Comment by deckard1 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by deckard1 | Hacker News Reader

> The Spotify algorithm, Amazon’s recommendations, they’ll never, ever show you Rod McKuen. Those are designed to direct you towards things that other people like right now. But thrift stores, used bookshops, and Goodwills are, accidentally, perfectly designed to show you things that people liked decades ago, then stopped liking.

I've often thought of and lamented the former idea. That the serendipity of the algorithms is less serendipitous than browsing a local record store. But what I've not considered much is that we, digital age folk, leave nothing behind. When I was young my mom had a pile of 45 rpm records. It was great browsing through those as a kid, knowing what my mom was into as a teenager. What do we leave our children? Our Spotify account? It's just not the same. Records have character. Worn dust jackets, scratches. A physical human held and cared for these. It's a snapshot of a point in time. Newspaper clippings, ticket stubs, it's all going away. They can look at a long-dead iPhone 3G and wonder what music or videos I played on it.

My mom (died in 2019 at 76) left behind 60GB of her digital music collection, along with hundreds of playlists drawn from it.

I plan to do the same, but about 3-4x more stuff.

And if my kids response to that is anything like mine to my mother's music, they will barely ever listen to any of it.

> And if my kids response to that is anything like mine to my mother's music, they will barely ever listen to any of it.

I think this is more of an issue with headphones than with the inability to inherit digital files. (Which, as you note, doesn't exist.)

When I was small my mother would play CDs on a home stereo system. So if she was listening to music, I heard it.

This means that I'm familiar with and like some of her music. If she left me a pile of CDs I'd never heard, I would most likely not bother listening to them.

Our parents are those who introduce us to the joy of music, and eventually we are destined to criticize and question their choices as we form our own unique relationship with music through guitar and piano lessons, etc. My dad, now 8 years gone, was an ex-singer in the US Navy band from the early 1960s and in our house in the early 80s he'd often play Sinatra albums as well as other show tune type fare featuring a big band and heavy voice.

What I get now is how he used his albums to travel back in time to re-live glory days of when he was seeing the world and watching the effect his voice would have on people in different ports. Using your voice to make music is such a personal form of expression.

Understanding the music choices of your parents is one way of knowing who they were, often to some surprise after they are gone. I'm left with his albums now and they help me make that connection with the past and a renewed love for music back from the time when I was first learning it singing with him.

Generally, your kids won't want your stuff. I've had a few friends who've had to deal with parents who left a lifetime of crap for their children to deal with, and it seems kinder to get rid of as much of it as you can before you die.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/your-kids-dont-wa...

Of course, there are always a few exceptions in the form of sentimentally- or actually-valuable objects that your children have expressed a specific interest in.

> Records have character. Worn dust jackets, scratches. A physical human held and cared for these. It's a snapshot of a point in time. Newspaper clippings, ticket stubs, it's all going away.

Yep. What works well for me is to KonMari that shit — reflect on it, express your gratitude, say goodbye, and let it go.

You're speaking in generalizations that are not true, and also in extremes ("a lifetime of crap for their children to deal with" is not what was meant).

Personally, I find it incredibly fascinating to come across those kinds of breadcrumbs that give an insight in how a life was lived decades ago. Be it from my parents or even from more distant people.

I came across a personal office ones that was long abandoned, complete with decades old wall calendar, magazines, wrappers of old snacks etc., and it just had a certain magic.

I, too, lament how much of the "physicality" of life has been taken away, and enjoy the little mementos that I kept from both my own life and my family's.

My partner hates it("clutter"), but this is part of the reason I'll buy a physical book after reading and liking an ebook. Also the reason I dispose of books I don't like in one manner or another. Usually dropping off at little free libraries, unless I think the book is dangerously bad, at which point I will shred it and turn it into compost.

What’s an example of a dangerously bad book?

My dad gave me "Mad Money" by Jim Cramer for some reason.

Brian Herbert

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