The scientific method has fundamentally changed the trajectory of the human species. How?

By fixing the core problem of how humans figured out what they thought was truth throughout history:

Bias.

The scientific method enabled humans, for the first time, to *systematically* test our theories to see if they were actually the explanation that we thought they were. We were able to start to see how human brains, emotions, stories, etc. had led us sometimes in very incorrect directions.

Of course, it didn't permanently fix bias instantly. We've fumbled many times, and will continue to do so.

But over time, by continuing to use it, we have been able to self-correct, and get better at applying the method.

This is all why you should be very angry, and very skeptical about *anyone* that is anti #dei and anti #woke.

They are explicitly attempting to deny that our culture has biases in these areas, when it's demonstrably untrue.

It is unscientific in the deepest sense, on top of being plain ole racism, sexism and bigotry.

@rasterweb @mathias yeah, I get it.

To be clear, I do not get enjoyment about the facts that I'm stating.

I absolutely *wish* that it weren't like this.

But I've become a pretty dedicated realist to overcorrect for my propensity for idealism.

@rasterweb @mathias right there with you.

Went to Berklee College of Music, and I was a professional composer for video games for a few years. Lifelong musician.

Found my way into tech about 8 years ago. For me, it's about 5% creative work every now and then, but I also really enjoy doing infrastructure automation, which works out for me.

When music was my direct income source, it did all sorts of things to my self-esteem and self-worth that weren't healthy.

Were those things due to societal expectations? Sure.

Did knowing that diminish their impact? No.

Being a working musician destroyed my love for the art in ways I wasn't ready for, because of how inseparable it is from the business of music making.

I've actually been on a several years journey now trying to find my way back into music, purely for the love it.

I've made some progress in the last year, which I'm really happy about, but it's a glacial pace sometimes.

That's also why I'm passionate about this subject in general.

@mathias @rasterweb I think I'm following what you mean, but I guess my main point is that I don't really think we can have "idealist" discussions about art in our current moment, divorced from the practical realities of our economic system.

The go hand in hand, and when speak about one, you're invisibly speaking about the other whether you want to or not.

So, let's suppose we both agree:
- Society's definition of "financially successful artist"
- One's personal engagement with an artistic medium for it's own sake

...should be inherently different, right? I can engage in the latter as a human being, and in theory, I shouldn't let the former influence my personal engagement with it.

Art for art's sake.

But the thing is, we don't actually exist outside of "society's definition." We are in it. It's all around us.

My ability to engage with art, for it's own sake, and without financial compensation...is *itself* dependent on the current state of my no-shit financial compensation.

If I'm well compensated, with free time available, guess what? I can afford to engage in my artform.

But if the choice is, pick 1:
- Eating a meal
- Paying rent, or else be evicted
- Get new art supplies

I am not going to be a very prolific artist at that point.

So if I artificially isolate that little detail about where my money comes from...it can lead to these unintentionally dishonest ideas about what it takes to create art.

So the only way to actually change things, is to get a critical mass of people questioning the current definition. And to do that, they have to understand why it's problematic in the first place.

The last 10-15 years have been something of a renaissance for virtuosic #guitar #music. I am here for it.

There are many fantastic guitarists that I love, but out of all of them, David Maxim Micic holds a really special place for me.

He uses the language and mannerisms of djent-y metal, but in service of something like spiritual transcendence.

https://youtu.be/aH6YChS3wFo?si=riDAZ35MI8O5UPRx

@rasterweb @mathias I mean, sure. But my point is that this shouldn't be the *required* outlook of every artist.

There are all kinds of subjective reasons that people create things. To me, that's a separate discussion from someone trying to make a living as an artist.

Some have families, obligations, bills, etc. They should be allowed to be, specifically, a *financially* successful artist, regardless of their personal feelings of where art fits into their worldview.

That you take that perspective is admirable, if that's what works for you.

But we fundamentally shouldn't have a society where we allow artists that have put in the work to create a market for their work, but are unable to make ends meet because of outside market systems that are artificially devaluing the price that they could get for said work.

@mathias I mean, it's not just you. A lot of people have the Starving Artist/Rockstar binary about artists.

The thing is, no one that is starving is able to truly focus on making good art. I don't know exactly where that particular fantasy came from, but it is pervasive.

For whatever reason, as a culture, we really do not like the idea of "comfortable, middle class artist enjoys their work."

It's almost like we only allow for you to make art for a living, if you're *also* going to suffer....*or*, if you are mind blowingly, unattainably rich because of it. Nothing in between.

@jochenwolters @haui @capeta @fedora

Yeah, I do kinda hate that response. Not least because getting involved in an open source project is often not straight forward in the first place, even if you're already a developer.

So throwing that out as a blanket response to end users is just kinda tone deaf.

@mathias I dunno. Fellow #musician #softwareengineer here.

I think my perspective is biased because I specifically left professional music to do software engineering, after finding that music, at least under our current economic system, is largely unsustainable.

The narrowness you're describing is also a strength.

It means that you can make a good living as an engineer.

The width of being musician is also it's weakness. It means that you literally have to make your own path, and no person's journey necessarily applies to anyone else's. It also means that financial success has very little to do with your skill as a musician.

It's a shit ton of soft skills, and business skills that are largely unrelated to music.

@jochenwolters @haui so, I'm absolutely not the definitive authority on this...but I do have a working theory.

In a previous life, I used to be a professional creative: think #musicproduction #photography and #videoediting #gameaudio, etc.

At that time, I was a power user. I could do a few things on the CLI here and there. I had learned how to use `git` while doing game development...but I didn't know how to code and do software development for real.

So the problem was that I was *just* technical enough to get myself into trouble, and not technical enough to find my way out, or really implement something well.

Fast forward to now, and I've been a software engineer for several years.

My perspective on #foss #tooling #opensource etc. has totally shifted.

One of the big things that shifted is that I now know how to get myself in and out of trouble, and I have a level of confidence about what I can contribute. That confidence *only* came from doing software engineering for a while.

When I think back to my former self, that was a *huge* road block to coming over to #Linux.

And 100%, there's sometimes an ego/gatekeeping problem in pockets of the #foss community.

The culture has to change to see new, non-technical users as: "competent humans that are unfamiliar with technical concepts", rather than "noob dumbasses and how dare they not read the docs first!!"

A thread about #guitar and #musicproduction.

https://bsky.app/profile/stephenfroeber.bsky.social/post/3lgxnh5orek24

@haui @capeta @fedora I mean, high level, sure.

But also, it's not really a docs issue, because this is something that's not distro-specific. Also, reading docs is, itself, something that experienced developers know to do, and most #linux noobs do not. People that are new typically attempt to engage in other ways, and we as a community have to bridge that gap. It takes a while to build up your "docs reading" muscle as a non-developer.

This is much more of a #ux and education issue.

@jnk You have good taste! @kde is my preference as well.

@capeta in fairness, navigating distros, DE's, package managers, etc. as a noob, genuinely is a bit of a #ux shit show for someone coming from Windows/MacOS. I do not fault people for the learning curve.

And that's where the #foss community could do a little better on education: less focus on distros (at least in the beginning), and more emphasis on how the DE is where most of the personal opinions should be.

The vast majority of #linux newbies should probably just pick Debian/Ubuntu, and then get a lot of good help on which DE fits their workflow.

And that's coming from a dedicated @fedora fan btw.

Alright...this might be a hot take, but also, it's the truth and I don't make the rules:

A sizeable percentage of #linux "distro" hoppers are really just desktop environment hoppers.

And, to be clear: hop those DE's all day long if it tickles your fancy! It can be fun!

All I'm saying is your big switch from #Ubuntu to #Mint was really just #GNOME to #Cinnamon, and maybe on the next go around you don't actually have to do a full install of a new distro.

@statsguy provided they're being honest about the Distrowatch writer's account of things, the account being locked after trying to appeal doesn't trend in the right direction.

To your larger point though, absolutely agree that we should be precise and do some due diligence before sharing, and avoid hyperbole and misinfo.

@statsguy it could be dependent on geographic location, or some other logical grouping within Meta that they're not being transparent about.

@statsguy there's at least one larger site validating this claim: https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/facebook-flags-linux-topics-as-cybersecurity-threats-posts-and-users-being-blocked

Fellow #MusicProducer #audioengineer #musician nerds with an interest in #linux good news!

https://bsky.app/profile/stephenfroeber.bsky.social/post/3lgqxoguzos2k

Ok, the world is really dark right now…but there are still breathtakingly beautiful #guitars being made, so there’s that. https://www.ceccariniguitars.it/en-gb/electric-guitars?product_id=122