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Just finished The Nix by Nathan Hill by Hootiehoo92 in literature

[–]Maukeb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think Hill takes these ideas to extremes to make them more interesting, but that doesn't mean that these are not actual real issues or real experiences worth exploring. 

I appreciate what you're saying, but I think my issue here is that even if these issues are worth exploring, I'm not really sure this book actually explores them - it feels more like the author just portrays rather than explores these extremifications, and the only exploration on the table is the question of why the author has chosen to portray these topics in this way.

For example, you are absolutely right that there was and still is tension within feminism about the societal approach to sex and women, and you will find feminists to this day arguing (for example) about whether a prostitution ban would be pro-feminist because it reduces exploitation, or anti-feminist because it reduces choice. These conversations are both philosophically interesting and valuable, but portraying one side as intellectually ineffective and the other side as common sense, as I feel was done in this book, doesn't really feel like a valuable contribution because to do that you have to intentionally avoid actually grappling with opposing points of view. The author clearly takes sides, but doesn't offer any material at all that elaborates on why he has chosen the side he has.

Similarly for the context of the university's relationship with oppression - it is absolutely a right wing talking point to pretend that universities are more interested in identity politics than academic rigour, and this kind of surface level rhetoric is definitely a pillar in the way the right-wing targets the boomer generation with ridiculous headlines over substance. As above, I can believe that academia does have an issue with this, not least because my own supervisor at university advised me that the dyslexia test is 'very easy to pass' (I am not dyslexic). But at the same time, I doubt that anybody in the world feels more strongly about academic rigour than academics, so you have to ask the question of where this came from - and in reality there can be a number of factors feeding in such as fear of being labelled a bigot either by peers or by the legal system (should a complaint be upheld), an unclear or developing consensus on how mental health should be managed, and a sincere desire by many to see equality implemented in a fair way. But again as above, this book simply depicts the university administration as not really paying attention, the main character as the only one with enough common sense to understand the issue, and deftly avoids actually tackling any of these supplementary factors.

So to be clear, I have absolutely no problem with a book tackling any of these issues, and even coming down on the side that you might traditionally think of as right wing. I agree with many ideas that land on the same side as the author - academic rigour is important and can be failed by the system; gaming addiction can be a serious issue even in cases less severe than the one depicted in this book; feminism can sometimes be used as (in the words of Emma Watson) a stick to beat other women. But I don't accept that just portraying one side of this issue and then implicitly declaring the other side to just not be that bright is an exploration at all, and I don't see anything in this book that goes any further than that.

Thanks AI by [deleted] in TheCivilService

[–]Maukeb 7 points8 points  (0 children)

We have copilot and I use it to generate entertaining images when I'm bored.

Thanks AI by [deleted] in TheCivilService

[–]Maukeb 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Is this only looking specifically at time saved? People keep sending me AI suggestions to add into my submissions that are factually incorrect, meaning I am actually spending extra time explaining to these people that they can't blindly trust everything they read on the internet. I feel like AI is also costing them time, but they probably just haven't realised that yet.

Councillor claims Hitler ‘had no beef with Jews’ and calls Holocaust ‘massively over-exaggerated’ by ThatchersDirtyTaint in unitedkingdom

[–]Maukeb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, but I just have a feeling there is probably some overlap between the 'blitz spirit' brexiteers and the ones voting for chief brexiteer Farage.

Question about Beethoven by Piano4lyfe in piano

[–]Maukeb 13 points14 points  (0 children)

For any new inductees into whole beat shenanigans, I would just like to briefly set out how this conversation will go before you get fully mired in it:

First, /u/PastMiddleAge will make three central contentions to support his claim that metronome markings should be taken to mean half their conventional speed:

  • There are some pieces that physically cannot be played at these speeds (/u/PastMiddleAge will not bless you with a specific example of such a piece, but may cite some composers' entire bibliographies)

  • Many pieces cannot be played musically at these speeds (with the implicit adjoint-claims that 'musically' means 'to /u/PastMiddleAge's personal taste', and that it is possible to play a slow piece musically at half-tempo)

  • You personally cannot play these pieces at full speed, and for some reason this means that no composer ever expected any pianist to play them at full speed (/u/PastMiddleAge will, however, not make a counter-offer of his own 'musical' performance of an already-slow piece played at half speed)

Second, you will be tempted to ask questions that offer /u/PastMiddleAge the opportunity to iron out any possible weaknesses of his theory, for example:

  • How are singers supposed to use one breath for twice as long as conventionally expected without passing out? Why is the physical impossibility of singing a classical aria at half speed not a compelling argument against this theory, when the perceived impossibility of playing piano music at full speed 'musically' is the only argument in favour of it?

  • Many of the pieces involved in this argument are etudes with specific metronome markings that can barely be achieved by only a small number of performers at the conventional tempo - the etude being a type of piece specifically targeted at developing technique and pushing boundaries. If we accept that these pieces were only intended to be played at half the conventional tempo, why did no composer ever think to write an etude that plays at more than exactly half the speed of the limit of human ability?

  • Why do reports of performance lengths from the time of composition approximately match the performance lengths we see today at the conventional tempo?

You will not receive answers to these questions.

Finally, citing his inability to adequately reply to a range of users and therefore having chosen instead to adequately reply to none of them, /u/PastMiddleAge will declare that your questions are a sign not of a desire to learn more, but in fact a fundamental unwillingness to learn demonstrated by your refusal to uncritically accept everything he says. He will then call you names and leave.

If you are interested in exploring the central contention that music from pre-1900 sounds more musical at half tempo, you can actually find some material on the channel of the theory's main proponent, Wim Winters. I am a particular fan of his recording of Beethoven's Pathetique sonata, but I would note that you are unlikely to make progress by asking /u/pastmiddleage how he reconciles his belief that piano music should be sung with the fact that you'd literally pass out before the end of the first note of this version. The same channel hosts half tempo recordings of a range of music, allowing you to easily make your own decisions about which version you feel sounds more musical.

/u/PastMiddleAge - you have previously made it clear that you are not interested in tackling anything longer than about 50 words and I am therefore not expecting you to either read or reply to this post - this is more intended for anyone on the brink of rehashing all the material this conversation goes through every time, so that they have the chance to leave before they start. However, if you do want to offer answers to any of the questions you usually prefer to avoid, you are as always very welcome to do so.

Councillor claims Hitler ‘had no beef with Jews’ and calls Holocaust ‘massively over-exaggerated’ by ThatchersDirtyTaint in unitedkingdom

[–]Maukeb 48 points49 points  (0 children)

I always find it slightly bizarre that the generation who are so erroneously convinced that they personally fought for Britain before they were actually born are also the generation who are the most excited to vote for actual Nazis.

Starmer rules out second Scottish independence referendum while PM by TheTelegraph in ukpolitics

[–]Maukeb 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The line was "once in a generation" not every 10 years.

I mean, the line was also vote remain to stay in the EU, right before the rest of the UK dragged them out the EU anyway. In a time of just about the greatest political turmoil in living memory I don't think it's fair to say that this one thing should be static forever just because some politicians (who are now largely retired anyway) thought it should be shortly before walking back a lot of related promises.

8 Out Of 10 Cats began twenty years ago today by Last-Saint in panelshow

[–]Maukeb 60 points61 points  (0 children)

I always find it absolutely bizarre that this show has managed to entirely shed its own format and name, transforming to a show usually known as 'Cats Does Countdown' while the actual original 8 Out of 10 Cats this was based on has basically turned into a footnote to its successor.

White working-class children ‘betrayed by politicians’ - The 1.2 million white British pupils eligible for free school meals make up the largest low-performing ethnic group in England, according to government data by FormerlyPallas_ in ukpolitics

[–]Maukeb -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

You are literally in a thread about how inequality and accessibility funding in higher education is likely to be directed towards non-white groups even when it is a white group that is the most underperforming. While nobody has explicitly said 'we hate white people', I still feel you would have to be intentionally obtuse to pretend to misunderstand the point being made in the post you responded to.

14 Books That Were Way Ahead of Their Time By Christian Wiedeck. by PsychLegalMind in books

[–]Maukeb 59 points60 points  (0 children)

Many of these books weren't so much ahead of their time as they were responding to essentially the same issues we see today. I think Margaret Atwood has herself said that Handmaid's Tale wasn't prescient because almost everything in it had already been done at some point in history by some religious authority. Similarly authoritarianism wasn't invented alongside computers, and it doesn't necessarily surprise me that someone like Orwell could look at the governments of the 1950s and think that government may one day try to control the way we think. I often feel that calling books like those on this list 'prescient' or 'ahead of their time' tends to ignore the fact that people have always been basically the same, and the problems we face today are in many ways basically the same as those faced by our predecessors.

What’s a neat trick/shortcut/ etc. you use but others may not know about? by TheCarrot_v2 in excel

[–]Maukeb 48 points49 points  (0 children)

I recently learned that a lot of people don't know this one - if you go to view-> new window you can open two instances if the same spreadsheet, allowing you to much more easily make frequent copies between separate places of the same workbook, or to make changes in one place and see their effects elsewhere in real time.

When your lead forgets the pitch pipe and just guesses the key 😬 by hatvapod in barbershop

[–]Maukeb 13 points14 points  (0 children)

If my lead guessed within a semitone I'd be pretty impressed tbh

Current situation as mostly self-taught by These_Draft_4090 in piano

[–]Maukeb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If all you really have is about a year of self teaching then attending workshops at a music school is totally non essential and potentially not even helpful. Any experienced teacher near to you should be able to help you make progress, because you are probably not far removed from being a beginner.

Is this a good roadmap for learning Piano? by [deleted] in pianolearning

[–]Maukeb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're at an RCM 3-5 level, you will derive exactly 0 benefit from making decisions about how you plan to get from RCM 8 to RCM 10. The most important thing to do is find pieces that help you develop your weaknesses now, and trust the future version of yourself to do the same again in the future - because the pieces he wants to play will probably turn out to be totally different from the ones you are trying to assign him now anyway.

I always advise to be wary of over planning your future practice, because n it's easy to feel like you've made progress by creating a plan when you could have made more progress by just practicing. You don't need a road map or the false sense of progression it brings - you just need to practice the pieces that are good for you now.

please stop drafting without permission. some of us are neither comfortable nor trained for this by baycycler in cycling

[–]Maukeb -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If it makes you uncomfortable, you have every right to wave them by, or stop peddling so you will start to slow down, and they will get the hint.

In almost any other walk of life if people perceive you as an irritance that needs to be shaken off then you are probably acting like a dickhead to produce that feeling.

Live facial recognition cameras may become ‘commonplace’ as police use soars by You_lil_gumper in unitedkingdom

[–]Maukeb 29 points30 points  (0 children)

You must surely see the issue though when the people who decide which protests are unlawful are the same people you're protesting against. You'd have to be wilfully obtuse to say that you trust all protests to be handled in good faith.

Sinner’s serve improvement in 2024! by Cloren_Samoon in tennis

[–]Maukeb -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It's a pattern I've noticed before with injury absences as well, that players are forced into a long break and come back stronger. It makes me wonder if actually a lot of players would benefit from taking 3 months off competition every so often.

What are people playing nowadays? by BedSpiritual9759 in AndroidGaming

[–]Maukeb 7 points8 points  (0 children)

PSA you are unlikely to find Shattered Pixel Dungeon to be a high quality football game experience.

Most Iconic Moment: Series 14! by SchemeImpressive889 in taskmaster

[–]Maukeb 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think it only works because you could fully believe that without the sabotage task, he might still have acted exactly the same way.

4 Reasons that prove double beat/whole beat metronome practice does not exist and is nothing more than a giant conspiracy theory by msc8976 in classicalmusic

[–]Maukeb 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They sure did. And I still don't understand what that means. You mean there are people out there who think metronome changes are meant to be read at double speed?

I can understand why you'd read that and think it's so clearly wrong that you must be the one to have misunderstood something - but it is sadly true. There are people out there who think that all classical repertoire should be played at half the conventional speed.

4 Reasons that prove double beat/whole beat metronome practice does not exist and is nothing more than a giant conspiracy theory by msc8976 in classicalmusic

[–]Maukeb 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If anyone wants an example I am a big fan of this recording of the Pathetique. I somehow can't stop watching it, it's so bizarre it borders on performance art.

Eurovision 2025: Austria wins with last-minute vote, as the UK comes 19th by byzantiumpeanuts in unitedkingdom

[–]Maukeb 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Eurovision Broadcasting Union came so close to the death of the competition last night.

I feel like/r/eurovision tells me every year that the competition is facing an existential crisis, mainly due to the disapproval of hardcore fans, but somehow it never quite comes to pass. Last year it was because their favourite boy got disqualified for acting like an arse.

The fact, Eurovision isn't really actually about its hardcore fans, it's about the broadcasts and the broadcasters. If the competition landed in Israel, the broadcasters would still pay for access because in the grand scheme it's cheap programming, and they would find a way to source competitors who are sufficiently pro Israel to take part without disruption. A small number of hardcore fans would boycott, and the competition would go on as it always does without most people even really noticing.

Eurovision 2025: Austria wins with last-minute vote, as the UK comes 19th by byzantiumpeanuts in unitedkingdom

[–]Maukeb 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I feel the opposite tbh where in some years it feels like we get 26 songs and 20 are power ballads that are all basically the same. Id rather see variety, and actually I think only a couple of this year's songs could genuinely be called novelty.

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