It's embarrassing to see this story at the top of News.YC. Think of all the sentences in history (in recent history) that have sent streams of people to their deaths, and this is the saddest and stupidest he's ever read? Honestly, this is at worst a bike shed painted slightly the wrong shade of green.
The saddest, stupidest sentence I've ever read
31–40 of 52 posts
Re: The saddest, stupidest sentence I've ever read
#32He's right. Anyone who's been a true musician or a true artist eventually realizes that the "products" are just messages. They are not exclusively an end in themselves. They are messages about awareness. They are communications from one life to another. Really, the important thing is the life lived, and the inner life shared. This is why museums are nothing but directories or a table of contents. This is why "intelle…
I hate when artists try to sell me on some philosophical message. I could care less what some guy high on coke who has never demonstrated his analytical ability has to say.
Yeah I'm one of those guys who listens because he appreciates music and its fascinating properties in and of itself, not for sung poetry or any other nonsense.
Re: The saddest, stupidest sentence I've ever read
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't have a specific quote I can think of, but the sentence evoked the character in my mind instantly because of how it (out of context, at least) forsakes substance for popularity and generally trashes the value of an artist's work in favor of the buzz around it. Toohey was a prominent architectural critic who could make or break an architect by a yea or nay in his column. The guy's statements always forwarded an…
That last quote reminded me of something I just read on gigaom: "Seesmic is a video startup I’ve shied away from writing about too often, because I’m not sure I really get it. But I figure if so many smart people think there’s something good going on here, I should keep an eye on what the company is doing." That's everything I disliked about silicon valley right there.
good point. it's very weird to not trust your own judgment about whether a startup is interesting, but to trust your own judgment of whether others see something in it. understanding what others see is actually harder than just looking at it yourself.
Re: The saddest, stupidest sentence I've ever read
#34It's embarrassing to see this story at the top of News.YC. Think of all the sentences in history (in recent history) that have sent streams of people to their deaths, and this is the saddest and stupidest he's ever read? Honestly, this is at worst a bike shed painted slightly the wrong shade of green.
You have the wrong word emphasized--it's the saddest and stupidest he's ever read. Both sadness and stupidity are subjective, and this sentence apparently butts up against his personal philosophy. I would think that making meaningless a life--subconsciously, his--dedicated to creating lasting works is a stronger raw negative emotion than simple sympathy for death, especially at a scale the human mind cannot even comprehend.
In other words, if for some reason you wanted to maximize the psychological pain experienced by this one individual, and your means of accomplishing this was having everyone in the world suddenly share a single belief, the one underlying the spoken sentence would be it.
Of course, there's no reason that most of us would care, but that's a reason for it to not be on a social news website, not a reason for it to not have been written at all. From his, and therefore the audience of his blog/gestalt's perspective, this message is of the utmost importance. Perhaps the way it was written had such pathos as to absorb a submitter into posting it, and others into voting it up even though they knew it was not really appropriate material, but that's the path of kitten pictures.
Re: The saddest, stupidest sentence I've ever read
#35did anyone read the list of comments on TC?
Interesting comparison between MA's argument and the argument that anything digitally reproduced should also be enjoyed free (the issue of Software repeatedly came up)
Re: The saddest, stupidest sentence I've ever read
#36He's right. Anyone who's been a true musician or a true artist eventually realizes that the "products" are just messages. They are not exclusively an end in themselves. They are messages about awareness. They are communications from one life to another. Really, the important thing is the life lived, and the inner life shared. This is why museums are nothing but directories or a table of contents. This is why "intelle…
I hate when artists try to sell me on some philosophical message. I could care less what some guy high on coke who has never demonstrated his analytical ability has to say. Yeah I'm one of those guys who listens because he appreciates music and its fascinating properties in and of itself, not for sung poetry or any other nonsense.
My grandparents can't feed their dog dry kibble; it just doesn't eat it. However, not only can't they afford to feed it purely the sausages and other such meats that it will eat, it's completely unhealthy for the dog. So, instead, they try to package the kibble into the sausage, sliding it in where the dog might not realize until too late that it has consumed something nutritious. If the dog realizes, it eats around the kibble, leaving it in the bowl. (I know there's a similar story somewhere about how the dog is enlightened for doing this, but don't buy it--the dog is slowly dying from its "enlightenment." My point is different.)
My grandparents are artists. Like any artist, they package something important (a message) into something desirable (a work of art). If you realize the message is there at all, they have failed; if you absorb the message subconsciously without ever noticing it, they have done their jobs.
Re: The saddest, stupidest sentence I've ever read
#37It's embarrassing to see this story at the top of News.YC. Think of all the sentences in history (in recent history) that have sent streams of people to their deaths, and this is the saddest and stupidest he's ever read? Honestly, this is at worst a bike shed painted slightly the wrong shade of green.
I wasn't quite sure about posting it, but I thought the contrast between Carr and Arrington was interesting, and highlights a very important issue: what to do about intellectual property, and what the consequences are for various concerned groups. It is a very sensationalist title though. I guess it would have been better to change it to something like "Carr vs Arrington on IP".
Re: The saddest, stupidest sentence I've ever read
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Almost any type of music where vocals are not the focus can today be created through computers. More than people realize already is today. I am thinking of instrumental music such as classical, of course electronica of all types, even a bit of jazz and other styles. Not all music is an extravagant performance art.
Another example: while not famous in the traditional sense, many session musicians have "fan followings" in their own right. I am very fond of the music of master session bassist Abraham Laboriel. He's played on thousands of albums, and while he has played in bands, he's just too busy as a very in-demand session player to be playing live constantly. He rarely does anything even remotely like a "tour". If I want to he…
Thanks for the examples. Those are all good points. Maybe if the market trends keep going and there's less of a market for session players, Abraham Laboriel will be more likely to tour...
Re: The saddest, stupidest sentence I've ever read
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Of course this is quite disapointing to me as much of the music I listen to cannot be created live by its artists but instead takes days or months to prepare. What kind of music?
I'm an avid house fan, and a lot of that genre doesn't work well in a concert setting. However the people producing it are often DJ's, and make their money from gigs.
And that type of layered electronic music could mostly be reproduced "live" if the artist was up to it, by playing live on keyboards and making loops then mixing them up with prerecorded samples. Of course, most DJs would rather just push play when they have live shows because it most take a lot of practice to master live looping. I saw Justice live recently and they were very good at pushing play.
Re: The saddest, stupidest sentence I've ever read
#40It's embarrassing to see this story at the top of News.YC. Think of all the sentences in history (in recent history) that have sent streams of people to their deaths, and this is the saddest and stupidest he's ever read? Honestly, this is at worst a bike shed painted slightly the wrong shade of green.
Ever heard of hyperbole?