You could argue that if you're in that situation you should be relying on existing networks to propel you into your next thing, but sometimes you want a new start or things just aren't aligning time-wise with your former allies.

The majority of folks on the site have never done a startup before and are entirely unproven in a startup context, or have a couple of short stints that they unfortunately didn't learn much from because the thing never gained any traction, so they did "1 year experience 3 times over". Doesn't mean they're not potentially great startup material, it's pretty hard to get something to take off. But, it's still a pretty risky bet for someone who wants to derisk partners a tad more.

It's interesting you say that because Hans Zimmer specifically said in an interview they tried their best to dodge the cliche' middle eastern musical tropes in this soundtrack. Perhaps they didn't go far enough for some people.

The company behind it offered to replace the product with whatever I wanted from their store as long as I signed a "I won't sue you" form and sent them the unit back for investigation. They said it was a manufacturing defect. I wasn't feeling like spending months or years in litigation, so I took the offer (no batteries this time) and moved on with my life. No regrets since.

The reality is that we're all surrounded by these ticking battery timebombs, and we're all at the mercy of manufacturing quality control and luck. Ever since that incident I never charge any new device unless I'm sitting next to it for a few hours, just to make sure nothing of the sort happens without my supervision. I realize it doesn't accomplish much, since these issues often happen hundreds of hours into the device's regular operation, but it gives me a false sense of safety.

Haven't quite figured out how to play those old classics again.

I had to attack this from every possible angle because I had practically the same experience as you. What ultimately worked for me was a combination of a piano teacher, going through the Adult Piano books, doing a few music production programs (including some online university ones) and surrounding myself (virtually) with people writing music regularly. Eventually, although through many ups and downs, it all made sense.

IMO the hardest part is having to scale the massive wall of terminology and basic concepts you have to grasp in order to speak music theory. Notes, durations, keys, chords, intervals, scales, modes, music notation, meter, various modifiers you would find on a sheet of music, etc.. in addition to being able to actually play those physically in the real world... It's a ton. You don't need any of it to actually write music that people will like, but if you want to feel like you can at least communicate about it to other humans, it really helps.