On the first week of march, I started to listen to a recompilation of Antonio Vivaldi’s work on Spotify. My curiosity for Vivaldi was triggered when Google changed their logo to commemorate his birth date (on the 4th of March). I didn’t remember much about him so, I thought it could be interesting.

While enjoying the music and working I suddenly felt goose pumps when I started to listen to Winter 1st Movement of The Four Seasons.

Maybe is because I’m a big fan of the violin and maybe is why I felt how I felt. When I saw which piece was, I decided to go through the other four season pieces. I started from spring to winter, while I was trying to map my memories of the seasons. At this moment I had understood the four seasons. Before I had the knowledge about them. I had read what they represent the four seasons of a year: what people do and climatic events during each season. Each piece reflects this through the melody, tempo and a rhythm.

Because, I had experience them more than once, so they stuck to me, which lead to understanding them. To know is different from understand, therefore once we feel it and experience that feeling more than once, we will understand.

Since, I lived most of my life in Honduras where there is no clear manifestations of the the four seasons, I did not understand them. Until now, that I’m in my third winter in Sweden, I had the experience them, therefore I understand why Vivaldi’s four season sound as they do.

You can know that being a father is difficult, however until you experience it you will understand it.

You heard countless times and read even more, how hard is to have a business, but until you run your own, you will understand.

You might know or have an idea of what your customers want, however until you are your customer, you will understand them. Why do you think (37 signals’ book), “Getting Real”, recommends that you solve your own problems and therefore you will have great web applications? Because, you will become the customer, feel the pain and there understand what it is really needed. However this is sometimes difficult to do. Sometimes we just need to solve other people problems. That is why, in addition, developers that build the web applications should receive the tech support emails. Not as a punishment for writing buggy software, but because they will never be the customer. So, they need (somehow) feel the pain of the customer. That way they will understand what it is really needed.

Once we feel something we will understand it, other than that is knowledge. just theory.