3 ms·

I am just hearing about him now that he has died. I don't see why it is SO relevant to HN community. I don't see any similarities here whatsoever. Nor do I see

I am just hearing about him now that he has died. I don't see why it is SO relevant to HN community. I don't see any similarities here whatsoever. Nor do I see a hacker theme. Would appreciate if someone would enlighten me on this.

hospes 11y ago
The fact that you did not know about his existence does not change his impact on music and culture or undermines his significance. There are a lot of people that you do not know that had huge impact on different aspects of culture. >>Nor do I see a hacker theme. I am not sure who defines what is "hacker theme" and what is not. Number of up-votes shows that people on HN want to see this topic here. If person of huge cultural significance dies, that impacts all subcultures, including "hackers".
reinhardt 11y ago
I like to think of such "strange" highly voted posts as revealing a hidden correlation. Yes, there may not be any obvious prior reason to expect that people who frequent HN find David Bowie or his death significant. And yet they do. There doesn't have to be a cause-and-effect or "logical" explanation. It is what it is.
- krapp 11y ago
  People who frequent HN are likely to be part of the set of people who have been influenced by popular culture, which is a superset of David Bowie fans.
  - reinhardt 11y ago
    This would imply that all/most posts about popular culture figures are highly upvoted in HN but I doubt this is the case (no data, just subjective impression).
    - krapp 11y ago
      I think it just implies that HN users are informed by popular culture. Not every cultural figure is likely to be as important to HN users as every other, but some[0] clearly are, and posts about deaths are of a different sort. [0]https://hn.algolia.com/?query=dies&sort=byPopularity&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=dies&sort=byPopularity&prefix=...
serf 11y ago
> hacker theme Bowie Bonds, BowieNet, his foresight regarding the music industry with regards to data sharing, the future copyright battles, his use of electronic instruments, self-production, etc.[0] [0]: http://qz.com/590957/david-bowie-wasnt-just-an-incredible-artist-but-a-tech-visionary-too/ http://qz.com/590957/david-bowie-wasnt-just-an-incredible-ar...

hospes 11y ago

The fact that you did not know about his existence does not change his impact on music and culture or undermines his significance. There are a lot of people that you do not know that had huge impact on different aspects of culture. >>Nor do I see a hacker theme. I am not sure who defines what is "hacker theme" and what is not. Number of up-votes shows that people on HN want to see this topic here. If person of huge cultural significance dies, that impacts all subcultures, including "hackers".

reinhardt 11y ago

I like to think of such "strange" highly voted posts as revealing a hidden correlation. Yes, there may not be any obvious prior reason to expect that people who frequent HN find David Bowie or his death significant. And yet they do. There doesn't have to be a cause-and-effect or "logical" explanation. It is what it is.

krapp 11y ago
People who frequent HN are likely to be part of the set of people who have been influenced by popular culture, which is a superset of David Bowie fans.
- reinhardt 11y ago
  This would imply that all/most posts about popular culture figures are highly upvoted in HN but I doubt this is the case (no data, just subjective impression).
  - krapp 11y ago
    I think it just implies that HN users are informed by popular culture. Not every cultural figure is likely to be as important to HN users as every other, but some[0] clearly are, and posts about deaths are of a different sort. [0]https://hn.algolia.com/?query=dies&sort=byPopularity&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=dies&sort=byPopularity&prefix=...

serf 11y ago

> hacker theme Bowie Bonds, BowieNet, his foresight regarding the music industry with regards to data sharing, the future copyright battles, his use of electronic instruments, self-production, etc.[0] [0]: http://qz.com/590957/david-bowie-wasnt-just-an-incredible-artist-but-a-tech-visionary-too/ http://qz.com/590957/david-bowie-wasnt-just-an-incredible-ar...