When we go to a party or reunion and we have a taste of a delicious dish, it isn’t strange to ask the host for the recipe so we can prepare it at home. Even in an restaurant, where the chef refuses to give us the secret ingredients of their staple dish, we will do everything to replicate those flavors at home, experimenting until getting something that comes close.
The recipe is reproducible, the dish is not. The recipe has more value even if it can’t be consumed immediately.
It doesn’t only happen in the kitchen. It happens in almost every activity. Crochet patterns, origami instructions, 3D models, the sheet music so we can play that song we love so much, the source code of a small videogame or app. In all these areas the recipe has more value than the dish, if you are able to follow instructions and if you know how to cook.
Even with the recipe, sometimes it is difficult to follow it to the letter. There are hundreds of covers of a single song, each one with a different voice, instruments and atmosphere, and no person prepares the same dish the same way. Sometimes we intentionally deviate from the recipe, making changes to satisfy our personal taste. Sometimes we don’t even need recipe, and our intuitions and experience alone are enough to create something very faithful to the original.
It’s easy to listen to a song and enjoy it. It’s easy to go to our favorite restaurant and pay for a great dinner. But there’s also value in learning to replicate those sensations, those objects, those experiences that captivate us.