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Being Bored Is Good

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Re: Being Bored Is Good

#191

Post by erikpukinskis »

PavlovsCat wrote: post #133
GenghisSean wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another class of instruments that has evolved in all of the ways you named is the synthesizer. Certainly vocal performance is a very old tradition but to write off synth vocals as superficial is in my opinion throwing the baby out with the bath water. Sound synthesis has gone from an experimental and avant-garde playground to one of the most expressive and versatile fields of music composition. Techniques like additi…

I agree with you both.. and offer as common ground an example of pure vocal bliss, yet in a song enabled by technology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7OYsGAp_QY

I was sure you were going to link to this:

https://youtu.be/Y6ljFaKRTrI

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#192

Post by latexr »

Gene_Parmesan wrote: post #168
brokenmachine wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I always wonder: when their week is over, where do people find refuge? Sports, hobbies, entertainment? I just don't understand how people can think about leaving this world without having something that is really their own. How do you live when you're just a consumer? What happens if you lose friends? In my own conception of life, I just don't understand how people can not feel lost if they don't create something th…

> At the end of it all there will be nothing but the heat death of the universe. I'm as non-religious as they come, but I often wonder about this. Any time I spend even a little bit of time thinking about this stuff, I always find myself turning to the thought that, if that truly is all there is, then why does anything exist at all? Like, even on the level of energy/matter. My brain just can't get past the logic of,…

> if that truly is all there is, then why does anything exist at all? (…) wouldn't it have been cheaper and simpler for literally nothing to ever exist? Why go through the hassle of all this matter creation?

This assumes purpose, intent. Yes, it might’ve been more logical to not create anything, but the processes that initiated creation didn’t reason, they didn’t think “what makes more sense”, they happened randomly.

But even it there was an objective behind creation, that might have just as well been “to see what happens”, same way some people keep ant farms just to watch them — doesn’t make the ants’ existence any more meaningful.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#193

Post by pjc50 »

cyberferret wrote: post #166
warent wrote: post #91

> Modern music is a mirror image of the internet culture as well. Blasted with as many synth hooks and processed vocal melodies as possible. This seems a little bit like a fist-shaking "back in my day!" kind of judgemental statement. Music is a matter of taste and what you're approaching here doesn't relate to the topic.

I am going to have to back the parent comment about music, having had first hand experience with this. My son is currently trying to break into the music industry. He is a gifted guitarist and musician [0], but whenever he talks to music producers and execs, he is told that his songwriting is too complex, his songs too long (avg 4 minutes) and his lyrics too deep for the current generation of music buyers (read: teen…

> lyrics too deep for the current generation of music buyers (read: teenagers and young girls). ... he needs to reduce his songs to a basic beat with a couple of good hooks and not much more than that

This has been true to some extent since the dawn of popular music after the war, though? Stock Aitken & Waterman were slapping synth beats on simple lyrics probably before your son was born. They wrote Kylie's "I should be so lucky" in an afternoon after being told she was at the airport and they'd forgotten she was coming. Went on to sell a million records.

You can appeal to sophisticated tastes or the mass market, but the latter is very definitely a product which lots of specialists are continually trying to optimise.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#194

Post by freeflight »

natalyarostova wrote: post #52
soverance wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For a majority of people, their greatest and most satisfying achievement will be their children. This sentiment is grossly nauseating, to me. Having children is not an achievement. It may be satisfying and fulfilling, but it is in no way an "achievement". If your greatest contribution to the world is birthing a child, you have failed as a person.

Raising a productive, kind, and compassionate human being is very hard, and very much an achievement. You reduce it uncharitably by claiming it's simply 'birthing.'

> You reduce it uncharitably by claiming it's simply 'birthing.'

Isn't that exactly what it has become? Right now we are struggling with a massive environmental catastrophe, which is largely caused by overconsumption.

One of the best ways to fight that is to simply have fewer consumers [0], yet somehow that's something barely anybody even dares to talk about because we can't take from people the "freedom" to keep birthing more off-spring for no other reason than self-gratification.

It's not like we are a species on the brink of extinction like we direly need those additional bodies. Right now it looks like we are having way too many bodies to actually keep busy with meaningful work, a problem that will only become that much worse as automation makes even more manual jobs redundant.

In that context, I consider this urge to have biological off-spring the epitome of egoism. There's plenty of orphans out there who would be glad to be living in a family that cares. Why not give them a chance instead of adding yet another body to the problem because it has some minor DNA similarities?

Yes, adopting in most countries is a difficult process, I know that, I still think it's the much more responsible choice than insisting on biological offspring.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/12/want-to-...

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#195

Post by daveslash »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #147
daveslash wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: Where is this? -- Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Re: How many sheep -- Depends on your count site; some people see zero, others see upwards of 40. See this HN comment (from this same thread) for additional info. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20384971

Thanks! I hope they don’t do this in the summer. Pretty hot there.

The best time is the summer; the hotter the better. These sheep can go for weeks without water when it's cool. When it's hot, they need to come to water every 3 days or so. So, when it's hot, we set up shop near the watering holes and wait.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#196

Post by Will_Parker »

solveit wrote: post #141
Will_Parker wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Music is a matter of taste I'm mostly with you with one exception. If there's one thing that may be objectively evolved, it is the power of the raw human singing voice. With all its expressivity, dynamics, range, colours, individualism, and overtones. I claim that anyone who studies carefully the pure sound of the voice and what it is capable of will always hear synth vocals as superficial. (I don't care genre, whe…

Only tenuously related to your point (which I agree with), but I think we'll have better-than-human deep learning based vocals in less than a decade.

Oh yikes, the ice cream / cheesecake of human emotional expression, this will disturb me.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#197

Post by Ididntdothis »

daveslash wrote: post #195
Ididntdothis wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! I hope they don’t do this in the summer. Pretty hot there.

The best time is the summer; the hotter the better. These sheep can go for weeks without water when it's cool. When it's hot, they need to come to water every 3 days or so. So, when it's hot, we set up shop near the watering holes and wait.

Very interesting and makes sense. I guess the heat is not too bad if you don’t have to move a lot. Is there a lot of action at night? I would probably set up some trail cameras.

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#198

Post by [deleted] »

sergiotapia wrote: post #127
soverance wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For a majority of people, their greatest and most satisfying achievement will be their children. This sentiment is grossly nauseating, to me. Having children is not an achievement. It may be satisfying and fulfilling, but it is in no way an "achievement". If your greatest contribution to the world is birthing a child, you have failed as a person.

Your statement is grossly nauseating to me. Your children are absolutely an achievement a testament to what kind of person you are.

[deleted]

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#199

Post by Retra »

avgDev wrote: post #49
soverance wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For a majority of people, their greatest and most satisfying achievement will be their children. This sentiment is grossly nauseating, to me. Having children is not an achievement. It may be satisfying and fulfilling, but it is in no way an "achievement". If your greatest contribution to the world is birthing a child, you have failed as a person.

However, if that child cures cancer because you provided them with opportunities and assisted them in a way that allowed them to flourish, you have done a tremendous job. I do agree that giving birth being an achievement for people seems sad. It is almost like wining in a medal in a middle school where everyone gets a medal and being proud of it for the rest of your existence.

And what if they cure cancer and you haven't actually given them opportunities or assistance? Or what if they don't cure cancer? Did you not raise them sufficiently well?

Re: Being Bored Is Good

#200

Post by natalyarostova »

freeflight wrote: post #194
natalyarostova wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raising a productive, kind, and compassionate human being is very hard, and very much an achievement. You reduce it uncharitably by claiming it's simply 'birthing.'

> You reduce it uncharitably by claiming it's simply 'birthing.' Isn't that exactly what it has become? Right now we are struggling with a massive environmental catastrophe, which is largely caused by overconsumption. One of the best ways to fight that is to simply have fewer consumers [0], yet somehow that's something barely anybody even dares to talk about because we can't take from people the "freedom" to keep bir…

>I consider this urge to have biological off-spring the epitome of egoism

Lol, I mean, yeah. It is. It's a biological imperative to recreate yourself.

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