What are we missing?

My new favourite thing of the moment is Stumbleupon. At the press of a button, this neat little gadget will take you to a random page in the category or categories of your choice that other users of the application have flagged up. It's pretty amazing some of the things you come across, and I'm going to endeavour to bring you the best.

The most recent thing I 'stumbled' upon was this article.

It's pretty amazing what we do miss. I wonder if anyone who was actually a fan of the musician in question would have noticed. If it was someone I admire, would I have noticed? I am woefully guilty of walking around everywhere with my earphones in and my own music turned up. What have I missed? What if, whilst enjoying the heartfelt tunes of Frank Turner, I walked right past him busking on the London Underground?

It also begs the question, if I don't know about it, am I negatively affected in any way? If a tree falls in the forest and no-one's around to hear it, does it make a sound.

I think one of the comments makes a valid point: it's about desire. We appreciate things when we seek to experience them, but if someone's doing something amazing out of context, we tend not to notice, or to think it's slightly odd. Not that this is how it should be, but it's certainly one explanation.