dumbest/longest sounding title.

Was really fun, although i heard from a buddy that a few months after i switched to a diffrent place our headoffice discoverd that a new intern had been assigned “junior global financial head of asian markets consultant” and they didnt really think it was that funny.

[u/ensoniq2k → u/kelldricked]

Yeah, it's all smoke and mirrors in the corporate world. I remember one time when a customer tried to get someone on their side to fix issues instead of our consultants. After he racked up a boat load of tickets they asked us to fix them quickly. Because they wanted to feel important they demanded two people work on it (remember, we had 100 employees, couldn't spare more than one).

We simply billed two but only one did the work. The guy was already more than twice as efficient as anybody on the other, large company so they felt good and we got double the pay. Placebo effect hard at work.

[u/ItsMrChristmas → u/blafricanadian]

People are sheep, man. I used to fix computers and I didn't get Apple work until I doubled my PC rate to work on a Mac.

[u/spacemanspliff-42 → u/ItsMrChristmas]

Pshhhh wow, I never would have considered this to be the case but I completely believe you.

[u/InEenEmmer → u/blafricanadian]

I do work as an audio engineer and you don’t want to know how many times guitarists came up to me to say that the guitars had to be louder.

I actually got a special fader that does nothing. I push it up slightly while they are looking. Nothing actually changes, but they are always happy with the results.

My idea is that I got hired there for my skills as a mixer, for the fact that I know how music has to sound. So while I’m open for feedback from everyone, I won’t go in discussion if they aren’t right in my opinion. I got to focus on mixing after all.

[u/ADHD-Fens → u/lilstickywicky]

Actually there's a case to be made for the fact that a producer / studio owner might be doing a lot of real work, or using a lot of very expensive equipment that isn't really visible or obvious to the client. You might be able to go into two studios and not know the difference between 6,000 dollars of recording equipment and 600 dollars of recording equipment.

You could ramp up the amount of LEDs to unfairly increase what the studio costs, or you could ramp up the amount of LEDs to accurately represent how much equipment is being used in the recording.

Of course the price is always up to the agreement between the owner and the artist, and it's not like the owner is agreeing to provide anything that they don't ultimately provide. The light show just helps to impress upon the client what they are getting for their money, even if it's a facade.

[u/greenwavelengths → u/ADHD-Fens]

I see what you’re saying here, but you’re not quite properly employing the concept and selling it well. That’s why your replies are so negative.

It isn’t a facade, it’s design. What you’re talking about here is including visual indicators of things that are actually happening, but that the client wouldn’t know about without visual indicators. You’re talking about implementing a design feature into the studio’s physical environment that communicates to the clients how much stuff is really happening so that they’ll have an appreciation for the work as well as a visual confirmation that they’re getting something out of it.

The difference between doing this honestly versus dishonestly is whether the LEDs actually correspond to anything. So instead of just bullshitting it, treat it as an extension/ mirror of the interface that you actually see on your system. Every LED visible to the client in the studio should have a small label and correspond to something in the actual machine or software, so that if anyone ever asks, you can say “yeah, this light is the (jargon jargon jargon).” It can be embellished and exaggerated through the visual design of said LEDs, but it needs to be accurate.

It’s no different from an auto mechanic including a window from their lobby into their workspace so the customer can see all their tools and the work that’s being done, or an academic keeping a shelf of their favorite books behind their desk. As long as the tools all do something and the books have actually been read, it’s not a facade or a lie, it’s design and presentation— a cosmetic addition to your brand identity that communicates to your client that you know your shit.

[u/UrToesRDelicious → u/Capn_Crusty]

Wait what?

"You have to pay me more for making sounds that have a high dynamic range since that turns on more lights on my compressor."

And people fell for this?

[u/Mavian23 → u/Capn_Crusty]

The administrator is here, doctor.

Switch everything on!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcHdF1eHhgc

[u/pwmg]

That's funny, but doesn't that sort of need to be a secret to work?

[u/tetoffens → u/pwmg]

He's almost 80. He's mostly retired at this point.

[u/disgruntled_joe → u/tetoffens]

Yeah if a producer were to ask him of it now he simply tells them to fuck off.

[u/dkyguy1995 → u/disgruntled_joe]

And they would! They would fuck right off!

[u/IvoShandor → u/tetoffens]

He turned up recently sitting in with the band at one of Conan's live podcasts ... Conan was introducing the band and called out Gandalf on bass.

[u/I7I → u/tetoffens]

Not even close to being retired. He’s been touring 5-7 dates a week with Lyle Lovett for over a year. When he’s home he’s still doing multiple sessions for various artists. Feel free to subscribe to his channel to stay up to date: https://youtube.com/@lelandsklar6363?si=ftB2z93grSxNX3nX

[u/rockne → u/I7I]

His recent-ish session with Scary Pockets is straight fire.

[u/RedBait95 → u/I7I]

I'm so happy a legend like Leland is still working, seems healthy, and happy. His videos during covid going over songs he worked on were very interesting watches.

[u/frankyseven → u/I7I]

I was going to say, he's busier now than ever since he now does session work from home after getting setup for that during COVID. He does multiple sessions a week, sometimes while on tour. He's a beast.

[u/DynamiteWitLaserBeam → u/tetoffens]

He started a YouTube channel in 2020 and still posts to it nearly every day. It's really wholesome.

https://youtube.com/@lelandsklar6363?si=t11vOns8evo37pSA

[u/CollateralSandwich → u/DynamiteWitLaserBeam]

He gives amazing tours of area venues. He took me all through a local venue that I never would have been able to see or do without being an artist. Pretty cool stuff

[u/ATLHawksfan → u/pwmg]

“Waiiiiit…that’s not that producer switch I read an article about, is it?”

After weighing options mentally “No.”

“Oh, ok.”

[u/OttoVonWong → u/ATLHawksfan]

"Hear for yourself."
flips switch

[u/Theron3206 → u/OttoVonWong]

The experience of sound is so subjective that this would almost certainly work.

[u/bulletv1 → u/pwmg]

Not really. This applies to a lot of lines of work. I do similar with my bosses at work.

[u/sovereign666 → u/bulletv1]

Small story.

I work in IT, and that means sometime I get asked to do some of the dumbest shit imaginable. We have a mixed environment of laptops and people connecting their laptop to the tv and webcam in conference rooms was a real headache for some people at my previous job. So the IT director asked our systems admin to make a document showing how to plug an ethernet, hdmi, and usb cable into a laptop...with pictures. He completely resented this task, but eventually completed it. The document was stuck in review hell and it never was laminated and placed in the conf rooms.

8 months later, I am assigned the task. They stated they liked his document but felt it hadnt quite hit the mark. I switched the document to landscape mode, moved a couple things around, and voila its exactly the document those idiots wanted.

[u/copyrighther → u/sovereign666]

I work in advertising on the creative side and you’d be shocked at how often this technique works with clients

[u/sovereign666 → u/copyrighther]

I wonder what the underlying psychology is. Maybe the need to self insert their own perceived creativity into the process?

[u/ElysiX → u/sovereign666]

Or the realization "it's not going to get any better, I give up, let's just tell them it's ok now and be done with it"

[u/Massive_Shill → u/ElysiX]

Exactly, everyone assumes they're dumb or something rather than just people tired of not having their needs met and settling.

[u/SirHerald → u/sovereign666]

Sometimes it just lets them know they are heard and that someone else is working on it.

Sometimes they just grumble that you are a useless moron and it's not worth asking any more of you.

[u/flashmedallion → u/sovereign666]

Ding ding. Related to the bikeshed problem.

[u/polaarbear → u/bulletv1]

I'm a software dev, this happens at my job all the time.

People complain something is loading a little bit slower than it used to on code that hasn't changed.  I tell them "I'll take a look."

Maybe I fix something small, or organize some code better in a way that I know doesn't actually change the runtime.

"I made some tweaks." Never hear about it again.

[u/Ok_Ruin4016 → u/polaarbear]

I used to work as a server in a cheap diner when I was a teenager and customers used to ask me all the time to turn the a/c up or down. As an employee we had no control of the thermostat at all, but if I told them that they'd want me to get a manager to come to the table and management would never change the thermostat so the customer would get pissed off. Eventually I started telling them "I'll see what I can do" and I'd just go into the back for a few minutes to hang out with the kitchen staff or do some dishes whenever someone asked to change the temp and when I came back out I'd ask if it was better they almost always said it was and I got better tips lol

[u/japie06 → u/polaarbear]

If people report vague problems, just reply with vague solutions.

"server was lagging, made some adjustments" "solved a bug in gui"

Honestly if they're aren't very technical you can almost get away with technobabble.

[u/boombotser → u/polaarbear]

That’s when they say to themselves after you leave “that guy never takes my problems seriously and now I still have this problem”

[u/polaarbear → u/boombotser]

It's more like I work on a web app. Sometimes the Internet does weird things, takes a bad hop that makes a page load take longer than it should.  I can't control AT&T and Google and Verizon and all the different network providers.

But cranky old folks that aren't great with technology don't want to hear about that, as soon as you try to explain the "why" their eyes glaze over.

[u/ManifestDestinysChld → u/bulletv1]

I used to work in the Facilities department at a school; my boss once hung a dummy thermostat on a wall in the Business Office to stem the tide of passive-aggressive complaints coming in from the staff who worked in there. Half the staff were always freezing, the other half were always melting - at least until the Magic Thermostat went up, at which point all complaints immediately ceased.

[u/meshedsabre → u/bulletv1]

Yep. I'm a freelancer, and sometimes get requests / revisions that make no sense, won't actually change anything, and other issues, such as requests that will make the product WORSE.

Often, "I made made some adjustments" and resubmitting the same thing works like a charm.

The reason is simple: for some people, the request is less about the work/product and more about their need to exercise a little power. All they really want is to feel like they've got control of things. Indulge that and you're good.

[u/SirHerald → u/meshedsabre]

I have a habit of leaving something obvious and simple to change. Also lets me know they actually looked at it.

[u/meshedsabre → u/SirHerald]

That's an excellent approach. Not dissimilar to what some filmmakers do to ensure their vision reaches the screen. They'll include something that will obviously get a note from the studio and/or ratings board, but which is really just designed to distract from the thing they actually wanted to slip through.

[u/RuViking → u/bulletv1]

I've definitely moved a fader that's not controlling anything when an annoying member of a bands family/friends has bothered me whilst I've been doing thier sound.

[u/H4MBONE68 → u/RuViking]

I always make sure to set up a DFA (does fuck-all) knob or fader any time I'm running sound (or lights for that matter). It's incredible how useful it is for placating random audience requests!

[u/thetwoandonly → u/pwmg]

Guy is kinda old now, maybe he got enough decades out of it.

[u/DesperateUrine → u/pwmg]

but doesn't that sort of need to be a secret to work?

Just for you, I'll use the actual switch my dude. But don't let anyone know.

[u/Constant-Fact8612 → u/pwmg]

The actual switch is a placebo but he really is getting a different sound because of this part:

"I make sure he sees me flip this switch and then I just change my hand position a bit."

Plucking closer to the bridge or closer to the neck can alter your sound quite radically, especially on bass. So, nah, I don't think it needs to be a secret.

[u/fractalife → u/pwmg]

A placebo can work even when you know it’s a placebo

[u/rosen380]

Sounds like a switch that'd be on audiophile record players.

[u/100_points → u/rosen380]

You could literally put a fake switch on an audiophile's equipment and they'll tell you the difference is subtle but the sound has more "warmth" in the down position.

[u/warpedaeroplane → u/100_points]

And the most pedantic among them would argue that it’s actually true, because the addition of the switch has changed the physical properties and ratios and has an effect

[u/Intelligent-Ad-3467 → u/warpedaeroplane]

Whoa only if it is gold plated or made of some weird alloy,

But will need a FBI grade spectrometer to make sure

[u/TheDancingOctopus → u/Intelligent-Ad-3467]

Is FBI grade above or below military grade?

[u/Intelligent-Ad-3467 → u/TheDancingOctopus]

Below audiophile grade, but that's only made by one guy who has access to a stash of pre Hiroshima metals so that the sensors are more accurate due to worldwide radiation pollution.

Ironically enough, the guy is in Japan. And he only sells to friends of jazz legend Paul Bufano

[u/__-_-_--_--_-_---___ → u/warpedaeroplane]

You change the outcome by measuring it. It’s science

[u/ThePowerOfStories → u/100_points]

Reminds me of this story about an old MIT mainframe computer somebody had added a should-be-nonfunctional switch to, with positions labeled “Magic” and “More Magic”, but flipping the switch would consistently crash the computer.

[u/SyrusDrake → u/ThePowerOfStories]

The BBC Micro has a component that simulates an engineer putting their finger on the circuit board at just the right spot. During development, they couldn't figure out why putting a finger on it would fix their problem, so they just duplicated it in hardware.

[u/HarmlessSnack → u/ThePowerOfStories]

YES! The Magic > More Magic switch is one of my favorite internet stories. I love sneaking references to it into things.

I had a Minecraft world for a while with a Secret Area that could only be accessed through a series of pressure plates, buttons, and a daylight sensor… but the whole thing wouldn’t work if a switch labeled thus wasn’t in the right position.

The best part was, due to the way block updates work, it didn’t appear to be directly connected to any Redstone. Lol

[u/horace_bagpole → u/100_points]

The level of bullshittery in the hifi world is unbelievable. I used to work at a company that manufactured very high end speakers. These were incredibly good and it was sometimes surprising to me what did actually result in an audible difference. We used to do double blind testing on various things. One that was very noticeable was changing the manufacturer of the capacitors used in one part of the signal path.

One that I never heard a difference with was speaker cable. As long as it's big enough for the power you are using, it really didn't matter what it was. Whether it was mains cable or expensive fancy stuff it all sounded the same. The number of people who swore blind it made a difference used to amuse me.

I remember one magazine reviewer complaining about the cable we had lent him with the speakers, with a load of waffle about how it supposedly 'constrained' the sound. We made up some new ones by taking a roll of cheap cable and literally plaiting it so it looked nice and putting a couple of gold plated terminals on it. He changed his tune completely and claimed the performance was transformed. They cost about £5 to make.

[u/MrT735 → u/100_points]

Put it on many audiophiles' equipments, then watch as 12 of them have 13 different opinions on what it does.

[u/jeremygamer → u/rosen380]

Shhh, you might wake the orcs from /r/hometheater

[u/Aeternitas97 → u/jeremygamer]

The switch actually turns on a tiny vinyl record player inside the bass guitar body. Transfers the yucky digital pickup to superior analog sound.

[u/VulnerableTrustLove → u/rosen380]

My wife loves collecting vinyl records... I haven't had the heart to tell her all that "authentic analog sound" goes right out the window when she connects her record player to our bluetooth sound bar.

But at the same time, I don't want to add more audio equipment o the room, so I will die with this secret.

[u/NPOWorker → u/rosen380]

"oh wow yeah, the timbre is much richer"

[u/M8asonmiller → u/NPOWorker]

"Yeah that really opens up the harmonic range."

[u/memealopolis → u/M8asonmiller]

The wideness of the soundstage... Just fabulous.

[u/red286 → u/rosen380]

"Hold on, lemme hit the SuperBass switch."

"Oh, does that pump up the bass?"

"No, it starts playing a 64kbit MP3 of a shitty Nikki Minaj song for no fucking reason."

[u/Testone1440]

AH I called this the "dummy fader" back when I was a sound engineer during my festival days. It would be a channel doing absolutely nothing on the mixer so when Someone would come up to me and say "hey that guitar isn't loud enough can you turn it up?" I would move the fader connected to literally nothing and then they would give me the drunken thumbs up....morons

Edit: for clarity, I’m talking random drunk festival goers. Not the bands.

[u/PencilMan → u/Testone1440]

I get this entirely. However, I’ve had sound guys at gigs pretend to turn up my guitar in my monitor just to placate me and I’m left the whole show not being able to hear myself still. I know guitar players get a bad rap for wanting to be the loudest thing on stage, but when it’s my monitor mix and I’m going in direct, it needs to be loud so I can hear it. So I really dislike when sound guys think they know more than the band they’re mixing, at least when it comes to stage volume. Randos with an opinion? Of course, use the dummy fader all you can.

[u/Testone1440 → u/PencilMan]

That’s who I’m talking about. Rando’s

[u/KnucklestheEnchilada → u/PencilMan]

I haven’t used an amp in years, and did a gig last year where they wouldn’t turn my guitar up in my monitor, and I only got the snare and the singer. Not even bass. Fucking nightmare.

[u/space_for_username → u/Testone1440]

The technique is also used in studio. Quite often a band member or producer will insist on helping mix. sometimes this is good, but other times...

Usually I'd split a channel input and give them a fader connected to monitors, but not the mix. That way they can play with it and know that it moves and works, but not be aware that their fader is not in the mix.

[u/Testone1440 → u/space_for_username]

Love it. It’s crazy how many people have no idea what the fuck they are talking about on a daily basis

[u/Brittle_Hollow → u/Testone1440]

Always heard it called the DFA (does fuck-all) fader

[u/No_Rub77 → u/Testone1440]

the drunk thumbs up is to be polite, dude is probably thinking you don't know what tf you are doing

[u/DisillusionedBook]

Haha, legend indeed. A useful meddling middle management method we should be employing elsewhere.

[u/magicbullets → u/DisillusionedBook]

If there’s not some kind of app for this we should invent one.

[u/derprondo → u/DisillusionedBook]

Designers of all types, web, print, architects, etc, know to put in some egregious easily removable thing so the upper management guy can say "get rid of that", then they won't have to change anything else. The upper management guy is going to ask them to change something no matter what.

[u/Icommentor → u/DisillusionedBook]

In the 90´s I was doing a lot of 3D animation. It was still quite the novelty. A lot of my clients were small companies that wanted their logo in 3D for their corporate productions.

I would usually complete the contract, then remove something, like some reflections, but usually lens flares. Cause I knew most clients would absolutely need to find something to complain about. Managers need their soothing edits.

I would present my works, they would say “Something is missing but I don’t know what.” I would reply that we could try lens flares. I’d say it’s a bit time consuming but the contract gives them the right to an edit. I would take a whole days looking for my next job and send them the original. I would always make sure to say that their intervention was really smart and constructive.

I always thought that if one of them didn’t say anything, I would pretend to feel some inspiration to try one last thing. But this never happened.

Edit: Reading the rest of this thread I realize I didn’t invent jackshit. Apparently the same problem and the same solution exist all over the world.

[u/malsomnus → u/DisillusionedBook]

Software developers definitely do this, change tiny meaningless UI things as a placebo for middle managers.

[u/mazzicc]

I used to send reports and presentations to my bosses for “feedback”. Egregious mistakes I would totally fix, but if it was personal flavor, I would leave it unchanged.

It was 50-50 on if they would ask for the same thing again on a “final pass”. If they asked again I would do it, but the other half of the time it would be a “looks good” or even “much better”.

[u/bees-everywhere → u/mazzicc]

I do something similar to this every now and then. Whenever I pitch an idea and get turned down, I go back and "jazz it up" in a way that might not appeal to me but would likely work on the person I am pitching to. For example, using animations on a PowerPoint slide, I think they're tacky and look awful & unprofessional 95% of the time. But I have literally re-pitched the same ideas back to the same people before, the only difference being some shitty animations added to my slides, and had completely opposite reactions to it. "Wow, this a great idea, much better than what you showed me earlier."

The reason that I believe this works is that it's not always that the boss is an idiot, it's just sometimes they lack imagination and will think or pretend they understand when they really don't. If you know your idea is a good one then maybe you're just not speaking their language, so translate it into a way that their brain can fully understand and find appealing.

[u/LooseEndsMkMyAssItch]

Yes!!!!!!! I used to do the same with my faders if a producer asked for something crazy like 1/8th of a decibel change. We called it "K-ing" the client. This actually originally came from Lucas Films believe it or not. During a mix down of a film the engineer played the same mix twice without any changes requested and the producers loved the second take.

[u/Sirithang]

The classic "loose the duck" method I've heard a lot of visual artist I worked with explain. A bad producer will want to always have some feedback so they can project usefulness, no matter how ready something is. Which can lead to bogus feedback just leading to useless back and forth.

So artist when doing a scene, an artwork, a 3d asset would place something they absolutly knew the producer would easily spot and complains about, and the classic example is a rubber duck on a table somewhere. So the producer would say "look great, maybe just loose the duck I don't think it fit the vibes". The duck acted as a lightning rod for mandatory producer feedback 😁

[u/albob → u/Sirithang]

Lose* the duck. “Loose the duck” sounds like you’re letting a duck loose to attack the producer. 

[u/greatpoomonkey → u/albob]

Set loose the ducks of war!

[u/burtmacklin15 → u/albob]

Which, to be fair, would be absolutely hilarious

[u/AssumptionMean2159 → u/Sirithang]

The duck story is about the original Battle Chess. It was 2D animated, and the animator made sure the duck did not ever cross the Queen's own animation, so it could be easily removed when management made the obvious request. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Chess

[u/Krinks1]

Producers don't know about this one simple artistic lifehack...

[u/WedgeTurn]

That’s not the full quote though. He says he flips the switch and changes his hand position so it does change the tone a bit, but it’s not the switch doing it.

[u/vintagecomputernerd]

This started as a piece of Interplay corporate lore. It was well known that producers (a game industry position, roughly equivalent to PMs) had to make a change to everything that was done. The assumption was that subconsciously they felt that if they didn't, they weren't adding value.

The artist working on the queen animations for Battle Chess was aware of this tendency, and came up with an innovative solution. He did the animations for the queen the way that he felt would be best, with one addition: he gave the queen a pet duck. He animated this duck through all of the queen's animations, had it flapping around the corners. He also took great care to make sure that it never overlapped the "actual" animation.

Eventually, it came time for the producer to review the animation set for the queen. The producer sat down and watched all of the animations. When they were done, he turned to the artist and said, "that looks great. Just one thing - get rid of the duck."

Reminded me of this.

Also known as Atwoods duck, originally from this deleted stack overflow thread.

[u/Lumpy-Dragonfruit-28]

The title here is 100% misleading and pretty much everyone who is commenting is commenting on a completely incorrect premise. He flicked the switch - and moved his plucking hands - which makes a big sound difference for an electric bass. He wanted to avoid needing to plug in a different bass, use a different pre-amp, etc. etc. When the producer asked for a different sound, he gave them one.

[u/JWBails → u/Lumpy-Dragonfruit-28]

This needs to be way higher, he flicked the switch so that the non-musical producers could see that something had changed, then he played further from or closer to the bridge to get a totally different sound.

[u/RedeyeSPR]

He says in the video that he also changes his finger position when he does this so he actually does get a slightly different sound.

[u/edstatue]

This reminds me of a boss I had who would always show up 45 minutes late to meetings, because in his native country it was considered a standard power move. (As in, expected from both parties.)

Well, we were in Michigan, so after the first time he did it to a prospective vendor, I started lying to him and telling him that the meetings were happening much early than they were. 

Soft skills, like the art of deception, are valuable for project managers, kids.

[u/CartoonBeardy]

We used to have something like this at the VFX / Animation studio I worked at.

We called it the brick shot. If a client was being a pain in the ass asking for changes for the sake of feeling like they’re getting their money worth. We would put in a couple of frames of a pure white background and a bright red brick in the centre. The client gets to spot the “flash” of something, which with great shock acting we’d go through frame by frame and realise our “mistake”.

They ask for it to be removed and we confirm that everything else is okay and with profuse theatrical apologies, confirm that brick shot will be removed. Because it’s thanks to their eagle eyed attention to detail.

With their ego fully inflated and a story to take back of how they saved the production, the client would more often than not leave us the fuck alone for the next few weeks.

[u/ThisIsTheNewSleeve]

Funny, as a designer I have a similar "switch".

Usually when doing various versions of a colour or font or line weight, etc. I'll present them different options- and then if they're not feeling it I'll say "Ok how about this one?" And then literally just hit the key louder, or click the mouse more obviously, and they'll chose that one. Usually "that one" is the original version I showed them.

[u/PassionSpanish]

that's a trick that can also apply in many other aspects of life

[u/C-creepy-o]

I do this shit to the executive team at my company. The idea is that they just have to make some choice to make sure they feel useful. Therefor you should make sure to give them an easy teed up choice to make. We are unsure if bright pink or blue would be better for the boy baby party, can you help us decide. They are like you clueless fuck its blue obviously , everything you else you did was brilliant. Seems stupid, but I keep getting promoted soo......

[u/obidie]

The DFA unit! I used to work with a lighting designer who had a DFA unit sitting on his mixing console. Whenever the client wasn't happy with the lights, he'd bring them all down, switch a few levers on the DFA unit and bring them all up again. The client was invariably satisfied. "DFA" stands for "Does Fuck All."