Hacker News Reader

Comment by esaym | Hacker News Reader

Yep noticed this today. Too depressed to work on my personal programming projects. Taking up a cheap musical instrument (yamaha recorder anyone? lol) sounded like a good way to pass time. Amazon says my prime order will be ready on April 21st :/

View on HN

> Too depressed to work on my personal programming projects

I'm gonna randomly hijack this comment to talk about this growing depression I fear will hit a lot of people.

It's been very frustrating at work, approaching end of quarter with all the usual internal quarterly milestones, and no one in leadership acknowledges this intense mental stress that everyone is under. Everyone is still expecting that good ol' 20% improvement we promised three months ago, despite the entire engineering team counting down their remaining rolls of toilet paper, and watching the dumpster fire every day from the White House briefings, and the stock market imploding. Meanwhile we know that at the tail end of this, many of the local business we rely on and have supported over the years, may be out of business.

But at work, the same meetings are on calendar. The same constant drumbeat, where we pretend the only thing that's changed is our status is "WFH". Large meetings clearly don't work over videoconference and without a whiteboard. At my place we even have a two-day "offsite" where the whole team will literally spend the day sitting in one position at their desk, facing the camera.

I fear many workers in tech will crack from trying to carry on as if nothing was wrong.

That said, I do acknowledge the privileged position of this first-world problem.

> I'm gonna randomly hijack this comment

I'm glad you did. Well said.

In some cases management is afraid and thinks that they need to appear to be positive and unwavering. I would advise to play along and not to feel like you need to actually be productive at this time

To the extent possible, I would even recommend being open with them about how counterproductive you feel this is.

This is my opinion too, and I see the value. Having at least one part of your life that seems "steady" helps when the rest is upended. It can come across callous if that is not communicated though.

As we would sometimes say in the military, “Yes sir, yes sir three bags full!”

Recorders can be transcendent instruments in the right composer's hands: https://youtu.be/G6hQvvhqfJo

And performer. Also those aren't soprano recorders so they're less squeaky.

Yes, quite right! https://youtu.be/hpjV962DLWs

There's this Sam Feld/Heartfeldt soundcloud playlist that I've been listening to for years and that song has been on there several. Never knew it was a recorder!

Recorders are underrated (although, the ukulele is IMO the most underrated instrument, probably because they’re easy.)

I have a slightly more expensive Yamaha soprano recorder that I absolutely love. My living room is all hardwood and I keep most furniture and anything soft out of it just so I can enjoy the sound.

>the ukulele is IMO the most underrated instrument, probably because they’re easy

Not for someone like me with no musical background :)

Ukuleles have a bad reputation because many of them are collecting dust in someone's studio apartment. It's the quintessential "I want to learn an instrument but not really" purchase.

I've played recorder (soprano) in a baroque ensemble - the instrument is beautiful in the right context. For playing alone, I enjoy my wood tenor recorder.

Unless you like confusing fingerings, and/or super limited range I'd avoid the recorder. A tin whistle is a _much_ easier to learn to play instrument, that exchanges chromatic playing (the ability to play in multiple keys), for a much more accessible second octave of range. Go for a brass or nickle round tube one (Generation, Feadog, or Waltons are decent brands).

While we're proposing alternatives to the recorder, I'd add the harmonica as an accessible instrument. It depends on the kind of music one wants to play, but the harmonica is easy enough to start playing for a child, and the range of expressivity has room for expertise to develop (chromatic harmonicas are difficult but can produce sweet and exotic scales..).

Sounds like you’re a prime candidate for an online vocal training course

any suggestions?

Nope, in fact I’d be interested in a vocal course myself because I’ve broken a guitar string and have no spares.

As a rather poor kid, it was months before I got access to the musical instrument I wanted to learn. In the meantime, I drove some appropriate nails into a piece of wood and practiced my fingerings. Worked pretty well.

I feel that I should recommend the melodica than the recorder, you can play it like the piano rather than learning the very delicate fingering required for the recorder.

ebay, craigslist, ... ?

People need essentials, the reason things are so delayed is people like you trying to order a recorder when people need toilet paper and groceries

If that were the case, and amazon was sufficiently interested, they'd do the trivial/intelligent thing and simply prioritize essentials for shipping over other things. For example, by disabling 1-2 day shipping for anything not considered an essential.

Rather than blaming people for using amazon for precisely its intended usecase, ,despite individuals having next to zero information on what was actually up with amazon's backend causing the slowdown (are there simply no essentials left to deliver, and the backlog is due to other issues..? I dunno, I'm not amazon, and probably you aren't either.)

Hell, it might already be the case.. which would mean you're attacking people for buying normal goods for no particular reason.

> If that were the case, and amazon was sufficiently interested, they'd do the trivial/intelligent thing and simply prioritize essentials for shipping over other things

This is exactly what Amazon is doing, as mentioned in the linked article. Hence why the gp's musical instrument is taking a month to arrive.

You're right, missed the non-essential sentence

So the answer is then.. attacking for no particular reason

Well that can't be true since Amazon seems to not have any toilet paper in stock. And they seem to have turned off fresh groceries, at least in my area.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com