4 ms·

Don't get me wrong. I am Pee-Wee Herman's biggest fan. But why is this on hacker news?

by of 11y ago

adventured 11y ago
There's a story on the frontpage of HN right now: "Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing Ambitions" This story about Pee-Wee is here for the same reason that one is. From the HN guidelines: "Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups."
- of 11y ago
  I also take issue with random startup management drama being on here like the "Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing Ambitions" story. I find "anything that good hackers would find interesting" kind of problematic. Good hackers according to who? Paul Graham? Silicon Valley capitalist culture? Please be more specific. Also from HN's guidelines: "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." So these are open for interpretation.
  - nocman 11y ago
    While I understand that everyone has their own idea of what should and should not be on Hacker News, must everything be regulated down to the gnat's whiskers? I know everyone's afraid of the conversations deteriorating to the point that they no longer want to come here, but you can go the other direction with that too. You can regulate it so much that no one wants to come post or read. I think there's a reasonable balance between the two (where that balance lies is something that many will surely disagree about also -- :-D ). And, for the record, I could have lived without the Pee Wee Herman story also.
    - tossaway1 11y ago
      HN should add some sort of mechanism where the community could vote on what articles it deems interesting/appropriate!
      - devcamcar 11y ago
        See also: None of us is as dumb as all of us.
        deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
    - tossaway1 11y ago
      HN should add some sort of mechanism where the community could vote on what articles it deems interesting/appropriate!
  - dang 11y ago
    The guiding value here is intellectual curiosity, which is gratified by running across things that are unpredictably interesting. HN has never been just about startups and tech. It's also about Byzantine coins, medieval manuscripts, Nabokov's butterfly expeditions, the tomb of Queen Esther, T.S. Eliot's letters, and Jim Henson's coffee commercials. Pee-wee Herman? Why not, if there's an interesting aspect to the story? Stories that take us off the beaten track into the wild are the rare earth elements of HN, and we can never get enough of them. There's a strong tendency for everything to homogenize on a small number of hot topics. Those are exciting, but to let them crowd out the quieter, odder material is not how to optimize HN's long-term interestingness. We think it's great to have stories on the front page that defy expectation, and we consciously moderate HN to protect those when we see signs of community interest in them. Of course people disagree greatly about what counts as interesting, but hey, if one oddball story bores you, another may hit the spot. Keep HN weird.
koberstein 11y ago
Because Paul Reubens hacked his own own reality and made it something interesting and amazing to behold.
- joezydeco 11y ago
  I also think it's interesting Reubens developed an entire plan to resurrect his career from what is typically an irrecoverable disaster. Performing his stage show in L.A. so that someone from a movie studio will "discover" him again and get psyched about a movie project? That's really really clever.
- ry_ry 11y ago
  Urgh. He didn't 'hack his reality' any more than he knitted, cooked or birthed it. Stop misappropriating words because they sound cool, there are whole dictionaries jam packed full of superb words, and its a lazy shame to lean on tedious zeitgeisty phrases.
  - splawn 11y ago
    I know you are, but what am I?
    - ry_ry 11y ago
      Whoever smelt it dealt it.
  - cgriswald 11y ago
    I thought the GP's comment was on fleek! Seriously, though, his use of the word hack was obviously intended to disarm the GGP's implied argument. It made me chuckle, and I think was a good word choice despite it's "tedious zeitgeistiness".
    - ry_ry 11y ago
      If that's the case then i am eating metaphorical humble pie after missing the joke. Edit.. Yep! On re-reading I suspect you are are right, now I just feel silly!
ericboggs 11y ago
Because he's a loner @of, a rebel. You don't want to get mixed up with a guy like him. :)
davidw 11y ago
I regularly complain about politics or current news articles here, but this is the kind of random, in-depth stuff that often times works well even if it's not directly startup/tech related.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
DonHopkins 11y ago
Because he has an abstinence ring and an iPad that Steve Jobs gave him and a robot and a talking chair and a magic screen and a globe that can show you maps and play music at the same time! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiDHUNiurqY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiDHUNiurqY

Don't get me wrong. I am Pee-Wee Herman's biggest fan. But why is this on hacker news?

by of 11y ago

Don't get me wrong. I am Pee-Wee Herman's biggest fan. But why is this on hacker news?

There's a story on the frontpage of HN right now: "Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing Ambitions" This story about Pee-Wee is here for the same reason that one is. From the HN guidelines: "Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups."

of 11y ago
I also take issue with random startup management drama being on here like the "Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing Ambitions" story. I find "anything that good hackers would find interesting" kind of problematic. Good hackers according to who? Paul Graham? Silicon Valley capitalist culture? Please be more specific. Also from HN's guidelines: "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." So these are open for interpretation.
- nocman 11y ago
  While I understand that everyone has their own idea of what should and should not be on Hacker News, must everything be regulated down to the gnat's whiskers? I know everyone's afraid of the conversations deteriorating to the point that they no longer want to come here, but you can go the other direction with that too. You can regulate it so much that no one wants to come post or read. I think there's a reasonable balance between the two (where that balance lies is something that many will surely disagree about also -- :-D ). And, for the record, I could have lived without the Pee Wee Herman story also.
  - tossaway1 11y ago
    HN should add some sort of mechanism where the community could vote on what articles it deems interesting/appropriate!
    - devcamcar 11y ago
      See also: None of us is as dumb as all of us.
      - deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
  - tossaway1 11y ago
    HN should add some sort of mechanism where the community could vote on what articles it deems interesting/appropriate!
- dang 11y ago
  The guiding value here is intellectual curiosity, which is gratified by running across things that are unpredictably interesting. HN has never been just about startups and tech. It's also about Byzantine coins, medieval manuscripts, Nabokov's butterfly expeditions, the tomb of Queen Esther, T.S. Eliot's letters, and Jim Henson's coffee commercials. Pee-wee Herman? Why not, if there's an interesting aspect to the story? Stories that take us off the beaten track into the wild are the rare earth elements of HN, and we can never get enough of them. There's a strong tendency for everything to homogenize on a small number of hot topics. Those are exciting, but to let them crowd out the quieter, odder material is not how to optimize HN's long-term interestingness. We think it's great to have stories on the front page that defy expectation, and we consciously moderate HN to protect those when we see signs of community interest in them. Of course people disagree greatly about what counts as interesting, but hey, if one oddball story bores you, another may hit the spot. Keep HN weird.

koberstein 11y ago

Because Paul Reubens hacked his own own reality and made it something interesting and amazing to behold.

joezydeco 11y ago
I also think it's interesting Reubens developed an entire plan to resurrect his career from what is typically an irrecoverable disaster. Performing his stage show in L.A. so that someone from a movie studio will "discover" him again and get psyched about a movie project? That's really really clever.
ry_ry 11y ago
Urgh. He didn't 'hack his reality' any more than he knitted, cooked or birthed it. Stop misappropriating words because they sound cool, there are whole dictionaries jam packed full of superb words, and its a lazy shame to lean on tedious zeitgeisty phrases.
- splawn 11y ago
  I know you are, but what am I?
  - ry_ry 11y ago
    Whoever smelt it dealt it.
- cgriswald 11y ago
  I thought the GP's comment was on fleek! Seriously, though, his use of the word hack was obviously intended to disarm the GGP's implied argument. It made me chuckle, and I think was a good word choice despite it's "tedious zeitgeistiness".
  - ry_ry 11y ago
    If that's the case then i am eating metaphorical humble pie after missing the joke. Edit.. Yep! On re-reading I suspect you are are right, now I just feel silly!

ericboggs 11y ago

Because he's a loner @of, a rebel. You don't want to get mixed up with a guy like him. :)

davidw 11y ago

I regularly complain about politics or current news articles here, but this is the kind of random, in-depth stuff that often times works well even if it's not directly startup/tech related.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

DonHopkins 11y ago

Because he has an abstinence ring and an iPad that Steve Jobs gave him and a robot and a talking chair and a magic screen and a globe that can show you maps and play music at the same time! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiDHUNiurqY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiDHUNiurqY