4 ms·

Why is this nectar for HN? When I saw the headline I just knew it would rocket to the top. Serious question.

by netfl0 5y ago

rgrieselhuber 5y ago
Also, people who think in terms of systems, incentives, and externalities see a lot of risk around the corner.
api 5y ago
Watch HBO's Silicon Valley and then consider that they really had to tone it down to make it believable as fiction.
- netfl0 5y ago
  One of my favs, hit too close to home in some cases... Side note, this article appears to be removed from the front page now... interesting.
amelius 5y ago
1. Part of HN thinks their next app will make them super-rich, so this affects them. 2. Another part of HN sees this as an opportunity. "In a gold-rush, sell shovels". 3. Yet another part of HN has been trying hard to get rich without results, and sees the super-rich as having had unfair advantage, and therefore now has an aversion against this group. This leads to upvoting to fuel discussions about survivor bias, wealth inequality, fairness of the economy etc.
- Zababa 5y ago
  4. Part of HN may be doing doomsday prep, and see this as a confirmation that they are doing the right thing 5. For myself, I always find doomsday prep stuff interesting
  - LinuxBender 5y ago
    6. And some of us grew up with relatives that survived the great depression and WWII. We learned to preserve and stock up on foods, save up money, have enough supplies to last for rough times. We learned to not entirely trust and rely on institutions like banks or the governments that regulate them to save us.
    - Zababa 5y ago
      Fair point, I didn't mean to imply that people doing doomsday prep were irrational or not justified.
      - pc86 5y ago
        I mean it's a spectrum for sure. At some point you're preparing to survive in a world nobody would want to live in anyway. And the proportion of preppers who are legitimately disconnected from reality is quite a bit higher than the general population.
        LinuxBender 5y ago
        I can agree with this. I've seen many of the expensive bunkers people are throwing money at. Most of the things in the bunker won't help them survive more than a few weeks. I would have expected the super-wealthy to have dozens or hundreds of 1k gallon stainless steel tanks for pure water, massive battery and generator banks, O2 generators, numerous hermetically sealed rooms of freeze-dried foods, massive tanks for human waste. Nope. None of that. Just really expensive underground houses and expensive toys that won't work when the SHTF. I suppose they will pass in good fashion. [1] [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8sxgXLguqI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8sxgXLguqI
  - JohnBooty 5y ago
    I don't even do doomsday prep, and I find it interesting. I actually think all people should do some limited "prepping" and there are things that can be learned from the people that are really into it. I try to think about how I might survive for a few weeks if crap hits the fan to a limited extent. In the most basic terms that means food and drinking water for a couple of weeks. This can be done pretty simply for like, $20USD per person - rice, beans, water, maybe some multivitamins, etc. In 6-12 months you can just eat that stuff and replace it in your "mini-prepper" kit. So in a way it doesn't really cost anything, just some shelf space. You'll also obviously need a way to cook the food, too so -- maybe $40 for a little camping stove and some propane. If you have a large-ish chest freezer, that's an excellent asset. Fill it with ice packs, will stay cold for weeks even after the power goes out. An emergency "go bag" / "bug out bag" is worth thinking about as well. The nature of some emergencies is such that you'll need to hit the road. IMO this is more expensive/challenging to do well but it's also the case of "literally anything is better than nothing". A $5 backback with a Leatherman, a purifying water bottle, and a blanket is 1000x better than nothing. (I don't bother thinking about how I might survive individually in the face of complete societal breakdown. The rules for surviving that will be completely different - things will quickly coalesce into gangs/tribes/mob rule, that kind of thing)
- deleted 5y ago
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deleted 5y ago
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JKCalhoun 5y ago
I think societal-collapse is in the modern Zeitgeist, not specific to HN though. Like someone on the docks watching cargo being loaded on one side of a ship, anyone paying attention to the increasing imbalance between the have's and have-not's is anticipating that this will not end well. (And paying attention to this maybe is more the HN crowd?)
JohnBooty 5y ago
For one thing, for many the concept of "prepping" is an irresistible problem to tackle. It's kind of a "fun" challenge to solve -- like how can I fit enough stuff to survive for $DAYS into a backpack? Or $SOMEOTHERTIMESPAN at my home? What would that stuff be? How can I do it for $X or less? (I put "fun" in quotes because obviously, the idea of needing your prepped stuff is not fun at all) It's the kind of engineering-ish, working-within-constraints challenge that tends to apply to HN types.

Why is this nectar for HN? When I saw the headline I just knew it would rocket to the top. Serious question.

by netfl0 5y ago

Why is this nectar for HN? When I saw the headline I just knew it would rocket to the top. Serious question.

rgrieselhuber 5y ago

Also, people who think in terms of systems, incentives, and externalities see a lot of risk around the corner.

api 5y ago

Watch HBO's Silicon Valley and then consider that they really had to tone it down to make it believable as fiction.

netfl0 5y ago
One of my favs, hit too close to home in some cases... Side note, this article appears to be removed from the front page now... interesting.

amelius 5y ago

1. Part of HN thinks their next app will make them super-rich, so this affects them. 2. Another part of HN sees this as an opportunity. "In a gold-rush, sell shovels". 3. Yet another part of HN has been trying hard to get rich without results, and sees the super-rich as having had unfair advantage, and therefore now has an aversion against this group. This leads to upvoting to fuel discussions about survivor bias, wealth inequality, fairness of the economy etc.

Zababa 5y ago
4. Part of HN may be doing doomsday prep, and see this as a confirmation that they are doing the right thing 5. For myself, I always find doomsday prep stuff interesting
- LinuxBender 5y ago
  6. And some of us grew up with relatives that survived the great depression and WWII. We learned to preserve and stock up on foods, save up money, have enough supplies to last for rough times. We learned to not entirely trust and rely on institutions like banks or the governments that regulate them to save us.
  - Zababa 5y ago
    Fair point, I didn't mean to imply that people doing doomsday prep were irrational or not justified.
    - pc86 5y ago
      I mean it's a spectrum for sure. At some point you're preparing to survive in a world nobody would want to live in anyway. And the proportion of preppers who are legitimately disconnected from reality is quite a bit higher than the general population.
      - LinuxBender 5y ago
        I can agree with this. I've seen many of the expensive bunkers people are throwing money at. Most of the things in the bunker won't help them survive more than a few weeks. I would have expected the super-wealthy to have dozens or hundreds of 1k gallon stainless steel tanks for pure water, massive battery and generator banks, O2 generators, numerous hermetically sealed rooms of freeze-dried foods, massive tanks for human waste. Nope. None of that. Just really expensive underground houses and expensive toys that won't work when the SHTF. I suppose they will pass in good fashion. [1] [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8sxgXLguqI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8sxgXLguqI
- JohnBooty 5y ago
  I don't even do doomsday prep, and I find it interesting. I actually think all people should do some limited "prepping" and there are things that can be learned from the people that are really into it. I try to think about how I might survive for a few weeks if crap hits the fan to a limited extent. In the most basic terms that means food and drinking water for a couple of weeks. This can be done pretty simply for like, $20USD per person - rice, beans, water, maybe some multivitamins, etc. In 6-12 months you can just eat that stuff and replace it in your "mini-prepper" kit. So in a way it doesn't really cost anything, just some shelf space. You'll also obviously need a way to cook the food, too so -- maybe $40 for a little camping stove and some propane. If you have a large-ish chest freezer, that's an excellent asset. Fill it with ice packs, will stay cold for weeks even after the power goes out. An emergency "go bag" / "bug out bag" is worth thinking about as well. The nature of some emergencies is such that you'll need to hit the road. IMO this is more expensive/challenging to do well but it's also the case of "literally anything is better than nothing". A $5 backback with a Leatherman, a purifying water bottle, and a blanket is 1000x better than nothing. (I don't bother thinking about how I might survive individually in the face of complete societal breakdown. The rules for surviving that will be completely different - things will quickly coalesce into gangs/tribes/mob rule, that kind of thing)
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

JKCalhoun 5y ago

I think societal-collapse is in the modern Zeitgeist, not specific to HN though. Like someone on the docks watching cargo being loaded on one side of a ship, anyone paying attention to the increasing imbalance between the have's and have-not's is anticipating that this will not end well. (And paying attention to this maybe is more the HN crowd?)

JohnBooty 5y ago

For one thing, for many the concept of "prepping" is an irresistible problem to tackle. It's kind of a "fun" challenge to solve -- like how can I fit enough stuff to survive for $DAYS into a backpack? Or $SOMEOTHERTIMESPAN at my home? What would that stuff be? How can I do it for $X or less? (I put "fun" in quotes because obviously, the idea of needing your prepped stuff is not fun at all) It's the kind of engineering-ish, working-within-constraints challenge that tends to apply to HN types.