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Thank you for linking to it. Good for Gates! I am amazed at the proclivity of people to enjoy and dwell on doom and gloom. Even here on HN, where people are sm

by mudil 9y ago

Thank you for linking to it. Good for Gates! I am amazed at the proclivity of people to enjoy and dwell on doom and gloom. Even here on HN, where people are smart and tech savvy, doom and gloom prevails. I believe that the tendency to think negatively is very intrinsic to our brains, and prevents most people from achieving their full potential and, I think, this tendency is the major negative force in our ability to achieve faster progress and more just society. PS Check out my recent discussion on HN, to see how my optimistic, most innocuous comments get criticized and down voted by doom and gloom crowd... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15100050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15100050 PPS There you have it: the comments to this thread are already piling up with doom and gloom.

CalRobert 9y ago
Do you have a counterargument to the doom and gloom? I mean, if an asteroid is headed to Earth it's not uncalled for to be doom and gloomy. It really does suck. The same goes for possibly eliminating most of the life on the planet and with it the ability for human civilization to persist.
- mamcx 9y ago
  That asteroid is climate change. Is just less fast.
  - CalRobert 9y ago
    That was precisely my point
mturmon 9y ago
I was one of the commenters near the thread you link to; the story was about pervasive melting of Alaska's permafrost. Again in that thread, you complained about "doom and gloom", and remarked "It's not the end of world, people." Here's the problem with this kind of comment. There is a specific issue under discussion, and instead of discussing the issue (e.g., technical fixes or mitigations), you complain in very general terms about the attitude of the people who are trying to discuss it. Here, you have further offered (without evidence) a just-so story about "thinking negatively" as an adaptation that is no longer serving those negative people out there. This kind of objection is especially galling in the case of climate. There are powerful forces that are blocking mere understanding and measurement of climate trends - much less mitigation. It's not "doom and gloom" to recognize the possible impact and to measure and understand. It's solid technical problem-solving. It's the reason things are getting better.

by mudil 9y ago

CalRobert 9y ago

Do you have a counterargument to the doom and gloom? I mean, if an asteroid is headed to Earth it's not uncalled for to be doom and gloomy. It really does suck. The same goes for possibly eliminating most of the life on the planet and with it the ability for human civilization to persist.

mamcx 9y ago
That asteroid is climate change. Is just less fast.
- CalRobert 9y ago
  That was precisely my point

mturmon 9y ago

I was one of the commenters near the thread you link to; the story was about pervasive melting of Alaska's permafrost. Again in that thread, you complained about "doom and gloom", and remarked "It's not the end of world, people." Here's the problem with this kind of comment. There is a specific issue under discussion, and instead of discussing the issue (e.g., technical fixes or mitigations), you complain in very general terms about the attitude of the people who are trying to discuss it. Here, you have further offered (without evidence) a just-so story about "thinking negatively" as an adaptation that is no longer serving those negative people out there. This kind of objection is especially galling in the case of climate. There are powerful forces that are blocking mere understanding and measurement of climate trends - much less mitigation. It's not "doom and gloom" to recognize the possible impact and to measure and understand. It's solid technical problem-solving. It's the reason things are getting better.