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So, I'm looking forward to the onslaught of insightful, balanced, and deliberative discussion that will accompany this article. Idea for HN: the balance of dow

So, I'm looking forward to the onslaught of insightful, balanced, and deliberative discussion that will accompany this article. Idea for HN: the balance of downvotes and upvotes on an article is a useful piece of information in and of itself. It might not be a good idea to show that on each particular article, but an end-of-year analysis of what words in an article title often corresponded to lots of downvotes (relative to the upvotes), would be an interesting way to measure which topics are currently hot-button issues.

fatbird 7y ago
The idea that an "insightful, balanced, and deliberative" discussion should happen implies that the topic is either unfamiliar and requiring exploration, or is somehow otherwise of indeterminate status with respect to norms, morality or consequences. At this point, if someone isn't at least dubious of Uber and the gig economy's value, given everything that's been publicly determined about them, I don't feel like I have a lot of time to waste on a "balanced" discussion.
- rossdavidh 7y ago
  An "insightful, balanced, and deliberative" discussion is able to determine the truth about a matter more effectively than one imbalanced, that is not deliberative or insightful. So even if you have an opinion on a topic, it is a useful way to proceed to discuss it if you are wanting to gain some insight. If you're not wanting to learn anything from the discussion, why even have it? It's not as if a flame thread on the internet is going to actually convince anyone of anything, or really accomplish much of anything.
  - fatbird 7y ago
    How many times do we have to have a balanced discussion to determine the truth before we accept that, with reasonable certainty, we've determined the truth and can discuss subsequent issues on that basis? I'm not suggesting a flame thread is more productive. I'm suggesting that a civility/debating club fetish keeps us rehashing basics and is itself an impediment to deeper learning.

fatbird 7y ago

The idea that an "insightful, balanced, and deliberative" discussion should happen implies that the topic is either unfamiliar and requiring exploration, or is somehow otherwise of indeterminate status with respect to norms, morality or consequences. At this point, if someone isn't at least dubious of Uber and the gig economy's value, given everything that's been publicly determined about them, I don't feel like I have a lot of time to waste on a "balanced" discussion.

rossdavidh 7y ago
An "insightful, balanced, and deliberative" discussion is able to determine the truth about a matter more effectively than one imbalanced, that is not deliberative or insightful. So even if you have an opinion on a topic, it is a useful way to proceed to discuss it if you are wanting to gain some insight. If you're not wanting to learn anything from the discussion, why even have it? It's not as if a flame thread on the internet is going to actually convince anyone of anything, or really accomplish much of anything.
- fatbird 7y ago
  How many times do we have to have a balanced discussion to determine the truth before we accept that, with reasonable certainty, we've determined the truth and can discuss subsequent issues on that basis? I'm not suggesting a flame thread is more productive. I'm suggesting that a civility/debating club fetish keeps us rehashing basics and is itself an impediment to deeper learning.