3 ms·

I think one of the problems may be that many people on HN have moved from the lower and middle class to the upper class and so their attitude of fighting for in

I think one of the problems may be that many people on HN have moved from the lower and middle class to the upper class and so their attitude of fighting for innovation has morphed into an attitude of defending the status quo and suppressing innovation while shunning the contrarian 'hacker' ideals which they used to harbor. Unfortunately, for those of us who fell through the cracks of the system and are left behind (and who are still fighting for innovation), we are finding that more and more HN community members who used to fight alongside us are now turning against us. The next generation of HN readers are being prepped for the role of a corporate servant, not that of a hacker entrepreneur. Those of us who remember how things used to be are having a hard time adjusting to the reality that the opportunities are all gone, we missed the boat and we are told to line up with the juniors and prepare for a life of bureaucratic corporate servitude. The great tragedy of the situation is that those of us who are left behind and still participate in HN are probably some of the most persistent, hard working, ambitious and most skilled (struggle is the best teacher) entrepreneurs/hackers in existence - We're still waiting for our first opportunity and it's looking like we will never get it.

mola 6y ago
I grew up middle class, still am (although middle class has almost vanished), and hope to remain middle class. Infact, my moral compass says striving to be rich is bad. I consider what is now considered innovation and entrepreneurism, overrated juvenile, and mostly hurtful. The fact that people don't agree with you, doesn't mean they are against you, or try to protect their power by holding you back. They may just think differently than you.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Agreed. And while my moral compass does allow for a very small subset of ways to be rich that I don't consider bad, as I grew up, I've learned this about innovation in tech: 90% of time it's just marketing bullshit, plain and simple. I've grown a cynical perception of the startup scene not because I hate innovation, or want to preserve status quo - it's because I love innovation, but all I keep seeing is startups arbitraging whatever random potential gradient they can find on the market. For every true innovation like people shipping medical supplies via UAVs in developing countries, there's many more startups that just try to suck on the sweet flow of adtech money, or to make cash arbitraging laws and social trust. The way I feel about both entrepreneurship and corporations these days: we've refined the ways of making money down to science, but in the process, we've got self-referential. We've lost sight of the big picture: that all that activity is meant to do something useful in the real world. And what's less hackery than self-serving innovation, where the actual thing being done is the free variable, and the only goal is to redirect the flow of dollars?

mola 6y ago

I grew up middle class, still am (although middle class has almost vanished), and hope to remain middle class. Infact, my moral compass says striving to be rich is bad. I consider what is now considered innovation and entrepreneurism, overrated juvenile, and mostly hurtful. The fact that people don't agree with you, doesn't mean they are against you, or try to protect their power by holding you back. They may just think differently than you.

TeMPOraL 6y ago
Agreed. And while my moral compass does allow for a very small subset of ways to be rich that I don't consider bad, as I grew up, I've learned this about innovation in tech: 90% of time it's just marketing bullshit, plain and simple. I've grown a cynical perception of the startup scene not because I hate innovation, or want to preserve status quo - it's because I love innovation, but all I keep seeing is startups arbitraging whatever random potential gradient they can find on the market. For every true innovation like people shipping medical supplies via UAVs in developing countries, there's many more startups that just try to suck on the sweet flow of adtech money, or to make cash arbitraging laws and social trust. The way I feel about both entrepreneurship and corporations these days: we've refined the ways of making money down to science, but in the process, we've got self-referential. We've lost sight of the big picture: that all that activity is meant to do something useful in the real world. And what's less hackery than self-serving innovation, where the actual thing being done is the free variable, and the only goal is to redirect the flow of dollars?