HN's guidelines suggest things hackers would find interesting; Bowie's genius, non-conformity, and willingness to experiment with musical form are certainly characteristics hackers would find interesting. His loss is a loss to the entire world of art and music, and he was one of my favorite musicians — my single favorite for a very long time. May he rest in peace.
The same guidelines suggest, "If TV news covers it, it's likely off topic"
When a stone hits your windshield and causes a small crack, that's unfortunate.
How is dying not unfortunate? You have an exact 50/50 chance of making the next day. So a death is unfortunate, as you might as well have lived another day.
Really? An EXACT 50/50 chance?!
Apparently everyone's life expectancy is 2 = 1/2 + 2/4 + ... + n/2^n + ... days.
While making it to the next day may be binary, the odds of 0 coming up for the average healthy person is not 50%. Otherwise only 2% of children would live more than one week after being born.
Death of a Rock God is tragic.
Losing a glove is unfortunate.
It is wildly known that hackers don't like music geniuses. And geek culture was not shaped by the music of the 70-s and 80-s. And Labyrinth. As long as there is crowd big enough to mourn, it belongs. Otherwise it will just slip from front page.
And Bowie was such an artist that he shaped multiple generations.