I do get what you're saying, and agree with a lot of it when putting myself in the shoes of others. It's just that in my particular case, getting something done or making something of the time invested with music is so contrary to my real goal. As you said, it's easy to lose focus and get dragged into endless experimentation.... BUT WHAT IF THAT'S MY GOAL?
I want to get lost, I want to escape from my regular work tasks.
I started music at an early age (drumming since age 5... real drums, not toys, actually), and because I felt "always on display" whenever friends of the family came over (my family were all professional musicians, so every time we had company over to the house, there was this obligation that we start gigging for the enjoyment of our friends, etc) I felt like a circus monkey, and decided I did not want to perform for others' enjoyment, because it would strip me of a passion that I loved -- making music.
Also started software development at an early age. In college I wanted to change to a non-computer science related discipline, because I did not want "corporate greed" to strip me of a passion that I loved -- developing software. Well eventually I realized it was my best money-making talent, and decided to cave in and capitalize on it anyway, and have been there ever since. And yes, real-world corporate greed and all of that has put a major dent in my enjoyment of programming, to the point where I rarely if ever choose to do it in my free time.
So.... what's my creative outlet? Music. The one thing I can do, my way, on my own terms, without feeling obligated to let others in unless I really want to (and like I said, occasionally I do, I just don't let others talk me into doing so).
One of the things I like most about my hobby is that the moment it starts to feel like work, I can just walk away. If I want cognitive stimulation, I get that already, every day, from writing code (probably too much of it). When I make music, it is a relaxation exercise only, and if I start heeding the advice of others, I am now back in the position of doing some work to appeal to their ears instead of appealing to my own sense of relaxation.
But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everyone should take the perspective that I do. Anyone who wants to better themselves as a producer of music really needs to get their stuff onto other ears and understand how it impacts other listeners. Measures of success vary from individual to individual. My measure of success is to see how much I can do things my way when it comes to music :P and if others end up liking what I do, then it's icing on the cake but not something I will pursue. My measure of success is not one that I would necessarily recommend to others. Success according to most musicians should probably include some element of approval from others.
But do know, that I understand the level of satisfaction that most want to achieve. About 7 years ago or so, I starting paying incrementally more attention to the feedback I was getting from people about my music, which at the time I had gotten into a habit of sharing. The stuff I was uploading started out pretty rough but got progressively better, until I finally nailed one track where the comments were overwhelmingly positive. I got comments like "great stuff! would have bought it if on iTunes" and "this one is going on my iPod for sure!".... stuff like that. That was a great feeling, and gave me a taste of the euphoria that the really great producers must feel on a regular basis. I saw it as kind of the pinnacle of my music sharing, it wasn't going to get any better than that, so I just stopped doing it
