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I don’t know what the deal is, but I feel like the cynicism on HN has just constantly ramped up over the past couple of years. I actively feel worse after readi

I don’t know what the deal is, but I feel like the cynicism on HN has just constantly ramped up over the past couple of years. I actively feel worse after reading the comments on a lot of articles posted on here, and it’s just not an enjoyable experience. There was another article posted recently about a CEO raising the minimum salary of all of his employees to $70,000 and cutting his personal costs to afford it, and even with this gesture there were many negative comments and conspiracy theories about it.

hombre_fatal 7y ago
HN comments remind me of how monkeys would rather have nothing than see another monkey get more than them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg
- ryandrake 7y ago
  People are not always rational utility maximizers. See the Ultimatum Game[1]. There are always people who would rather get nothing than get a small amount when they know the other person would get more. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_game
  - lukifer 7y ago
    Assuming a game is played more than once (a safe assumption for human social behavior), I think an occasional Defect / Nobody Gets Anything is quite rational: it's a credible deterrent to disincentivize a grossly unfair distribution.
tenebrisalietum 7y ago
The number of non-tech articles with social/political slant on HN is increasing.
CydeWeys 7y ago
Seriously, I don't know why people are trying so hard to find the negative here in a thousand bucks bonus to all employees. The top ranked comment in this entire thread is currently "But why? [...] What do they need the extra money for?" Talk about crab mentality. If your employer gives you extra money, you take it! Good on Facebook for redistributing some vanishingly tiny fraction of their cash to their employees in this time of crisis.
- supercanuck 7y ago
  Here is why: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareholder_primacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareholder_primacy Why did they choose $1,000? Why not $2,000, $6,000 on any other number for that matter? They are piggy backing on the good will Andrew Yang and Mitt Romney generated.
  - nerdponx 7y ago
    Stated another way: this is a $45m PR investment.
    - packetslave 7y ago
      Considering that the only way HN knows anything about this is because some jerk leaked an internal post from Mark, this has nothing to do with PR.
      - Dahoon 7y ago
        "leaked"
      - srpinto 7y ago
        "Mark". Is he your friend?
        packetslave 7y ago
        In my experience, people mostly refer to him internally as "Mark". Just like at Google they refer to Larry and Sergey as, well, "Larry" and "Sergey".
bachmeier 7y ago
It's always been that way. Most notably, the launch of Dropbox.
enraged_camel 7y ago
It's pretty obvious: big tech companies like Facebook and Google have done a ton of horrible shit over the past decade, and have burned all the optimism and good will amongst the general public.
nerdponx 7y ago
the cynicism on HN has just constantly ramped up over the past couple of years People are waking up to how oppressed and abused they are by their governments and employers. They are frustrated and upset, and they are venting those frustrations on HN (among other places on the internet). Instead of bemoaning how it makes you feel bad (you poor thing!), why not take a look at what they're actually saying?
- dopamean 7y ago
  At least in this thread the naysayers aren't really saying anything.
ccktlmazeltov 7y ago
I work for Facebook and a lot of employees were quite stressed with all these changes (especially the ones with kids). I can tell you that this has been a huge boon for people's morale. (Just an insider's point of view, as I feel like HN doesn't get too many of these.)
- titanomachy 7y ago
  Boom -> boon?
  - staticautomatic 7y ago
    Also moral --> morale.
- ben_w 7y ago
  Morale is something I find fascinating, because half the normal boosters don’t work on me even though I expect them to while the other half do work even though expect them to fail [0]. Gifts like this are a good example: $1k is objectively small compared to annual salary, but it feels like a lot, so it is great to get given it. [0] I don’t work for FB, but I had a similar effect with the ~£60 “birthday” gifts at my first post-uni employer: small number, big morale impact. Conversely, the carnival and fireworks they arranged to celebrate a certain threshold made me feel less connected to everyone else at that place. The more I think about it, I’m wondering if I’m normal and it was all just anchoring bias because of details I don’t want to repeat in public…
  - technoplato 7y ago
    Don’t forget the additional bonuses that will come in Q3 due to all employees receiving “exceeds” on their 6 month review
    - CydeWeys 7y ago
      This is the real big one. I'm not at Facebook (but I am at a similar company), and I expect to be getting meets in biannual review process. If I instead got exceeds that would be a huge boon to me. It'd mean a bigger bonus and a bigger stock refresher, and would easily be worth tens of thousands of dollars in the first year alone (plus the remaining three years of the refresher).
dr-detroit 7y ago
Facebook could give me a million dollars (i dont work for them) and I would still hate them they make people miserable.
sumofi 7y ago
Is it note worthy that people who will not have issues are getting even more? I would say no? There should be some cynical response to that. "Oh you loose your business? I just got 1k extra to my FB salary" I'm not even sure why FB would not try to do something for the society directly with it's money instead of giving it to there well paid employees.
- twitch-chat 7y ago
  FB is donating to WHO, is creating a fund to help small businesses, partnered with CNN to spread awareness and keep people safe, and the Chan-Zuckerberg foundation has been helping test people across the Bay Area. Can they not help their employees too? I'm a FB employee and while I'm not in need, not everyone is a developer. Life is expensive here in the bay. I think some people need to chill.
  - sumofi 7y ago
    I don't mind it but I do sympathize with people who might see this as an inappropriate news.
smoyer 7y ago
So true ... let's give praise where praise is due even if we're not fans of an individual or organization. Kudos Facebook (for this policy/action). I also appreciate articles that provide a bit of humor - the sentence "In an effort to create social distancing, which can help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, Facebook has also asked its Seattle and Bay Area employees to work from home if they are able and banned social visitors to its offices" made me laugh because Facebook is promoting social distancing (next they'll recommend you delete your account).

hombre_fatal 7y ago

HN comments remind me of how monkeys would rather have nothing than see another monkey get more than them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg

ryandrake 7y ago
People are not always rational utility maximizers. See the Ultimatum Game[1]. There are always people who would rather get nothing than get a small amount when they know the other person would get more. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_game
- lukifer 7y ago
  Assuming a game is played more than once (a safe assumption for human social behavior), I think an occasional Defect / Nobody Gets Anything is quite rational: it's a credible deterrent to disincentivize a grossly unfair distribution.

tenebrisalietum 7y ago

The number of non-tech articles with social/political slant on HN is increasing.

CydeWeys 7y ago

Seriously, I don't know why people are trying so hard to find the negative here in a thousand bucks bonus to all employees. The top ranked comment in this entire thread is currently "But why? [...] What do they need the extra money for?" Talk about crab mentality. If your employer gives you extra money, you take it! Good on Facebook for redistributing some vanishingly tiny fraction of their cash to their employees in this time of crisis.

supercanuck 7y ago
Here is why: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareholder_primacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareholder_primacy Why did they choose $1,000? Why not $2,000, $6,000 on any other number for that matter? They are piggy backing on the good will Andrew Yang and Mitt Romney generated.
- nerdponx 7y ago
  Stated another way: this is a $45m PR investment.
  - packetslave 7y ago
    Considering that the only way HN knows anything about this is because some jerk leaked an internal post from Mark, this has nothing to do with PR.
    - Dahoon 7y ago
      "leaked"
    - srpinto 7y ago
      "Mark". Is he your friend?
      - packetslave 7y ago
        In my experience, people mostly refer to him internally as "Mark". Just like at Google they refer to Larry and Sergey as, well, "Larry" and "Sergey".

bachmeier 7y ago

It's always been that way. Most notably, the launch of Dropbox.

enraged_camel 7y ago

It's pretty obvious: big tech companies like Facebook and Google have done a ton of horrible shit over the past decade, and have burned all the optimism and good will amongst the general public.

nerdponx 7y ago

the cynicism on HN has just constantly ramped up over the past couple of years People are waking up to how oppressed and abused they are by their governments and employers. They are frustrated and upset, and they are venting those frustrations on HN (among other places on the internet). Instead of bemoaning how it makes you feel bad (you poor thing!), why not take a look at what they're actually saying?

dopamean 7y ago
At least in this thread the naysayers aren't really saying anything.

ccktlmazeltov 7y ago

I work for Facebook and a lot of employees were quite stressed with all these changes (especially the ones with kids). I can tell you that this has been a huge boon for people's morale. (Just an insider's point of view, as I feel like HN doesn't get too many of these.)

titanomachy 7y ago
Boom -> boon?
- staticautomatic 7y ago
  Also moral --> morale.
ben_w 7y ago
Morale is something I find fascinating, because half the normal boosters don’t work on me even though I expect them to while the other half do work even though expect them to fail [0]. Gifts like this are a good example: $1k is objectively small compared to annual salary, but it feels like a lot, so it is great to get given it. [0] I don’t work for FB, but I had a similar effect with the ~£60 “birthday” gifts at my first post-uni employer: small number, big morale impact. Conversely, the carnival and fireworks they arranged to celebrate a certain threshold made me feel less connected to everyone else at that place. The more I think about it, I’m wondering if I’m normal and it was all just anchoring bias because of details I don’t want to repeat in public…
- technoplato 7y ago
  Don’t forget the additional bonuses that will come in Q3 due to all employees receiving “exceeds” on their 6 month review
  - CydeWeys 7y ago
    This is the real big one. I'm not at Facebook (but I am at a similar company), and I expect to be getting meets in biannual review process. If I instead got exceeds that would be a huge boon to me. It'd mean a bigger bonus and a bigger stock refresher, and would easily be worth tens of thousands of dollars in the first year alone (plus the remaining three years of the refresher).

dr-detroit 7y ago

Facebook could give me a million dollars (i dont work for them) and I would still hate them they make people miserable.

sumofi 7y ago

Is it note worthy that people who will not have issues are getting even more? I would say no? There should be some cynical response to that. "Oh you loose your business? I just got 1k extra to my FB salary" I'm not even sure why FB would not try to do something for the society directly with it's money instead of giving it to there well paid employees.

twitch-chat 7y ago
FB is donating to WHO, is creating a fund to help small businesses, partnered with CNN to spread awareness and keep people safe, and the Chan-Zuckerberg foundation has been helping test people across the Bay Area. Can they not help their employees too? I'm a FB employee and while I'm not in need, not everyone is a developer. Life is expensive here in the bay. I think some people need to chill.
- sumofi 7y ago
  I don't mind it but I do sympathize with people who might see this as an inappropriate news.

smoyer 7y ago

So true ... let's give praise where praise is due even if we're not fans of an individual or organization. Kudos Facebook (for this policy/action). I also appreciate articles that provide a bit of humor - the sentence "In an effort to create social distancing, which can help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, Facebook has also asked its Seattle and Bay Area employees to work from home if they are able and banned social visitors to its offices" made me laugh because Facebook is promoting social distancing (next they'll recommend you delete your account).