I am currently a senior web developer, with an interest in all aspects of development, including non-web based projects. Here to learn and share, with over 30 years of development and programming experience.
Nirvana were influenced by some large bands that are still around to this day, like The Melvins. Nirvana just happened to have tweaked their sound and been in the right place at the right time. I do enjoy Nirvana, but bands like The Melvins have a far large catalog, and there were quite a few other bands that influenced Nirvana that kept going. Nirvana did often shout out these other bands, but people were too hooked on MTV back then, and weren't as willing to look up the bands they would mention.
You can't leave out Bob Dylan's influence with introducing the band to marijuana, as well as Jimi Hendrix not making it big in the US, and being "shipped" to the UK to start the Jimi Hendrix Experience. That didn't just have a big effect on The Beatles, but acid rock/psychedelia as a whole. You also had Black Sabbath taking blues music and downtuning it, and playing it slower, all due to Tony Iommi's work accident where he lost his finger tips. Modern metal music owes a TON to Black Sabbath, especially styles that play slower, like doom metal and all its various sub-genres. There was a lot of sharing between countries, and I think that is why the music is so closely tied together (along with the entire psychedelic movement).
It's important to consider that rap/hip-hop lyrics are deeply tied to social issues. For a middle-class white kid, it's not super important, but for the audience that was also making the music, this is why it took off. The music was new with a message, and even if you didn't understand the message, you could feel the power behind the music. Then you had producers like Rick Rubin, and labels like Def Jam, that knew they could market the music to white kids in the suburbs. I was one of those white kids in the suburbs, and my friends and I would listen to more "underground" hip-hop/rap radio stations in the very late 80s/early 90s to find music that had a message behind it and was honest (even if we weren't the target).
Not just influenced, Led Zeppelin stole tracks from black musicians.
Even worse (in my opinion), is Eric Clapton, who stole so much music from black musicians, and then went on to disparage them and go on racist rants about who he wants in his country. Even worse when you see how he gave and received praise from artists like Jimi Hendrix.
I agree with both of your points, and I was born in 1979. My dad was into the music of the 60s, like Jethro Tull, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd. My mom was huge into the Beatles. I love all of the above mentioned bands, and while I listen to more metal than anything, the metal I love definitely take elements from all of the above, along with Black Sabbath. Now you need to really dig to find what you enjoy, it usually won't show up on radio, or even on a related Spotify playlist unless you make sure to constantly interact with and like music you are into.
Hip-hop and rap seem to be more divisive for boomers (not using the term as an insult, my parents are both boomers, who I respect), and I think it's more because the message was more in your face and violent (as far as what was publicized). There is a lot of hip-hop and rap that is much more socially conscious and aware from the 90s up to today, that aligns more with the messages from the 60s. I enjoy both, but I have gotten my dad into groups like the Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill/Wu-Tang Clan, while skipping over the tracks that I don't think he'd enjoy. I think it's fine to not like certain styles of music.
I don't enjoy modern country at all, but I like Bluegrass and Americana type music, with my favorite Grateful Dead album being Workingman's Dead (arguably quite a bit different from the rest of their catalog). You just have to search more for what you like now than in the past where you really could find good music on public radio.
Robert Fripp is brilliant, and is hugely present on social media. King Crimson inspired so many of the more experimental bands of the 90s, and into current day (especially harder music).
Robert Fripp also had a large hand in ambient electronic music, as well as Brian Eno, as far as ambient that reached American audiences. In regards to Talking Heads, I was born in 1979, and I can remember my dad listening to them often (along with all their videos on the brand new MTV). There are still bands with punk influences that are heavily inspired by Talking Heads.
A more modern experimental band is Melted Bodies, who incorporate punk, metal, and electronic with lyrics about current times (being popular, authoritarian control over people, insurance companies, generational trauma). They really remind me of a Talking Heads resurgence, with a grittier, more psychedelic feel (as far as psychedelia being fun and thinking differently, but also nightmarish and bad-trip territory).
If you're lucky, you keep searching and finding unique forms of media, but it definitely takes effort. If you can find a group of people that are interested in the not-so-popular, but deeper meaning media, it can be extremely rewarding. I usually tend towards heavier music, but also enjoy strange electronic that breaks out of genres, as well as strange and more psychedelic or interesting media on YouTube. I have a group of friends that I recommend these to, and we have some great conversations about it. Some art even really "friends", but just people with the same interests that I've never met before, yet I find it fun to explain what drew me to the media, and then hearing what they think about it and if they feel similar.
Meanwhile, my son is going back in time and discovering the same bands that eventually burned me out on more popular heavy music. I try not to push him towards any one thing, I will give him band or album suggestions, but let him decide whether he wants to listen or not. With friends I try to push a little harder, but I want my son to have the same type of free thinking and discovery when it comes to music that I had in the early 90s.
"Here comes the Hammer!" Wasn't sure if that was your last example, but that sprung to my mind immediately. If it wasn't, I'd be curious what song you were referencing.
I feel like as I get older, it takes me more time to find new music I enjoy. Perhaps it's oversaturation, or the way that apps and media are set to display those who pay the most money, rather than those most talented or unique. I mostly listen to heavier music, but enjoy quite a few different genres. I tend towards music that is "progressive", or brings something uncommon or new to the style. I don't think there's anything wrong with people liking current pop music, but I think people are missing out if they restrict themselves to it.
They are trying to be sarcastic, and focus on HN and the way people generally use the site. That's how I understood it, anyways. You didn't say anything wrong.
I have memories of being in my crib, and have confirmed that they are real with my parents. I was into psychedelics at the same time I got into martial arts. I still remember my phone number from living at home as a kid. I can't prove it, but I have a theory that the type of mind that fully enjoys martial arts (assuming you are in this category), is able to "let things go" more easily than other people. I still have some olfactory "memories" that are more current, but I feel like the type of mind that would be into pot or other hallucinogens as well as martial arts, probably has changed their brain to create memories in a different way. I'm not sure if that makes any sense, but I find this type of thinking tends to focus on more integration of multiple things going on all at once, rather than a specific event tied to a specific smell, for example.
While I may be completely full of myself, I enjoyed reading your comment, and it struck me how people with totally different experiences in life may have more of a human connection than you'd think once you start looking at finer details. I appreciate it!
Future Sound of London - Dead Cities, was my first exposure to electronic, as an American. They are hard to describe, but are labeled as more psychedelic ambient with bits of techno, trip hop, and progressive house music thrown in. Each album is fairly different from the others, and there is a lot of experimentation that feels unique even in 2025 (at least to myself). I'm a big progressive music fan, or any genre, so they scratch an itch for me when it comes to electronic music.
As an American, that was a lot more going on that you didn't really hear about, but I also agree with you about electronic music. I randomly grabbed a Future Sound of London CD in the mid to late 90s, and couldn't believe what I had been missing. I have been exposed to bands like Kraftwerk, but nothing like what was going on in the UK and Europe. From there I discovered Trance music, then progressive House, and started to experiment with sequencing software like FruityLoops (now FL Studio) in the later 90s. Trip-hop then started to become popular, and it became easier to get my friends into electronic, who prior only were into 90s hip-hop (arguably some of the best ever produced).
Most likely from the way they appear in nature. I was into LSD quite a bit in the early 90's, which is when I got into generating fractals through the DOS Fractint software. I would let the computer render deeper and deeper zooms over time, while also playing with the parameters and formulas.
Under the effects of hallucinogens, I found fractals far more noticeable in nature, especially when looking at trees. The branching from the base, off to smaller branches, out to the leaves. I feel like the geometric patterns that appear are somewhat of a fractal-design as well, even though they tend to shift and "breathe". I still enjoy fractals for the way they can be created through math processes, while also showing up in places within nature where there's not a computer anywhere in sight.
This is extremely true, especially when holding backspace and when you hold it a bit too long, the speed increases! Trying to remove query parameters, such as used for Google Analytics tracking, can be extremely frustrating.
I upvoted because that make sense, but isn't that Old English still a kind of "glue language", where words are replaced and of different origin, but ultimately just chosen based on contact with other languages and/or slang that matches another language? I'm honestly interested, because translating from Old English or Germanic seems to be easier to do with automated tools, than what you'd consider modern English. Granted, being American, I am pretty good with figuring out slang or new words (especially having a teenager). I can definitely see American-English being a creole language, with a lot of evolution towards Spanish, given a lot of Hispanic culture being blended into American culture. I wish I knew more about language evolution, because it seems exciting and actually useful for tracking meaning between people.
I guess I explained so much so that you could tell I wasn't trolling, and looking for a legitimate answer (or your educated opinion). I appreciate whatever you respond with!
Wouldn't that assume each parent had totally different DNA? Seems like there would be more than 50% DNA from each parent. At the very least there would be an enormous amount of DNA that just qualifies us as human, in general.
Modern English didn't pop up out of nowhere, or relied on borrowing everything. Old English was a Germanic language, and while modern English borrowed quite a bit from other languages, it didn't start from scratch. It is still based upon Old English, which was Germanic. Even if you mean extremely modern, the base language is Old English, although the language evolves constantly. You would have a harder time comparing what is currently being spoken to Old English, but at the same time, you can't disconnect the two just because comparing the two now sounds entirely different. Language should evolve, since it's meant to communicate, not on it's own merit (as much as those who study language would like it to be). It's not crazy to think that in the future that a language could evolve even further to convey more meaning in a smaller amount of speech.
I love that channel. Especially turning (I believe) nitrile gloves into hot sauce. Some of the chemistry he performs, I would never think of even existing. It's like people that say margarine is one molecule away from plastic, without understanding that all of chemistry works like that.
Like you, I more than once ate a large amount of Jordan almonds, both times after grabbing bags left on tables after a wedding. I'm 45, but the Tylenol tampering was still alive and well in my conscious even as a teenager, and to this day. I still check the safety seal and will bring anything back to the store if it's more than a few dollars, if the seal looks broken.
This will only allow you to run your TypeScript in Node, but does not perform type checking, and I don't believe has any plans to. This is from Node.js 23.9.0
TS v5.8 added the --erasableSyntaxOnly option, along with Node.js 23.6 so you can run your TS in Node, which will error on enums (as well as namespaces and other syntax). I haven't found anything that mentions the deprecation of enums when searching, TS v6 is supposed to be as feature compatible with v7 as possible, and since enums are not a type-level feature of JS I wouldn't rely on them.
Right now you can make use of the --erasableSyntaxOnly to find any enums in your code, and start porting over to an alternative. This article lists alternatives if you're interested.
This is honestly a solid solution, and one that actually feels more "connected" with your coworkers than a website without dark mode, to determine your current sprints or whatever methodology you use.
I was using BitBucket for a while, to have paid access to private Mercurial repositories. Once they decided they no longer wanted to support Mercurial, and go with Git, I decided it was best to cut my losses and move to GitHub's paid plans. Atlassian has not handled offboarding of products very well.
I'm not sure if it's this way in your friend's case, but some people will do this on purpose. Usually it is remembered by people that do this intentionally, but sometimes you're just listening and don't want to become part of the conversation. Being put on the spot for people like that is often very negative, and is more likely to get them to forget what was going on, and instead concentrate on how uncomfortable they were made to feel.
I do this, and it definitely helps me with recall, much to the detriment of upper management that think I'm just not paying attention and wasting time.
I am in the same boat right now. My boss has come to me and said he can't afford to pay me any longer, while I am very underpaid, but I chose that because I get a ton of freedom to choose technology and can take time off whenever I need it. I have extreme impostor syndrome, and have always been the lead software engineer, so have only had online resources for mentorship. I have written quite a bit of business software, and I've been maintaining software that evaluates banks and credit unions for risk, and have been working on it since 2009.
I read HN, and think that I am probably in a good spot for myself, once I walk away and find something else. Probably almost anything. I crave knowledge and haven't compromised much on the software I've built in the last decade or so, and feel like I can confidently explain my reasoning and techniques for large projects. Most of what I do is under NDA, and I (maybe not-so-smart) have done a TON of work outside of normal hours, but I've always put them back into the company's software. I do feel like you are living the type of life when it comes to being happy and satisfied, so I just wanted you to know I appreciate your comments/posts and outlook on things.
These people are actors, not tech people. Apple TV probably gave them the best deal when they were selling their show. It really is as simple as that, the people creating these shows have consultants in the tech-industry, but this is acting. There are a ton of Apple TV exclusives, and they are getting paid very well. You have companies like Paramount+ that will start to fund a show, then pull the plug (it's not tech, but the Comedy Central show Workaholics had hired an entire crew and was 5 weeks away from making their movie with Paramount+, and they pulled the plug).
Entertainment is far removed from tech, and I find it funny that such intelligent people from HN would ever think that a Hollywood produced show could ever make it concentrating only on the tech world, leaving everyone else that pays for these services wondering what anyone is talking about.
ChrisMarshallNY gave you the true answer, as far as creating the type of art that he's made (which I find amazing) and mastering painting. Another way to go about it (which I did at the start of the pandemic) is to just buy some canvases and acrylic paint (more forgiving than oil since you haven't painted), and some cheap brushes. Experiment and try to create something. It can be completely abstract and only for you. Learn how the paint dries, and how adding a bit of water to your paint affects it. Look up some YouTube tutorials on beginning painting. Best thing to do is to just keep painting. You can even take a canvas and just keep painting white or black over it to start over, just so you aren't spending much on canvas. I am totally unable to paint 3D objects, but I do a lot of abstract and symbolic/occult type art, and I personally love it as a means of meditation and getting away from technology.
Just wanted to say that I see you post a fair bit in HN, but have never heard about your music and art. The hair is great, and with the art, I picture some kind of doom metal. I completely agree with you on needing to do things your way, for the things that you have passion for. If you can make money off it, that's great, but if it's only for money you'll probably burn-out and despise it.