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I'm sorry for littering this thread, but I wanted to ask Analemma_ a question and didn't know how else to communicate with him/her. 23 days ago, you made a com

I'm sorry for littering this thread, but I wanted to ask Analemma_ a question and didn't know how else to communicate with him/her. 23 days ago, you made a comment: "Put down the Ayn Rand and go outside." in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13645996 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13645996 I've been reading about objectivism, and wanted to ask what you meant by this comment. Again, really sorry to be off-topic, but the question is burning.

Analemma_ 10y ago
Um, okay. In your comment, you said that CL keeping their product free instead of taking money to improve it was "selfish" in that it was (if I understood you correctly) withholding or stealing innovation from everyone else. I felt this position was ridiculous and could only have come about from reading too much Ayn Rand, of whom I am (to put it mildly) not a fan. Mine was admittedly an unnecessary and kinda trollish comment, and I've been trying to make fewer of those. Don't take it too seriously. To HN's credit, nobody upvoted it.
- smallgovt 10y ago
  Appreciate your response, and I'm happy you made the comment as it piqued my interest in the subject matter. Could you help me understand what part of the stated position reminded you of Ayn Rand / objectivism? I'm struggling to make the exact connection. Is it that ppl who read Ayn Rand tend to project a selfish motive on others? Also, would love to read more on why you're not a fan of Ayn Rand if you have any links. And, for the record, upon further inspection, my statement about CL was misleading. CL makes a lot of money, and profits could easily cover the cost of product development. I'm guessing their business philosophy just runs counter to these improvements.
  - Analemma_ 10y ago
    There's way too much here to get into on an unrelated comment thread (it's a little unfair to the OP). Kinda wish HN had DM functionality right now... My recommendation would be to write a blog post about the virtues of Objectivism, then submit it to HN. If people like it enough and it gets front-paged, I promise I'll be there in the comments and we can argue all you like ;)

Analemma_ 10y ago

Um, okay. In your comment, you said that CL keeping their product free instead of taking money to improve it was "selfish" in that it was (if I understood you correctly) withholding or stealing innovation from everyone else. I felt this position was ridiculous and could only have come about from reading too much Ayn Rand, of whom I am (to put it mildly) not a fan. Mine was admittedly an unnecessary and kinda trollish comment, and I've been trying to make fewer of those. Don't take it too seriously. To HN's credit, nobody upvoted it.

smallgovt 10y ago
Appreciate your response, and I'm happy you made the comment as it piqued my interest in the subject matter. Could you help me understand what part of the stated position reminded you of Ayn Rand / objectivism? I'm struggling to make the exact connection. Is it that ppl who read Ayn Rand tend to project a selfish motive on others? Also, would love to read more on why you're not a fan of Ayn Rand if you have any links. And, for the record, upon further inspection, my statement about CL was misleading. CL makes a lot of money, and profits could easily cover the cost of product development. I'm guessing their business philosophy just runs counter to these improvements.
- Analemma_ 10y ago
  There's way too much here to get into on an unrelated comment thread (it's a little unfair to the OP). Kinda wish HN had DM functionality right now... My recommendation would be to write a blog post about the virtues of Objectivism, then submit it to HN. If people like it enough and it gets front-paged, I promise I'll be there in the comments and we can argue all you like ;)