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"Middlebrow dismissals" like this are discouraged on HN.
by jolfdb 7y ago
"Middlebrow dismissals" like this are discouraged on HN.
- SanderSantema 7y agoI was interested what the exact meaning of a “Middlebrow dismissal” is (non-native speaker). But I could only find the following in the HN guidelines which doesn’t seem to mention middlebrow dismissals nor does it seem to be applicable to the toplevel comment: “Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something” What exactly is a “middlebrow dismissal” and why would the toplevel comment be that?
- warent 7y agoI'm a native English speaker and can take a stab here. Lowbrow typically means unsophisticated (as in, like a neanderthal or ape) whereas highbrow means sophisticated. I'm assuming middlebrow means, well, something in the middle. All of that being said, the "middlebrow dismissal" observation/criticism makes zero sense to me here.
- csa 7y agoI think this link answers it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5072224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5072224 This is pretty good, too: http://www.byrnehobart.com/blog/why-are-middlebrow-dismissals-so-tempting/ http://www.byrnehobart.com/blog/why-are-middlebrow-dismissal...
- ACow_Adonis 7y agoI'm a native speaker and I've got no idea what he's saying. honestly I thought the guy made it up to try to sound cool... I also assumed given that it was a green account and a one line response that it would be downvoted and marked as spam.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 7y agoI don't think my post is "middle-brow". It's also not a dismissal. Can you explain what about it made you think so? I posted detailed, personal experiences that directly argue against particular items of advice in the PDF. This is DH4 in http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html.