Just related to Pet Sounds, I remember God Only Knows has been cited by Paul McCartney and others as their favorite song of all time. Even though the song is very odd in many ways.
Brian Wilson cited "Strawberry Fields Forever" by The Beatles as one of his favorite songs -- he apparently had to pull over because he was having a nervous breakdown after hearing it on the radio, and he was in tears and said "They got there first." Pet Sounds was the response to Rubber Soul, and then Sgt. Pepper was The Beatles response to Pet Sounds.
I remeber reading about him writing songs and the effort he put into it, I think pet sounds, and then realizing the Beatles were releasing music at the same time. I felt a little bad because it seems like he was just in the shadow of the Beatles.
So much musical talent at the time, crazy to think about
The Beatles wouldn’t have been the band they became without The Beach Boys. And vice versa. The competition was tough between those guys back in the days. Surf’s up.
Carl and Dennis both grew in to good songwriters, in different ways, but neither were close to being able to work with Brian in those early years. By the time they could, Brian seemed to be largely gone. Had they had all that combined talent together functioning at the same time, things would have turned out different (and ideally better).
I’ll take a shot. Even the worst accounts of the events between him and the various other members over the years seem to me to demonstrate that he was the most involved in keeping the “Beach Boys” (in whatever form) alive and relevant. My reading on things is he was largely responsible for booking and pushing the touring they did, for keeping them in the public eye and doing what he could to keep their catalog in rotation. Without Mike, my guess is The Beach Boys would be another in a line of brilliant but burned out groups, scattered and broken by Brian’s mental illness and related issues from what the other Wilson’s were also dealing with. We will probably never know the full story but it’s notable to me that all of the members at various points remained involved with him and the work he was doing under The Beach Boys name. There are a lot of groups that have split and never worked together again for true bad blood, and that didn’t happen here, whatever else has.
I do think Mike contributed over the years, possibly more in the early days just through enthusiasm and perhaps helping to focus. I think he was probably more willing to go along with some corny showbiz stuff than Brian was, and being older than the others, that probably carried enough weight to get the others to go along (again, in the early days).
I think being family was probably helpful. He could sympathize enough and support the others dealing with Murray in the early days, but was enough of an 'outsider' that he wasn't going to be bullied by Murray like the sons were.
Lyrically, I think he tries, and has had some moments of good or great lyrics. His push towards the spiritual led us to songs like 'All This Is That', for example (based on readings stemming from time with Maharishi). I wonder how much of the initial push towards the Maharishi was maybe riding the Beatles' coattails, but he seems to have stuck with it more than many over the years. As with many folks who get a lot of sudden fame/success, he was probably searching for deeper answers, and seems to have found some.
Personality wise, based on enough interviews, he does seem to come across as a bit of an arrogant know-it-all, and that rubs me the wrong way. But... he contributed a lot to early success, has had some of his own good songs, and has kept the music alive touring longer than many expected.
Interesting comparison about production/songcraft. Listen to his solo version of 'daybreak over the ocean', then listen to the 'Beach Boys' production version from That's Why God Made the Radio album. Assuming Brian had some production hand in the latter (along with others in the studio), but the BB one is simply a better listening experience, even though it's basically the same song. So even when Mike did something good, the "group" made it better.
I've always been intrigued with him - had hoped to meet him at a concert years ago, but didn't happen. To be complete, I guess David Marks was an outsider too, although living across the street(?) he was probably 'closer' to the family for a time than Al was.
He's always struck me as just a basic down to earth guy. That may be in comparison to the rest of the group members and their antics.
His voice has remained remarkably strong and good. He was by far the best voice when I saw him on Brian's tour in 2016, and was good (on the couple songs he got?) on the 2012 tour. I don't think his solo songwriting is all that great, but he focuses on what he does and does it well.
I suspect he's got some good behind the scenes stories that would break a lot of myths, and I also suspect he'll never tell all.
The interesting thing about McCartney & Lennon is they competed with each other and critiqued each other, and that resulted in their greatest songs. After they went their own ways, there songs weren't as good. I suspect there was nobody else who dared to criticize their work.
Interesting idea. Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood seem to have a similar dynamic.
Both have their own thing going on the side, including The Smile together which is great. But Radiohead where they had Ed, Phil and Colin critiquing and improving their output is a different level of polish.
It's a brilliant song. In which ways is it odd though? I've always thought of it as just a classic 60's pop song. Listening again nothing jumps out as particularly unusual.
This might be referenced in one of the replies but basically 1) it doesn’t have the normal verse-chorus structure, 2) not really any drums, 3) the chord progression don’t follow an obvious pattern for the time and genre, and 4) the end just fades out where you can imagine it simply continuing forever. I really like the song, and maybe it stands out as a favorite because of these features like someone commented above. I just wanted to point out that it’s unusual unlike nearly every other pop song.
One more. Most of the song is in triplet swing, but there's a harpsichord(?) interlude in straight 8th-note feel, that's also completely harmonically disconnected from the rest of the song.
8-Bit goes into some of the unusual music theory of God Only Knows while talking about the (equally unexpected) a cappella cover in Bioshock Infinite - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p-GFTfGdLE
I wonder how much of this is brand name? Like Kleenex. Non-tech people might not search for LLM, generative AI, etc. ChatGPT may just be what people have heard of. I’m assuming OpenAI has a large advantage over Anthropic, and the name helps, but I bet the name is exaggerating the difference here a bit. Not everyone buys Kleenex branded Kleenex.
> a lot of people are just kind of shit at their jobs.
Is this similar to the Peter principle, though? And not that it is exactly that concept, but that book is from 1969. People have been making this observation for a while.
In this context, it's more comforting to really pay attention to very competent people. I had a home inspector spend ~5 hours on my house and was amazed by every little detail he discovered and documented, and how knowledgeable he was, etc.
Similarly, I like it when I occasionally see little bits of on the job training when I'm a customer -- the barista this morning teaching another about pouring latte art, the senior dentist nudging the trainee into what the right diagnosis was based on the symptoms I was reporting, that kind of thing. It's encouraging to see people caring about what they do and passing their skills on to other people who care about getting better.
I was in New Zealand a couple of months ago and today something crystallized about my experience there - I consistently encountered people who were good at their jobs there.
They've got a shortage of people in the trades, but their tradies seemed highly professional and efficient, the folks at the bike shops were on point, the airport staff were quick to help and super informative (gate attendant explained visibility 'minimums'!)
I think that observation stands in the US too -- there are certain professions where you're more likely to find someone who cares.
You mentioned bike shops. At least in my area (New England) every person I've ever seen working in a bike shop was competent and cared about working in a bike shop. (They weren't necessarily the nicest and most personable people, but that's a different story.)
Who works in a bike shop? Almost no one "ends up" there the way people usually "end up" at their jobs -- following the easy flow of high school to college to a bunch of interviews at marketing-adjacent (or whatever) firms and finally working where ever offers them a job.
You're only likely to even consider working at a bike shop if you want to work at a bike shop.
Wondering what the other "bike shop" jobs are now.
> Wondering what the other "bike shop" jobs are now.
I'd say software & tech were those jobs before more and more folks just started going into it for the money. Working as a sysadmin and sysadmin adjacent roles my whole career, I've seen it shift in real time from skilled craftspeople whom had a true curiosity and interest in computing, to folks who have zero interest in the field at all, many of whom hate their job, but stay in it purely for the money as very few other careers pay as well as what you can make in tech without advanced education.
Oter "bike shop" jobs I think you'll find in mostly hobby places - photography/camera shops, outdoor gear shops, local/independent bookstores, and craftmanship work - woodworking/hand-made furniture, musical instrument repair, some mechanics.
It makes me wonder if there are still those "bike shop" jobs to be found in tech. I feel like I missed out on the golden years of the tech age where I would have found my curiosity and interests satisfied by my job, but maybe there might be a few niches out there somewhere...
I think some of the indie game studios have this. Think of team behind Clair Obscur. Not that it also isn't very hard place with lot of risk and on average more meagre rewards...
VFX software development, repairing and modifying pipelines for artists, at a company with a large internal tool infrastructure like Weta, ILM, Pixar, is my target job
Bike shops generally don't drug test, rarely have a dress code and attract a pretty select crowd.
Aside from that, you're a mechanic. Motorcycle dealers/car dealers/random car lots hire mechanics too any may or may not care what you do on your own time.
Plenty of maritime industries need that same skill set, as do mining operations, agricultural equipment dealers and all of the medium size shops that repair heavy equipment you've never heard of.
Fab shops are great, if you want a bicycle shop experience but bigger and with 100% more yeehaw. You can teach yourself how to weld for a pretty low sum of money if you've got a couple hundred bucks, some space and creativity.
I think some of it is about getting away from big box stores and working with smaller shops. Now, that's not saying that small shops are automatically good, but you'll find people way better at some of them than you ever will at a big store. Big stores tend to care about pushing numbers and not expertise.
These are usually individual, passion-driven jobs. Others that come to mind include local outdoor outfitters, musical instrument makers, clock repairers, craftspeople (like textile artists, quilters, and jewelers), artisanal food producers, and coaches.
GP says "consistently encountered" and you respond with "well, that's true, but only in certain places". Seems like you're contradicting what they're saying and acting like you're in agreement.
I worked several different SW roles in Norway last year, it was the opposite; I now suspect the entire country is simply faking it until they run out of oil.
I think New Zealand tends to follow the same trends of cultural rot as the rest of the Western world, but years behind, and therefore a bit weaker too.
Home inspection is basically the tradesman version of how real-estate developers and GCs pretty much all try getting their realtor's license and dabbling in that at some point in their career and then rage quit because smiling and pushing papers is below them.
Anyone capable of working at a higher level like that will quickly be up and out to somewhere they can get paid to work on that level. Peter principal in action.
> Emacs is a Gnostic cult. And you know what? That’s fine. In fact, it’s great. It makes you happy, what else is needed? You are allowed to use weird, obscure, inconvenient, obsolescent, undead things if it makes you happy. We are all going to die.
There’s a handful of things like Emacs and APL/J/K that HN introduced to me a decade ago that actively reduce my productivity — and I don’t need your explanations for how I’m using them wrong. They’re, to me, like a good book I’ve already read but keep rereading in-place of books I haven’t read. The reduced productivity is fine because we’re some unknown time away from nuclear war or falling down the stairs.
In fairness to Emacs, this is a bit sour grapes on my part!
I have tried to go fully into the "Emacs mindset" (org-mode for everything, multiple pages of custom hydra keybinds etc.) a number of times and I always bounce off. I always feel there is some activation threshold that if I could cross it, I could enter editor nirvana.
I used to joke that the way I use Emacs is I open it, give the empty buffer a very meaningful look, C-x C-c, and open VS Code.
For whatever it's worth, I think in 2025 with good LLMs, Emacs is actually bliss. Even as a true believer, I would regularly think of customisations, and then sigh at the effort and not bother. Now, I just get an AI to help me write the Emacs Lisp which not only teaches me new things, but also gives me (in seconds) an upgrade to my productivity which will last forever. Not only that, but I am using LLMs in my editor to help write code to make using LLMs in my editor even easier, so I feel like I've simultaneously crossed two thresholds.
My story is a lot like yours, except swap the two editors. I decide I'm really gonna try Visual Studio Code this time. Everybody uses it, it's become the default editor for like every recent programming language... it must be better than what I'm using, right? Fifty million Elvis fans can't be wrong!
And then I fire it up and... it's not compatible with my muscle memory. Plus I can't just pop open a buffer and morph my editor into what I need for the task in a language I like. (There is considerable rigamarole involved in writing a Visual Studio Code extension; I tried.) I can't work with buffers the way I'm used to, it doesn't indent the way I'm used to... and unless I'm willing to limit myself with VSCodium, it's spying on me in a way I consider hostile. So I put it away and get what I need done in Emacs. I must've been through this cycle like, six times.
The Great Toyota War is interesting to read about. Libya spent billions and lost ~800 tanks to Chad’s Hiluxes and Land Cruisers. Specifically the Battle of Fada was very lopsided with Chad dominating. If you ‘s/Toyota/drones/g’ you get some similar situations in more current battles.
Using Claude Opus 4, this was the first time I've gotten any of these models to produce functioning Dyalog APL that does something relatively complicated. And it actually runs without errors. Crazy (at least to me).
Same here, plus if you’re traveling with extended family (like siblings’ families) the total price can become insane in a hotel. And feeding all of those people is cheaper if you have a normal sized kitchen.
I just wish more Airbnbs had really dark rooms with blackout curtains. Hotels normally have that covered
Yeah, ignoring the OT, 70k in the Bay Area is ~40k in Omaha, Ann Arbor, Orlando, etc [1]. Without the OT it's more like 30k. And if your brain, like mine, hasn't adjusted to inflation yet, that's ~23k in 2019 dollars [2].
Can anyone recommend a decent Backblaze alternative in case things really go south? Not so much for storage but for the automated computer backups that I have Backblaze doing. I'm okay paying more than Backblaze's $9/month.
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