6 ms·
Poll: Getting to know you better ...
Just curious. Which of these matches you best?
- Pistos2 17y ago(At the time of this comment) 25% of HNers "play piano"? Interesting.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoI'm finding this interesting, but as the item falls off the "newest" list we'll not get many answers. People will have to upvote it to get more answers. If you don't want me to get the karma, down-vote this comment. Then if it hits the floor I'll put another scapegoat comment.
- jacquesm 17y agodon't do this, it's silly.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoI had several votes in the poll, but no up-mods. I don't care about the karma, but I wanted the poll to have a chance of being seen. It was rapidly dropping off the "newest" page, and it needed up-votes, but I didn't want to ask for them. This is the only compromise I could find. You may not see this as a problem, but I do, and this is the only solution I've found. If you have a better solution then I'd be interested to hear it.
- jacquesm 17y agoIf the idea is good you'll get the votes, if not too bad. Nobody is going to withhold the votes in order to not give you the karma. Polls usually don't get a lot of upvotes unless the poll subject is really good.
- DanielBMarkham 17y agoInteresting that informal karma bartering has struck up of its own accord. Probably a lot more goes on behind the scenes.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoI appreciate your point of view, but I disagree with your conclusions. Let me explain. > If the idea is good you'll get the vote. That's true of most submissions, but doesn't seem to be true of polls. > Nobody is going to withhold the votes in order to not give you the karma. I think there will be people who vote and move on without thinking to upvote it. Because of that, I wanted to remind people to up-vote the submission. However, there are people who resent being asked for up-votes, and I wanted to make sure they weren't annoyed by that. I don't want to annoy people gratuitously, and this is the technique I have. People who don't care about karma, whatever, won't care (mostly). People who do care about karma, whatever, have a means of punishing me for asking. > Polls usually don't get a lot of upvotes unless the poll subject is really good. Exactly, that's why I wanted to ask for upmods - to buck that trend. So here's a summary of my reasoning: * Some people vote and move on without upmodding * I want them to upmod so the item has a chance to get enough votes to be vaguely meaningful * That means I need to ask for upmods * Some people resent that, so I need some way they can punish me * The "scapegoat comment" seems to satisfy that.
- thaumaturgy 17y agoI really don't understand why people concern themselves at all with "karma". You can't spend it, you can't invest it, it doesn't enrich you, it doesn't help you achieve any goals (...that are worth achieving). It's pretty much a high score in a video arcade.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoAnd yet some people do. I'm not one of them. As explained elsewhere, it's not really the karma, it's the being asked for up-mods. Some people resent that, and for them I provide a way to punish me.
- pierrefar 17y agoThere is one more category: right or left handed and learning to use the other hand in an attempt to become ambidextrous. It's the best use of boring meetings time.
- jimmyjim 17y agoInteresting. I'm actually learning to use the other hand precisely because I'm also learning to play the piano -- Chopin's preludes have very demanding left-hand parts, so I figured I would probably benefit from strengthening my left-hand muscles in any way possible. I also plan on purchasing a left-handed classical guitar for this reason as well.
- jacquesm 17y agoIs there a genetic component to this or is it just practicing?
- jimmyjim 17y agoI don't think what I'm doing is a standard practice, I've heard of certain stress and 'baoding' balls being used to strengthen muscles (video: http://www.baodingballs.com/baoding_ball_techniques.html http://www.baodingballs.com/baoding_ball_techniques.html ), but I think that's about it. Normally, pianists just practise playing études and doing run-ups with scales. That said, I have noticed a difference in my fretting hand as a result of trying to become ambidextrous, so it hasn't all been for naught. :) As for what I do with my left hand: anything that I can do with it -- I brush my teeth with my left hand, hold my cup of tea with my left hand, and in easier, non-technical classes, I copy down notes with my left hand. I have been doing this for about 2 years now.
- s-phi-nl 17y agoI clicked "Don't play piano, right handed, juggle" because I have never had a piano lesson (okay, maybe exactly one). When I took a piano audition taken by all applying music majors, however, I was told, "You play the piano better than anyone yet who has never had piano lessons." It has something to do with having a piano in the house for the past 10 years (my sister plays it).
- lotharbot 17y agoI also clicked "don't play piano" because I can't play anything very difficult, but I can sit down with a beginner level piano book and play pretty much any song in it. IMO it would be helpful to have a clear dividing line. Is it "Mary had a little lamb" or "Fur Elise"?
- jodrellblank 17y agoI think the dividing line is that he said "don't play the piano (regularly?)" instead of "can't play the piano". Maybe you can sit down with a beginner level piano book - but do you?
- cj 17y agoIs there some logic behind this poll that I'm not seeing?
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoIt's not entirely random, but I wouldn't call it "logic". It doesn't come from nowhere, but I don't want to "lead the witness."
- s-phi-nl 17y agoMaybe that both juggling and playing the piano require good coordination?
- notauser 17y agoJuggling three balls requires less co-ordination than walking. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T16_BVIFFPQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T16_BVIFFPQ is a good place to start. I find it a pretty good way to clear my mind.
- mattmcegg 17y agothank you, i am now able to juggle.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoHave you gone back and ticked the correct option in the poll?
- SandB0x 17y agoHe's training a discriminative classifier. Run for the hills!
- arethuza 17y agoMaybe it's a pack of three iterative dichotomisers.
- scorchin 17y agoOut of curiosity, is this in any way related to your "coding test"? and what made you choose this specific set of variables?
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoIt's not (although I'm writing up the results from that now) and there is a reason behind the variables, but I haven't tracked down the exact reference, so don't want to say too much yet.
- s-phi-nl 17y agoCould you provide a link to the coding test? It sounds interesting.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agohttp://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1142731 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1142731
- icey 17y agoNo options for ambidexterity?
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoTrue ambidexterity (or bi-sinistrality) is rare, and there are already eight options.
- threepointone 17y agoguitars don't count? that's also something that requires both hands working in synchrony.
- SandB0x 17y agoI don't find it the same. I learned classical guitar, then piano much later. Playing guitar, the hands have separate roles and the timing of your hands does not have to coordinate in the same way. Think about playing a fugue in the piano - there's really no equivalent on guitar. There are of course challenges presented by guitar music that don't exist on the piano. Eg, there are multiple ways/positions to play the a given note on guitar, but exactly one on the piano.
- ehsanul 17y agoPlaying guitar with double-tapping and other similar methods does require coordination of hands that's similar to that in a piano, it would seem to me. But I'm not a pianist, so who knows.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- DanielBMarkham 17y agoI confess that I cheated. I play piano, am right-handed, but haven't mastered juggling. Yet.
- gjm11 17y agoDefinition of "play piano" and "juggle", please. How competently and/or frequently should one do these things before answering yes? (In the absence of an answer to this, those variables are going to get confounded with arrogance, self-confidence, etc.)
- mcav 17y agoClearly a "Hacker News Piano-Playing Contest" is in order. And a juggling one too.
- dmn001 17y agoI used to play piano, but don't anymore, so I put "don't play piano". I juggle quite regularly.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]