Both. Both is good.

I went from Nova to Niagara and I love it!

Ein Beispiel von meiner Arbeit: Der Müll wird donnerstags abgeholt. Morgens stellt ihn eine Kollegin raus. Ich habe mal gefragt, warum sie das nicht mittwochabends macht. “Weil dann andere Leute ihren Müll dazu stellen, dessen Entsorgung oft Geld kostet.”

Dann hatte die Kollegin Urlaub und die Vertretung hat es trotzdem am Mittwoch raus gestellt.

Mitten in der Nacht musste die Feuerwehr anrücken. Jemand hat den Müll angezündet.

Ich vermute dass Müll aus solchen Gründen oft weggesperrt wird.

Das finde ich auch bemerkenswert. “Es liegt nicht dran, dass ich Antisemit bin. Ja gut, das kommt da auch mit rein, aber losgelöst davon…”

I hated 2023 BC. I lost my woolly mammoth that year.

It was the best 2023 we ever had.

I think this path is great and I envy you a little. Very few people manage to maintain the passion of their youth and then earn money with it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this path continues for you!

This sounds great! What are you doing?

All this hypocrisy. All these messages from colleagues and other people annoy me because everyone is suddenly very nice and only wishes each other the best. And of course the family has to be visited too. And there have to be gifts even if you have nothing else to say to each other.

I hate it.

You’d have to ask Courtney. Because she had him killed and all that.

Stereotypes are nonsense.

And no, what you are describing are French.

Portal 2. I love the game. But when it goes all the way down and you have to fight your way through that underground rubble…

I am very excited to see which areas of medicine will make progress through AI in the next few years.

My best friend has extreme back pain and there doesn’t seem to be anyone who can really help him.

My wife has multiple sclerosis, which I don’t need to say more about.

Medicine has made enormous progress in the last few decades. I pray this gets a turbo boost from AI. (And that even though I don’t believe in God.)

I don’t know, but it looks like Raphael has his own reasons to be there.

What message?

No.

I was going to say to myself “Invest in Nvidia shares”, but your sentence is much better.

My experience has been different. Even without Spotify, I’ve found a large number of new bands over the years through websites, reviews, and music videos on YouTube. This shows that there are multiple ways to discover diverse music.

My main concern is about the broader impact of streaming on the music industry. While Spotify can be a fantastic tool for discovering music, it’s important to consider how its business model and algorithms might influence musical production and consumption patterns. Yes, artists do receive royalties from radio plays, but the system is different from streaming. My worry is that the streaming model, especially in terms of payment structures and engagement strategies, might inadvertently prioritize certain types of music, potentially overshadowing the rich diversity in the music world.

Absolutely, I’m aware of the Top 40, but my point is about how services like Spotify are amplifying the dominance of this type of quickly digestible music. While the Top 40 has always reflected popular tastes, Spotify intensifies the focus on ephemeral hits rather than promoting a diverse range of music and independent artists. Additionally, the technology behind Spotify, where artists or labels aren’t compensated if a track is skipped within the first 30 seconds, further influences this trend. It shapes not only what we listen to but also how we value music.

I believe Spotify is largely responsible for its own financial struggles. Knowing that 2/3 of their revenue goes to the greedy labels, they should consider scaling back on operational costs and excessive investments in advertising and celebrity podcast deals.

In a way, it serves them right. Spotify plays a significant role in transforming music into a product akin to fast food, prioritizing mass consumption over artistic value. This approach not only impacts their profitability but also contributes to a broader devaluation of music as an art form.

So fuck Spotify.