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Trolling IS fun. Great way to learn multiple sides of any argument AND to discover why people care in the first place. It's a good way to learn about people.
by Swizec 10y ago
Trolling IS fun. Great way to learn multiple sides of any argument AND to discover why people care in the first place. It's a good way to learn about people.
- bobwaycott 10y agoBut aren't there better ways to learn about people and why they care about an issue in the first place?
- clevernickname 10y agoDefine "better." Nicer? Maybe. More effective? Probably not. More amusing? Certainly not.
- bobwaycott 10y agoMore effective, certainly. Trolling invokes emotional reactions that, I think, drown out rational discussion. It's just taking cheap shots for amusement, with no real intention of gaining better understanding.
- kachnuv_ocasek 10y agoFrom my experience, I've found that trolling and Socratic dialogue bring out the key points forthright and also highlight the most severe points of disagreement. That usually doesn't happen so fast when arguing with hard facts (when applicable). You can also hardly say that about a Wikipedia article or a propaganda poster/website/book.
- bobwaycott 10y agoIt kind of makes the philosophy student in me worry to see trolling and Socratic dialogue offered as seeming equivalents. Though, I suppose Socrates was a damn good troll in his time.
- grub5000 10y agoI don't know, are there?
- bobwaycott 10y agoNon-trolling discussion aimed at achieving increased understanding, I would hope.
- dave2000 10y ago"Better"? What, like an objective better which works for everyone? Maybe. Maybe there are better ways of learning coding than by watching videos, but it's still a good way to learn which works for some people.
- joallard 10y agoNot at all, trolling is just a way to provocate people and make th— waaiit a minute...!
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- dang 10y agoWe detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11792565 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11792565 and marked it off-topic.