zck · HackerTrans

4 maanden geledendiscuss

> Isn't a band's purpose to produce good music and aren't people supposed to like musicians because they produce good music?

There are two definitions of "good" here, that are different.

1. "good musician" means a musician who is skilled or adept in their instrument. I'm separating this from if a musician is good at writing music.

2. "good music" means music that is entertaining or enjoyable.

The Ramones were not incredibly skilled in their instruments. They wrote music that many people found enjoyable. They were not good musicians, but they created good music.

zck

5 maanden geledendiscuss

As he's mentioned, he has given this talk a few times, aimed at different audiences. One version of the talk has its slides here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzis5MXW83vCdUdXYnFIVDVOSkE...

zck

5 maanden geledendiscuss

  Location: Boston, MA
  Remote: Yes
  Relocate: No
  Technologies: backend web for >15 years. I've worked recently in Kotlin and Java. I've also done some Go, and in personal projects have worked with a lot of different Lisps.
  Email: [email protected]
  Site: https://zck.org/

zck

5 maanden geledendiscuss

Your link includes this quote from Stevens:

> "The Olympic and Paralympic Games are the ultimate symbol of human excellence. I do not believe that financial insecurity should stop our nation's elite athletes from breaking through to new frontiers of excellence,” said Stevens.

And furthermore:

> By providing financial support for athletes so they can continue competing and by increasing that support for each Games in which they compete, the Stevens Awards will dramatically increase the likelihood that athletes will continue competing, and winning, for America.

zck

5 maanden geledendiscuss

The stated goal is that the money will help people do better in the Olympics. I don't see how it will do that. It might be good to do, but it won't help people perform better.

zck

5 maanden geledendiscuss

How many of these normal careers pay a single paycheck of $100k that can't be cashed for twenty years? That's what this offer is.

zck

5 maanden geledendiscuss

Do you think a 21-year old fencer will be more competitive because of this money? A 17-year old swimmer? A 16-year old gymnast?

zck

5 maanden geledendiscuss

Is your argument that, if she knew she was going to get $100,000 in 2010, she would have been number 1 in the world in doubles in 1990? That's how I understand the stated goal of this gift.

zck

5 maanden geledendiscuss

> “I do not believe that financial insecurity should stop our nation’s elite athletes from breaking through to new frontiers of excellence,” Stevens said upon the announcement of his gift.

So his goal is to prevent money issues from being a thing getting in the way of athletes achieving. But he has structured it in a way that prevents the money from helping this goal.

> Per the Wall Street Journal, “Half will come 20 years after their first qualifying Olympic appearance or at age 45, whichever comes later. Another $100,000 will be in the form of a guaranteed benefit for their families after they pass away.”

So half of it will never be seen by the athlete. Ever. And the other half will not be seen for at least two decades.

What Olympic athlete is not able to achieve as much because they don't have money decades down the road? Or because their heirs don't have enough money? I might be missing something, but how do these two incredibly-delayed payments help them train now? They can't use money they won't see for 20 or 30 years to hire coaches, buy equipment or pay for track time. They can't buy food or pay rent with money they will never see.

zck

6 maanden geledendiscuss

My personal site is https://zck.org/ . Mostly textual posts about Emacs, Linux, programming. There are a few pages that are games, and I also have a page for my my generative art: https://zck.org/art .

comments