Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ravi Shankar dies at 92

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 51 posts

Re: Ravi Shankar dies at 92

#31

Post by jspthrowaway2 »

dools wrote: post #25
diego wrote: post #16

Is every famous musician death going to make it to the top of Hacker News from now on?

http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is Specifically: "The hacker mind-set is not confined to this software-hacker culture. There are people who apply the hacker attitude to other things, like electronics or music — actually, you can find it at the highest levels of any science or art. Software hackers recognize these kindred spirits elsewhere and may call them ‘hackers’ too — and some claim that the h…

I hate when a specific question is asked and tersely dismissed with only an abstract quote from an unrelated source that doesn't really apply. It's a trend I have noticed online, and it's such an empty, rude answering style. (I am similarly annoyed by answering a question with a quote from the documentation and nothing else; it smacks of "RTFM", and although sometimes necessary, the attitude is overused.)

esr's definition of hacking doesn't really apply to what is considered on-topic for Hacker News. So, allow me to quote the Hacker News guidelines[1], specifically:

> If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

I happen to agree, and I think fighting for this piece to be applicable on Hacker News is a waste of time. The trolls slugging on diego for asking the question are worse, because they skipped the guidelines in two respects (the other imploring us to remain civil).

[1]: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Ravi Shankar dies at 92

#32

Post by moultano »

kamaal wrote: post #29
pinchyfingers wrote: post #26

I saw Ravi and Anoushka play together 10 years ago and it is still one of the best performances I've ever witnessed. Anoushka broke a string, which I guess takes awhile to replace on a sitar, and Ravi just started giving a lesson on percussion with out missing a beat or breaking a sweat. He started lecturing about music and having the tabla players demonstrate. I left the Kimmel Center smiling ear to ear. Sometimes t…

Pandit Ravi Shankar was just one of those masters from Indian subcontinent who happened to get famous and so comes to attention. Back here in India, such people are quite common[Not to say they are all over the place, but you just don't hear about many of them]. Most of them just don't come up because of lack of encouragement, and proper ways of monetizing their art. Just to tell you. Back in the past when I was in s…

One thing I was really surprised by when I first visited India, no buskers! Every other big city I've ever visited has had people playing music everywhere for tips. Nowhere to be found in India.

Re: Ravi Shankar dies at 92

#33

Post by kamaal »

moultano wrote: post #32
kamaal wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pandit Ravi Shankar was just one of those masters from Indian subcontinent who happened to get famous and so comes to attention. Back here in India, such people are quite common[Not to say they are all over the place, but you just don't hear about many of them]. Most of them just don't come up because of lack of encouragement, and proper ways of monetizing their art. Just to tell you. Back in the past when I was in s…

One thing I was really surprised by when I first visited India, no buskers! Every other big city I've ever visited has had people playing music everywhere for tips. Nowhere to be found in India.

Such people who play for tips[In India they are actually called beggars] are found in local trains, or bus stops where as a foreigner you are least likely to visit.

So now you know that its not a very honorable way of making money in India.

Re: Ravi Shankar dies at 92

#34

Post by jspthrowaway2 »

khawkins wrote: post #23
kamaal wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if Music Lovers some how find relevance to the way Clojure or Erlang works and have been motivated/influenced by it they definitely would discuss it. Music is a pretty popular topic among programmers. And many programmers/hackers are instrumentalists. So it makes sense for them to discuss. Besides if somebody doesn't like it he can always chose to no up vote the story and not discuss. But if somebody else wan…

This is the sort of slippery slope which deteriorated the culture of Reddit. Here's an example of the front page from 5 years ago: http://mashable.com/2012/05/10/reddit-2007/ If the users don't maintain a sense of courtesy and stay on topic, the noise to signal ratio will become intolerable.

Reddit is a tough example, because of the plethora of subreddit topic areas. Almost every sub blessed with "default" status (visible logged-out and a default subscription for every new user) suffers extraordinarily due to their significant reach -- which is in line with your point. Example: /r/pics.

There is still good content on Reddit if you find the good subs and learn to ignore and not perpetuate the overt sexism and racism that decorate that site like Christmas. (I think those are more to blame for killing Reddit. Internally, I'm calling it 4chanitis.)

Re: Ravi Shankar dies at 92

#35

Post by rms »

nicholassmith wrote: post #28
diego wrote: post #16

Is every famous musician death going to make it to the top of Hacker News from now on?

If you don't think a post should be on HN, hit the flag button and a mod will look at it. HN is as good as you want it to be after all.

I already flagged the parent comment, as the typical Hacker News complaining is inappropriate for an obituary thread.

Re: Ravi Shankar dies at 92

#36

Post by k-mcgrady »

diego wrote: post #19
farslan wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if the community around HN loves and has a certain respect to it. I'll ask myself the same question. Is every nonsense comment going to make it to the top of a topic that people care from now on?

You think my question is nonsense? How would you feel if you saw a post about Erlang or Clojure on a site called "Music News?" Especially if you had been on the site for years, when it was actually about music news? FYI I play several instruments and I love(d) Ravi Shankar. However, this site is Hacker News. There is a limit.

'Hacker' doesn't only refer to software developers. It has evolved to mean more than that. HN is a community and if a story makes it to the front page the community obviously wants to see it there and finds it interesting/useful.

Re: Ravi Shankar dies at 92

#37

Post by brnstz »

kamaal wrote: post #33
moultano wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I was really surprised by when I first visited India, no buskers! Every other big city I've ever visited has had people playing music everywhere for tips. Nowhere to be found in India.

Such people who play for tips[In India they are actually called beggars] are found in local trains, or bus stops where as a foreigner you are least likely to visit. So now you know that its not a very honorable way of making money in India.

It's not considered a particularly honorable way of making money in the west either. We're just less concerned about honor.

Re: Ravi Shankar dies at 92

#38

Post by moultano »

brnstz wrote: post #37
kamaal wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such people who play for tips[In India they are actually called beggars] are found in local trains, or bus stops where as a foreigner you are least likely to visit. So now you know that its not a very honorable way of making money in India.

It's not considered a particularly honorable way of making money in the west either. We're just less concerned about honor.

I don't know if honor even enters into it, it's just not considered a particularly effective way of making money.

Re: Ravi Shankar dies at 92

#39

Post by nicholassmith »

rms wrote: post #35
nicholassmith wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't think a post should be on HN, hit the flag button and a mod will look at it. HN is as good as you want it to be after all.

I already flagged the parent comment, as the typical Hacker News complaining is inappropriate for an obituary thread.

I agree, there's often a time and a place for it.

Re: Ravi Shankar dies at 92

#40

Post by pessimist »

kamaal wrote: post #29
pinchyfingers wrote: post #26

I saw Ravi and Anoushka play together 10 years ago and it is still one of the best performances I've ever witnessed. Anoushka broke a string, which I guess takes awhile to replace on a sitar, and Ravi just started giving a lesson on percussion with out missing a beat or breaking a sweat. He started lecturing about music and having the tabla players demonstrate. I left the Kimmel Center smiling ear to ear. Sometimes t…

Pandit Ravi Shankar was just one of those masters from Indian subcontinent who happened to get famous and so comes to attention. Back here in India, such people are quite common[Not to say they are all over the place, but you just don't hear about many of them]. Most of them just don't come up because of lack of encouragement, and proper ways of monetizing their art. Just to tell you. Back in the past when I was in s…

I think this is exaggerated on many levels.

1. There are dozens of famous and wealthy Indian classical musicians - Hariprasad Chaurasia, Zakir Hussain, Amjad Ali Khan, etc. There are hundreds if not thousands of lesser known musicians who make a living by teaching and performing in small venues.

2. Of course, many talented people are prevented by social custom or poverty from following their dream, but its simply not the case that there are hundreds of unrecognized geniuses walking around.

3. Ravi Shankar's success was not totally accidental - he didn't just "happen" to become popular. He was a great communicator, and he appropriately structured his music to be not too complex for beginners and westerners to understand. If you listed to his rivals like Ustad Vilayat Khan for example, they went the opposite way and added layers of complexity and did not achieve popularity among the masses.

Post reply on HN