Get off Hacker News. You are draining society of the inherent value we could obtain by melting your body down and using you for fuel. Your meats will be used to feed farmers, who are producing the only real value this world has seen. We're meat, so IMO abolish society and get on with cannibalism. I understand that's and (sic) extreme view, but its (sic) still where I stand.
/s
Man, you can't take the stance that there's something worthless about what other people do just because you say so. That's stupid and hypocritical. Unless you want to go the nihilistic approach and deny everybody everything but the most savage of existences, at least have the courtesy not to be a twat about that which you don't understand.
I said already: We are not going to argue about music on Hacker News. I don't know you well enough as a user, Retric, to be able to make any judgment about you specifically, but I have a certain dim outlook on how we as a whole treat the arts, and I'm not enough of a martyr to waste a lovely winter Thursday trying to explain to you just how valuable a part music plays in greater society. Suffice it to say the average working musician produces far greater value than the average burger flipper, leads to more people being employed, has a wider audience, and gives more varied a product. It's not about business. It's about art. The business only exists because enough people think financing art is worth more than you do.
I switched from a computer-heavy major at one college to a more artistic major at a full-on art school, and I can say that I have absolutely learned more of value here in four months than I did spending a year learning to program.
Finally: You think math is productive? Math is the most whimsical of all the arts. No practical value whatsoever beyond the first few months, save the delight of having such freedom to think and play.