and I didn't even know I'd been "shredding"...

This is just an update on the previous. I bought a few new picks today at the Fret Shop, a local guitar (and more) store. While we were waiting for my receipt to print (this took about twenty MILLION years), I figured I'd ask the cashier whether or not he'd ever ripped a pick. He said he'd been playing about nine years, and he'd only done it once. (To which I thought, Sweet, a milestone, and I've already achieved it!)

...Then he followed that up with the fact that at the time, his guitar pick was too thin, and that was probably why it had ripped. I told him about my quandary of whether or not it meant that I just really didn't know how to strum. He said I had probably just been shredding too hard.

Ok. So I really thought "shredding" was playing individual notes. Now I'm just confused. ...And I don't feel any better about my guitar-playing abilities.