you should get into modular synths.

Funny you mention that...

I have played at both hardware and software synths. I will never be productive, but I do have fun.

A friend also has a recording studio. (I used to play guitar as a source of additional income, some studio and some performance work.) There are so many buttons, sliders, and knobs! I will go play with them.

One of the reasons I enjoy my practice time (I still play but it's not for financial gain) is because it gives me time to play with the various settings.

It's kind of how I learn things.

This might seem off-topic, but I don't think it is. See, it's the love of poking buttons and moving sliders that has given me the 'hacking mentality.' It is the love of experimentation and willingness to press unknown buttons, metaphoric or real, that seems to be a trait of 'hackers.'

We may not like to admit it, but I suspect a large number of HN viewers would not fare well if locked in a baren room, devoid of everything vut single red button that said, 'DO NOT PUSH.'

I suspect that it is because of our willingness to poke these metaphoric buttons that we are driven to learn, create, and take risks. We gleefully push those buttons and learn more, create new processes, and discover.

Polite society probably calls it intellectual curiosity. Really, many of us just like buttons, knobs, and sliders - be they metaphors or nuclear control reactors.

Bret Victor often talks about this how you learn by tweaking and observing results realtime

Presumably you would be trained on a simulator before being thrown into the room

Yeah, I'd be weeded out in training.

I don't even care if it's a bright red button with warning labels saying, "DO NOT PUSH!" I'm still going to push it. I might even push it first.

It's a great way to learn software, but probably not so good in a nuclear reactor control room. Like you, I presume they have ways to weed people like me out. It's not that I'm evil, or anything. I'd just be like a five year old if I had access to that many buttons.

They could probably disable your exploration reflex by teaching you in advance how the plant worked and what buttons did. Which, I guess, is just normal training.

Yeah, I suspect they train the fun right out of it.