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>Hacker News generally considers itself liberal but actually holds very conservative views... I'm not sure that's entirely true. We're(1) a bunch of programmer
by noonespecial 7y ago
>Hacker News generally considers itself liberal but actually holds very conservative views...
I'm not sure that's entirely true. We're(1) a bunch of programmers. We are very sensitive to unintended consequences in complex systems. I think we just tend to be a little more careful with feel-good regulations that might produce these, along with being more evidence based in judging success.
(1) With all of the usual caveats about the monolithic "us".
- watwut 7y agoI don't think it is about being cautious of unintended consequences in general. It is about being cautious of some unintended consequences and not caring about other unintended consequences. The choice of which of these matters decides the politics.
- AlexTWithBeard 7y agoIt's about known unintended consequences vs. unknown unintended consequences.
- rs1234 7y agoTrue, but what about intended consequences my friend. Companies obviously have a vested interest in getting us to buy new products, rather than have us repair the older ones. So, I guess a little regulation will be ok.
- AlexTWithBeard 7y agoEvery company wants to manufacture a washing machine once and then keep selling spare parts with 100% margin. No RnD expenses, no assembly line, no demo stands - pure profit! That's like free printers with expensive ink cartridges. But apparently I'm wrong?
- abdullahkhalids 7y agoIf you realize that the null policy is also a policy, then there is no reason to be a priori more critical of active policies compared to the null policy.
- whatshisface 7y agoThe null policy always has more empirical validation because society clearly hasn't collapsed under it. This fact might be the essence of conservatism.
- oblio 7y agoThere's plenty of cases where null policies have failed. I could list them but that list obviously has to trigger Godwin's law...
- whatshisface 7y agoIf Hitler had not done anything, i.e. implemented the so-called null policy, nothing bad would have happened. Feel free to substitute with any other dictator if you want to avoid Godwin's law.
- JetSpiegel 7y agoChamberlain implemented a null policy and Hitler was the result.
- anoncake 7y agoEven if the right to repair were a bad policy, it certainly wouldn't cause society to collapse. Nor would it destroy democracy or cause any other irreparable damage. Implementing it merely risks a minor decrease in economic efficiency for a few years. The potential reward can last for an unlimited time. And there's a guaranteed reward too: Gaining knowledge on what policies work. We should do it even if we expected it to fail (see also VCs).
- conjectures 7y agoI know what you're getting at, and there is something there. However this argument is unfalsifiable. No society ever collapsed due to policy on repairing washing machines. One could survive indefinitely in a sub-optimal policy regime on a topic of limited importance without collapsing.
- FakeComments 7y agoThe conservative position is “don’t just do something, stand there” while a liberal one is “people can do what they want”. (Note the small letters.) Most people here are talking about completely different things, but the interesting part is this: liberal values are the conservative position in Western society right now, while “progressive” ones like organized racism, speech codes, and authoritarianism are the “new” political force. The appropriation of descriptive words for team names has done massive damage to political discourse, as it was meant to.
- gbrown 7y agoI think that's generous. Yesterday several people were fervently arguing that discriminating in job advertisements against protected classes should be fine because it may be "more efficient". Talk about unintended consequences...