lc9er

Sure. If your music means nothing to you, than by all means, make it with methods that remove all agency from the process.

I’ve written instrumental/electronic music, too. When I do, it means something to me. The last thing I want is for an AI to make it for me.

These music/art AI threads are always gross. Make things for the joy of creating. Prompting some AI model doesn’t make you a musician - it actively robs you of the thing that’s rewarding about actually creating something.

Same. Running or walking. Sometimes I make a point of thinking/feeling through recent times and processing those thoughts and emotions. Other times, I treat it as a moving meditation, and try to clear my mind when thoughts enter.

Either way, I find I feel much better when I take a break from screens, news, and podcasts, and give my mind time to do its thing.

I lasted a little bit longer, but it grew shocking to see how eager friends and family were to display how cruel and bigoted they can be.

I sometimes wonder if it’s the addictive, attention seeking nature of social media that encouraged such behavior, or if they simply lacked the courage to be so inhumane in person.

I’m pretty sure Calvin created Fennel and Phil took up the reins when Calvin moved on from the project.

One of their guitarists came out of my local scene. I shared a stage with the guy a number of times. After a few years and albums, he left the band and became a teacher. It was one of the events that started taking the air out of the rockstar dream.

Wodehouse is a great comparison. I typically suggest people start with “Guards! Guards!”, but the Witches or Night Watch books are both great starting points - Granny Weatherwax and Sam Vimes are probably the most explored characters, followed by Death, Tiffany, and Moist.

If you like “Guards! Guards!” or “Equal Rites”, then go back and start from the beginning. The first two novels are fun, but sound like Pratchett was channeling Monty Python and Douglas Adams. It took a few books before his own voice really shined through.

> I'm saying this with no ill feelings towards you or your work.

I can. It’s predatory behavior, performed by people looking to steal and cash in on something they have neither the skill, understanding, or love to make on their own.

Do you work in higher ed? It’s ok to admit that you weighed in on a topic you don’t understand, then bow out gracefully, since you’ve repeatedly been given accurate responses to your assertions.

This is exactly it. A modern university has needs that are far greater and demanding than one of 50+ years ago. And generally, the people doing the ground-level work are underpaid and overworked. If anything, there may be a glut of VP and C-level positions, but they don’t make up the bulk of employees.

The idea that government isn’t filled with tons of smart, hard working people is infuriating. Not every smart and ambitious person wants to spend their life in a rent-seeking job, building the next subscription-based app. There’s thousands upon thousands of dedicated government workers that could earn more in private industry, but view the work as a higher calling.

> Sabine Hossenfelder

Why would a physicist's opinion on mental health carry any weight?

I love Pink Floyd and The Wall, though I think it works better with visuals than a standalone album. It's a shame they were unhappy with their own footage of the few stage shows they performed of The Wall. My dad saw the New York show, for which I'll forever be jealous.

If you're a casual PF fan, I'd recommend two overlooked albums of the 70's - Meddle and Animals. Meddle is probably the first album to sound like what the public recognizes as Pink Floyd.

Animals is, to me, a masterpiece. Gilmour and Wright, especially, are amazing. It's dark and cynical, but maybe not as hopeless as The Wall. "Dogs" may be the best guitar work Gilmour has ever done, aside from "Comfortably Numb". Sadly, it seems like most of the band didn't like Waters controlling behavior and the dark turn his lyrics took on this album.

So anyway, did you see Sony may buy the parent company of FromSoftware? That could be a real bummer if they interfere with game design.

I'm old enough to remember a time when people in tech were called 'wizards' and there was an air of mystery that surrounded the industry. A large subset of this group really seems to have bought into the idea that working in tech makes you 'special'. It does not. It's a skilled profession that is trainable and attainable by large swaths of the population. Working in tech does not make you special (Yes - you) and the tech industry is well overdue for quality of life improvements that other, organized, sectors have had for decades.

Most of the anti-union tech workers I've encountered over my career have vastly overestimated their abilities and value to the workforce. Their willingness to suffer abuse from employers (while taking pride in their refusal to establish boundaries) makes working conditions worse for all of us.

I’ll never understand the people that want their offense at being labeled a “Typhoid Mary” to be taken as seriously as their anti-social, Typhoid Mary behavior.

One of my old bands is listed in here.

I love this and Pratchett’s “Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness”. Imagine the cost to the poor if we discovered immortality before we eliminated poverty.

I really like this series, too. If you haven't tried them, I'd suggest Glen Cook's "Garrett, P.I." series. He's a PI in a fantasy world. It's lighter in tone than his "Black Company" books. Kind of a mashup of Adams, Pratchett, and Raymond Chandler.

He and Dr Oz are both cruel hucksters launched into the public eye and given credibility thanks to their association with Oprah.

Yeah - and a number of Azure/O365 Powershell modules have long been deprecated. The promise of 1:1 Graph API replacements has failed to materialize for years now.

I’ve quit caffeine for 3-4 months. Aside from a rough few days from quitting cold-turkey, there was zero discernible difference in my day to day life. I enjoy black coffee, and the drawbacks, compared to say, soda or alcohol consumption are minimal, so I started drinking it again because I missed it. And most decaf is too gross to drink black so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks for mentioning this doc. Just watched - it was fascinating and bittersweet.

Seriously. The number of people here saying, essentially, "These artists are beneath my tastes" so none are deserving of reward or protections, is ridiculous.

I, too, have made albums (at my expense) and also believe the best art is coming from names most people have never heard.

But that doesn't mean other artists don't deserve protection from exploitative streaming services and music venue monopolies. Tech bros and LiveNation would happily cannibalize the music industry for immediate profit, if they could.

It's rather snobbish and self-centered to declare that musicians don't deserve protections from corporate greed, just because of your tastes and/or it doesn't have an impact on your hobby.

Ah gotcha. I understand what you mean. Though I don't know that I share your optimism. I fear the wealthy class will just squeeze and squeeze all the money and resources from everyone else, and make moving to a post-money system as painful as possible.

And that's just the problems you can control. If you are poor and live in a bad neighborhood, you're probably worried about getting to/from work without getting jumped. Everything is filthy. There's trash everywhere. You probably live near environmental hazards like an airport, factory, or some public works. My neighborhood growing up was ringed with an airport, sewage treatment plant, junk yards, and the remnants of manufacturing industry. The air was gross and it was always loud. These kinds of things just absolutely wear you down.

I grew up in that poor white demo. My experience is that there's the idea of individualism - ie. "I won't ask for someone to solve my problems" - vs the practice of constantly trading off skills with your network of family and friends to stay afloat. Uncle A is good with cars, so he does everyone's repairs, Uncle B does all the plumbing. Their best friend growing up is useless, but they still help him anyway and maybe get some help next time they have to move, etc.

Not sure if this is sarcasm and I just need another coffee. Almost everyone works for money, short of a privileged few that are lucky enough to work purely for the satisfaction of the work itself.