4 ms·

Hey, the brown M&M’s actually served an important purpose as a signal!

bryanrasmussen 6y ago
like, theoretically someone could have read the full Van Halen rider and thought, damn we're not doing all this stuff but lets do the brown M&M's thing because you know how these touchy, irrational artist types are, if they see one brown M&M they probably lose it!
- pengaru 6y ago
  I think you're missing the point...
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - bryanrasmussen 6y ago
    the point was that the brown m&ms have an important signalling effect? and I said well there could be a case in which the signal you thought you were receiving from the m&ms being present was wrong?
    - pengaru 6y ago
      The point is only to detect whether they read enough of the contract to find that buried, arbitrary but highly visible detail, not to ensure they execute everything within it.
      - bryanrasmussen 6y ago
        In the versions of the story if they didn't execute that point Van Halen's roadie would go on the warpath and go through everything to determine stuff was done correctly, so I mean the point was not that they read the contract? No one cares if you read the contract, they care that you do what is in the contract - of course doing what is in the contract requires that you read it first, but it is the doing that people care about. If you have not done the M&Ms correctly you have not read the contract that means you could not have done the important things they require.
- tonyedgecombe 6y ago
  The point was to see if they had read the Van Halen rider. If there were no brown M&M's then they knew the venue had at least read the document.
renewiltord 6y ago
Right right. That's what I meant. By doing this as well, you're sort of saying "We're doing this pain in the ass thing that has no value. You can bet we're doing all the easy things that do have value as well".
aksss 6y ago
I loathe every time someone brings up the quirky neat trivia of brown M&M’s - it always results in ten comments trying to error-check the lore and one comment about how they loathe the whole exercise.

like, theoretically someone could have read the full Van Halen rider and thought, damn we're not doing all this stuff but lets do the brown M&M's thing because you know how these touchy, irrational artist types are, if they see one brown M&M they probably lose it!

pengaru 6y ago
I think you're missing the point...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- bryanrasmussen 6y ago
  the point was that the brown m&ms have an important signalling effect? and I said well there could be a case in which the signal you thought you were receiving from the m&ms being present was wrong?
  - pengaru 6y ago
    The point is only to detect whether they read enough of the contract to find that buried, arbitrary but highly visible detail, not to ensure they execute everything within it.
    - bryanrasmussen 6y ago
      In the versions of the story if they didn't execute that point Van Halen's roadie would go on the warpath and go through everything to determine stuff was done correctly, so I mean the point was not that they read the contract? No one cares if you read the contract, they care that you do what is in the contract - of course doing what is in the contract requires that you read it first, but it is the doing that people care about. If you have not done the M&Ms correctly you have not read the contract that means you could not have done the important things they require.
tonyedgecombe 6y ago
The point was to see if they had read the Van Halen rider. If there were no brown M&M's then they knew the venue had at least read the document.

renewiltord 6y ago

Right right. That's what I meant. By doing this as well, you're sort of saying "We're doing this pain in the ass thing that has no value. You can bet we're doing all the easy things that do have value as well".

aksss 6y ago

I loathe every time someone brings up the quirky neat trivia of brown M&M’s - it always results in ten comments trying to error-check the lore and one comment about how they loathe the whole exercise.