Leo's Blog Discussion Mega-Thread

[Leo Gura]

3 hours ago, Butters said:

Why can't you just print out the forum posts and publish that as a book? Saves you lots of time. 

(joking, obviously) 

Because the book needs to be much more potent and cohesive. It is not a random asortment of things I say.

Edited 15 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Joseph Maynor]

I was watching FX the other day on a rare occasion that I was sitting in front of a TV, and the show I was watching was so bad I was wishing for some fine art honestly.  That said, I can't stand Picasso honestly.  All fine art means to me is a heightened degree of skill due to technique and experience and also weighed or measured against other artworks in an artform.  

Picasso is to visual arts as John Cage is to music.  It's provocative and needs a narrative to understand because it goes beyond aesthetics into the area of provocation or forcing questioning.  You wouldn't say that Picasso's paintings are conventionally beautiful.  They're taunting in the way Frank Zappa is taunting in Rock music.  It's criticism, in a way, mixed with aesthetics.  It's like Derrida doing philosophy.  I prefer fine art that is conventionally beautiful even if it has seeds of ugliness or rough around the edges notes in it.  It still has to be beautiful for me to want to experience it over and over.

Edited 13 hours ago by Joseph Maynor

[Raze]

52 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Because the book needs to be much more potent and cohesive. It is not a random asortment of things I say.

Are you also focusing on making the book have literary merit and well written sentences / verbal wit? 

[Natasha Tori Maru]

It might be more accurate and less confusing to say 'it is arbitrary who decides the top great masters of each art movement', rather than state 'their skill is overrated'. Because it is the institutional power, group consensus, politics, historical accident, access and resultant group think that I see as the issue.

Many of these artist's have skill in the creative and directive realms - some receive accolades for innovating or applying their vision in a never before seen way. These, as well as tool use, control, materials, accuracy of rendition (proportion, anatomy)... then we can go on into perceptual sensitivity; colour relationships, spatial tension, rhythm (negative/positive space), emotional rendition, balance, harmony. Narrative flow. Stylistic rules. Skill begins to point toward an artist that can decide better. Direct. 

It might help to define what is meant by 'skill'. It is too nebulous a term to be used without defining what we mean, as combined with all of the above an element of subjectivity is present in what determines 'skill'.

Some of the greatest masters are not known for the technical ability. Some just for what they introduced as a concept IE Andy Warhol.

All of the above is sort of why I dislike art critics so much. 

You cannot just measure it with a ruler, see it conforms and slap 'great' on it.

Edited 14 hours ago by Natasha Tori Maru

[Joseph Maynor]

What's sort of awful is the music that the masses like that is insanely popular for no good reason.  

 

[Human Mint]

On 30/1/2026 at 2:49 PM, LambdaDelta said:

What about children in Africa born into slavery, or some genetic disorder you have because a corrupt company has been polluting your city? Here comes separation again. Are Africa, DNA, oppressive ideologies, DuPont, air, and history not part of Mind? Therein lies the issue, a multi-thousand year history of misuses of mind, sowing divisions of all sorts. A proper use of an individual's mind will not automatically solve suffering, not even for them, much less the entire world, but what it can do is inspire love, connection, and beauty.
Tip: drop the distinction between 'directly' and 'indirectly'; God only works directly.  

It is not trivial, because what matters is the collective properly using their minds. It would be imposible for an individual to properly use his mind if their environment is polluted because some group didn't think through the consecuenses and being creative about solutions. Is all about making conections hidden at first glance. And the ego takes the first glance as ultimate reality and it reacts relative to that point, which is a mistake because truly there are hidden conections everywhere. So the ultimate skill to have is to effortless connect dots everywhere anytime. That's what knowing thyself means, at a deep level but also at a personality level. When you start understanding that giving space to your mind will lead naturally to you "waking up" more and reveal more then you find gold.  That's what the mind does naturally when it lands in caregiving hands.

[Human Mint]

On 30/1/2026 at 3:25 PM, LambdaDelta said:

Nothing I said implies you have to make perfect use of your mind all the time (that's actually impossible) nor that suffering is bad in any way. On the contrary, it's the best self-correcting mechanism there is. Whether you're sure about this point or not is up to you to contemplate, I could of course just be talking out of my ass. 

Well I disagree to an extent because I could have been a thousand times more intelligent and creative if it wasn't for toxic society behaviors which I have inherited. That is normalized addictions, making money out of producing addicted people. 

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, Raze said:

Are you also focusing on making the book have literary merit and well written sentences / verbal wit? 

To some degree. But its more about the density and depth of the insights. My writing style is pretty causal and simple.

Some verbal wit, but I'm not trying to impress people with fancy language.

[Human Mint]

The CEO of Suno is one such example of a scammer. Explicitly only caring about the money and trying to convince people to drop music skill aquisition and trade it for quick AI songs which of course are dumb because to make a good promt you still need a skilled artist. It is not even fun not being able to create the music by your own. It is absolute and exclusively a scam.

Music made by AI was something that inevitably someone would have created. But it could've been directed by a mature person and not such an asshole. A mature person would promote such app as that only complements in specific occasions and train people to spot those ocassions. A mature person would not lead people into brainrot.

[Leo Gura]

4 minutes ago, Human Mint said:

It is absolute and exclusively a scam.

AI is not a scam, but it is overhyped.

Using AI to make music is not a scam, but it is problematic and limited in many ways.

A CEO's job is to run a profitable company. So he is doing his job. His job is not to make good music or good musicians.

[Joseph Maynor]

1 hour ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

Some of the greatest masters are not known for the technical ability. Some just for what they introduced as a concept IE Andy Warhol.

All of the above is sort of why I dislike art critics so much. 

You cannot just measure it with a ruler, see it conforms and slap 'great' on it.

True.  But Andy Warhol has an original aesthetic like Elmore James does that makes their artworks great.  You don't need to be technically excellent at skill to create great art.  You can have an original aesthetic that is amazing.  This is why some overly-technical music sounds awful in a way because it's too many notes or some other balance is off.  

[Natasha Tori Maru]

1 hour ago, Joseph Maynor said:

You don't need to be technically excellent at skill to create great art.  You can have an original aesthetic that is amazing.  This is why some overly-technical music sounds awful in a way because it's too many notes or some other balance is off.  

Yes exactly - which is why I raised that 'skill' is a touch broad of a term, as it can reference more than just technical ability.

Original aesthetics are very close to what I think of as individuals with an artists vision or a directorial eye. 

[Human Mint]

10 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

AI is not a scam, but it is overhyped.

Using AI to make music is not a scam, but it is problematic and limited in many ways.

A CEO's job is to run a profitable company. So he is doing his job. His job is not to make good music or good musicians.

The idea of making the music you have in your head through the AI is a good thing. Probably a lot of creative individuals will love that and there are genuine good uses for it like in education.

But it is still a superficial phenomenon and this person is supposedly a musician, and you can see he is not very holistic. If he achieves his vision, then end of the story. But as a musician myself I see many problems with it. And I am not trying to be a purist.