Audiophile Guru Syndrome is an ego-based thing that blinds audiophiles, in particular the one that has it.
Its something I've been on guard in myself for decades.
How it works has a prerequisite. One possibly suffering AGS has had some success with his stereo.
At some point though, hubris starts to have an influence. When things get to the point of actual AGS, the following symptoms can be seen:
1) Anything WRT matters audio issuing from the the individual is seen by that individual in such a way as it might have issued from the mouth of God. This is the 'guru' part.
2) Anything that conflicts, even if constructive criticism, will be seen as blasphemy.
3) Therefore tend to be a bit close-minded about different ideas they didn't create.
Now as many of you know, I'm a manufacturer. I'm also an audiophile, and my interest in music in general has led to a lifelong hobby that became a career. I've made a lot of mistakes along the way and I often feel like I've been wrong a lot more than I've been right. On that account, I try to keep my mouth shut on the internet unless I'm dead certain of what it is that I know (and not believe, as there is a distinction there). IOW, verifiable fact.
I went to engineering school at the UofM. To put myself through school, I worked at local consumer electronics repair shops (I started out in 1974 at the Allied Radio Shack service department). Somewhere along the line I got the idea on which I founded my company, so didn't take the engineering track that a lot of my classmates did.
I often find myself in a delicate situation. I really enjoy troubleshooting and so I've tried to help people and have been online doing that since the early 1990s. The delicate situation is that, as an EE and a manufacturer, I often really do know more than most of the people I try to help. But I have to be careful to not over do it, to not be a know it all. Decorum is important.
So how to deal with a situation where its clear that I know a lot more about how a system works than the person that own it? For me this is nothing new having been inside the innards of so many different bits of audio gear, as well as having designed such things and obtained pertaining patents. Every now and then I run into people that seem to think they know more about their equipment than I do even though its quite obvious they do not. I'm often tempted to tell them 'if you're so good at this, why not design the equipment from the ground up and show us all how its done?'. But right there is the nub of the matter. I don't want to be overbearing, but at the same time when I see misleading or outright false statements, something inside compels me to try to set the record straight.
An event like this happened just a few days ago. On that account, since it was online, I left the thread where it was obvious that if I persisted (more than I already had) I would be running afoul of my own concerns about getting AGS. It can rub off from others who have it.
The tricky bit about online forums is that we who indulge in them do not, for the most part, know the other players. I've found the best way to maintain decorum when people take pot shots at me is to not take things personally. If I don't know such individuals, have never met them and so they also don't know me, I've found it easy to deal with by not making their problems my problems. That doesn't work if I allow things to get personal.
This has been on my mind recently since I think I did take it personally in that last event. I'm not on these forums for any other reason than a love for music and to that end, audio.
For me its sort of like seeing someone prepare to shot themselves in the foot. I want to stop them hurting themselves. Now in audio its of course not so extreme, but you can spend a lot of money and time in this sport; and preventing people from making mistakes, or if they have already made them, helping them to make the best of it, does satisfy that goal.
But I get castigated for that. People make assumptions without knowing who I am that I'm only here to promote my products. If they did a search to see what sort of threads I respond to, they might not think that so much. For example last spring I was on this site helping someone through a refurbishment of an older ARC preamp which was successful.
Where I'm going with this is I'm actively trying to avoid having AGS. I find the people most likely to attack me likely already have a case of it (some of them I've had to put on ignore). One thing that is important to understand in all of this is human motivation. Most people might think the number one motivator might be money or happiness but its not. The biggest human motivator is to look good; failing that the 2nd biggest motivator is to not look bad.
That plays an enormous role on audio forums and pretty much drives politics.
Its something I've been on guard in myself for decades.
How it works has a prerequisite. One possibly suffering AGS has had some success with his stereo.
At some point though, hubris starts to have an influence. When things get to the point of actual AGS, the following symptoms can be seen:
1) Anything WRT matters audio issuing from the the individual is seen by that individual in such a way as it might have issued from the mouth of God. This is the 'guru' part.
2) Anything that conflicts, even if constructive criticism, will be seen as blasphemy.
3) Therefore tend to be a bit close-minded about different ideas they didn't create.
Now as many of you know, I'm a manufacturer. I'm also an audiophile, and my interest in music in general has led to a lifelong hobby that became a career. I've made a lot of mistakes along the way and I often feel like I've been wrong a lot more than I've been right. On that account, I try to keep my mouth shut on the internet unless I'm dead certain of what it is that I know (and not believe, as there is a distinction there). IOW, verifiable fact.
I went to engineering school at the UofM. To put myself through school, I worked at local consumer electronics repair shops (I started out in 1974 at the Allied Radio Shack service department). Somewhere along the line I got the idea on which I founded my company, so didn't take the engineering track that a lot of my classmates did.
I often find myself in a delicate situation. I really enjoy troubleshooting and so I've tried to help people and have been online doing that since the early 1990s. The delicate situation is that, as an EE and a manufacturer, I often really do know more than most of the people I try to help. But I have to be careful to not over do it, to not be a know it all. Decorum is important.
So how to deal with a situation where its clear that I know a lot more about how a system works than the person that own it? For me this is nothing new having been inside the innards of so many different bits of audio gear, as well as having designed such things and obtained pertaining patents. Every now and then I run into people that seem to think they know more about their equipment than I do even though its quite obvious they do not. I'm often tempted to tell them 'if you're so good at this, why not design the equipment from the ground up and show us all how its done?'. But right there is the nub of the matter. I don't want to be overbearing, but at the same time when I see misleading or outright false statements, something inside compels me to try to set the record straight.
An event like this happened just a few days ago. On that account, since it was online, I left the thread where it was obvious that if I persisted (more than I already had) I would be running afoul of my own concerns about getting AGS. It can rub off from others who have it.
The tricky bit about online forums is that we who indulge in them do not, for the most part, know the other players. I've found the best way to maintain decorum when people take pot shots at me is to not take things personally. If I don't know such individuals, have never met them and so they also don't know me, I've found it easy to deal with by not making their problems my problems. That doesn't work if I allow things to get personal.
This has been on my mind recently since I think I did take it personally in that last event. I'm not on these forums for any other reason than a love for music and to that end, audio.
For me its sort of like seeing someone prepare to shot themselves in the foot. I want to stop them hurting themselves. Now in audio its of course not so extreme, but you can spend a lot of money and time in this sport; and preventing people from making mistakes, or if they have already made them, helping them to make the best of it, does satisfy that goal.
But I get castigated for that. People make assumptions without knowing who I am that I'm only here to promote my products. If they did a search to see what sort of threads I respond to, they might not think that so much. For example last spring I was on this site helping someone through a refurbishment of an older ARC preamp which was successful.
Where I'm going with this is I'm actively trying to avoid having AGS. I find the people most likely to attack me likely already have a case of it (some of them I've had to put on ignore). One thing that is important to understand in all of this is human motivation. Most people might think the number one motivator might be money or happiness but its not. The biggest human motivator is to look good; failing that the 2nd biggest motivator is to not look bad.
That plays an enormous role on audio forums and pretty much drives politics.
