I think it's in everyone's interest, and especially HN's[1] to learn as much as possible about, and from, all masters in their fields. Anything that can broaden your horizon can give you a better perspective on not just culture in general[2] but your life as an individual.
Thanks to this article I found a fantastic song in "Desafinado". Maybe one day I'll happen to be in conversation with a jazz buff and I'll be able to discuss it with a modicum of intelligence.
One should never argue that learning in any field (especially from the masters) is "irrelevant" (not saying that you are), as any and all learning is precious.
[1] I'd posit that HN is less about software, programming, startups, etc, etc than it is about enlightening people to become entrepreneurs and taste makers within our individual fields (which happen to be computationally based) while encouraging a general thirst for knowledge.
[2] As entrepreneurs and people who hopefully deliver value to customers, knowledge about the culture we live in is tantamount in delivering a product that resonates with our target market.
Here's why I think he's interesting:
1. He was an astonishingly good businessman in a time when black men were rarely given opportunities in business, even in the music industry. He is nearly unique even in the jazz world (which was better for black folks than most other industries of the time) for the level of his business success.
2. He was a great leader. He's regarded as one of the best jazz band leaders ever. He helped nurture multiple generations of jazz greats. If you can name a jazz legend from any time until his death, they probably played with Miles before they were a legend. An executive at a startup would do well to learn from him how to pass on skills and help develop even greater talents than their own (many people who played with Miles ended up being better musicians than Miles, and pretty much all became better than they were before they played with Miles).
3. He's interesting. Which could be enough. Nerds like interesting people and things.
I "know" Miles from his younger days with Diz and Bird. A middle class kid from KC - one or both parents dentists who weren't planning on a musician for a son. Much talent at a young age - he toured w the creators of Be Bop, fer cripe's sake. Think he rescued Bird on the road more than once.
All of this is recalled from Phil Schaap's Bird Flight on WKCR. It'd be great to know Miles was a briliant businessman in addition, too.
"And the Prince of Silence is still being royally rewarded for doing it. His Highness's treasury is overflowing. Money is every bit as important to him as creativity. Or rather, they are inseparable. Obliging record companies, promoters and broadcasters to pay top dollar also commits them to saturation promotion, which encourages business and maintains the price. Money is a symbol of reality, even - especially - money for nothing.
Miles said he could put together a better rock band than Jimi Hendrix. He advised young musicians to learn rock, rhythm and blues and funk tunes rather than jazz standards. "I have to change," he said. "It's like a curse." Miles goes to the money, but it's more complicated than that: The money comes to him.
He has been paid millions to expand frontiers, to reflect the best of our urban experience, to do exactly what he wanted to do and did better than anyone else - to "play what's not there." The artistry with which he relates to money is an art in itself, an integral part of what makes him - whether he likes it or not - a living legend. His multimillion-dollar mansion in Malibu is one of his greatest hits. Miles Davis plays money with as much conviction as he does the trumpet.
After college, I worked in my family's business. Jealous of Miles for making money and music, I compensated by eating and drinking. Coming out of the Russian Tea Room after a three-martini lunch with Bethlehem Steel one afternoon, I crossed Miles stepping out of his Ferrari on the way in. Wearing a Savile Row suit, a Billy Eckstine shirt collar and leather driving gloves with belts on them, he punched me harder than playfully in the stomach and said: "You're getting fat, Mike.""
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/17/news/17iht-mile.html?pagew...
Found in http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
I'd say this definitely gratifies my intellectual curiosity, though I can understand if you don't feel the same.
"Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."
It is an interesting article and I love Miles Davis but it doesn't belong on HN. Stop trying to fool yourself. Almost anything could be considered to satisfy one's intellectual curiosity. That is a silly cop-out.
This article says nothing about why Miles was a good businessman or expound on his leadership skills. All it gives us is insight into his taste in composition styles. That, coupled with the fact that music is a highly unscientific endeavor and the reasons he gives for disliking some of the works might be the exact reasons why others might love those very works, makes this article completely useless IMHO.
Does that make it "HN-worthy"? I dunno. It got voted up. I don't consider that a sure sign of worthiness...memes and jokes would also get voted up if they weren't ruthlessly removed by mods, and they definitely aren't HN-worthy. But, I suspect this has something to teach us...or at least provides interesting conversation fodder in areas that most people here probably previously had none. I studied jazz at a high school for fine arts and in college, and Miles Davis is a huge part of a jazz education; I still feel like this gave me some knowledge about Miles that I didn't quite have before (I knew he was a merciless critic, and extremely forthright, and occasionally an asshole; but I don't think I'd ever read it straight from his mouth...I'd read what his band members had said about him).
Also see this econtalk episode: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2012/06/jonah_lehrer_on.htm...
> And I thought about the following. Jobs and Dylan had something in common, which is they blurted out often cruel things to people around them, which we often call--as adults we call it selfish. [...]
> [Jonah Lehrer]: It all comes back. No, no, it's a fascinating question. What really interests me about that is, especially in terms of Steve Jobs, because I think we've got this epic biography of him at this point, is the way it complicates our traditional notions of self-control. I think we often think of self-control as domain-general : If you've got self-control, you can exert self-control in every facet of your life.
All I am trying to say is, in this case, the article is a bunch of opinion from a Jazz musician about fellow Jazz musicians and bands. How does this fit in with other HN threads?
I would say that something like Frank Zappa on censorship [1] [2] is much more suited to HN discussion than this link.
[1] http://www.joesapt.net/superlink/shrg99-529/p51.html#fztesti...
But not everything ought to fit in! The mandate is simply to be interesting and not lame.
I'm over my meta quota now.
p.s. I like your use of the word 'claustrophobic' there. Very nice.
How do you rate the musicians you play with?
I have to make judgements about students and (at this time of year) prospective students in terms of which course and which level to allocate them to.
I imagine that the founders of a startup who are responding to a sudden increase in use/market have to make judgements about their colleagues when scaling up the responsibilties.
The way Davis is making judgements about his peers and the particular recordings shows something about his approach.
You seem to conflate "unscientific" with "anything goes".
I believe his contribution to music was more profound because he kept evolving and maintained his no-bullshit attitude. I admire that as both a musician and a software engineer. I'm grateful for this link showing up on HN too!
P.S. That recording of "Desafinado" that he comments on is one of my favorite songs of all time. All of that Bossa stuff that Stan Getz did for that matter.
This piece is good because it's a great artist speaking frankly about his craft. It's surprisingly vivid. I'm not a jazz fan and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
You can learn more from a great artist in a different field than from an average worker in your own.
Miles was one of my first loves in high school. RE this article, he praises some of my favorites, and slams some of my favorites, so the upvote is because I never knew his take on these songs and players, so it's very enlightening!