5 ms·

The point is that this technology forum is in the sad state of being consistently dismissive of novel technology.

Karunamon 5y ago
I don't think that's an age thing as much as a knee-jerk cynicism thing that's been here since at least 2011. Don't read HN if you want to be excited about something new, read HN if you want it to be torn apart with constant negativity.
gfodor 5y ago
Yup HN is legacy at this point. A bunch of old people yelling at clouds. It’s the new Slashdot. So it goes.
- qorrect 5y ago
  I'm going to go ahead and ask you to get off my lawn.
- jgilias 5y ago
  I've seen all kinds of demographics and localities on HN. What would be the new HN then?
- Oddskar 5y ago
  Such hogwash. Because people dismiss the latest lofty vision of a tech behemoth (that has a long graveyard of unsuccessful services behind them) we're now "legacy" and "old people yelling at clouds"? Disregarding Meta entirely, I would say it's completely normal for people on HN to be sceptical of new things. Most new things don't work out. Most new things are either vaporware or snake oil. It's hard to tell the good from the bad sometimes.
  - gfodor 5y ago
    > Because people dismiss the latest lofty vision of a tech behemoth No, the reason is because many new technologies are dismissed here not due to technical infeasibility, but because posters cannot understand the point or value proposition. When this is happening in response to technologies that many people are using and investing in as early adopters, which provides proof of some kind of value at a minimum, is generally speaking a sign of being out of touch to write it off entirely as doomed to fail, vaporware, etc, because you simply do not understand what people are investing their time and capital in. For example this comes up continually with VR and AR and crypto, extremely rapidly growing technologies with tons of capital flooding into them. It's one thing to say we can't do something, it's another thing to see entire industries forming around you and tons of capital being allocated and saying it will all fail simply because you don't see the point.
    - Oddskar 5y ago
      Will you recognize that it doesn't actually have to be a point to it, though? As long as you can spellbind investors there doesn't actually need to be something useful that's build at the end of the day. "Crypto" is a good example of this. A lot of the products and services that were build using Blockchain could just have used a normal RDBMS.
      - rapiz 5y ago
        > A lot of the products and services that were build using Blockchain could just have used a normal RDBMS. That's how you dismiss the value and can't understand
      - gfodor 5y ago
        Sure, no doubt. But the arguments fielded on HN as to why these various technologies are dead ends and will implode once people become rational are weak. They're usually from people who literally have never used the technology (or, used it many years ago.) At best, they have, don't get it (which is fine) but then go on to make the leap that since they didn't get anything out of it, the whole thing is a house of cards. This is a similar error as thinking every new tech that comes along is going to be the next big thing. The value prop of VR and AR is remote social presence on par with f2f and full sensory override. This is why Facebook is pivoting the entire company around it. This is not something to ignore and dismiss, unless you think Zuck is a complete idiot. The value prop of crypto is economic freedom. This is why VCs are pivoting their entire portfolios around it and why more than a trillion USD have rushed into it. This is not something to ignore and dismiss, unless you think the entire alternative Internet-based financial system being developed around crypto is a bunch of hot air. At a minimum, for those technologies, they deserve steelmanning given how far they've run without dying. The hubris it takes to dismiss things as big as these, which as much potential to radically alter society, isn't just unfounded, but foolish, given that being on the wrong side of this trade in the direction of dismissiveness is hugely risky if you are a technologist.
        unixbeard1337 5y ago
jay_kyburz 5y ago
I'm nearly 50, I think the Metaverse is a solution looking for a problem, but I don't hate all new tech. I'm excited about Deno. I really like the idea of serverless, cloud functions, and these new durable cloud objects that Cloudflare is talking about. I'm super excited about the Steam Deck. A powerful, handheld PC running Linux, with real buttons I can click, not all just touch screens. I can understand how Smart Watches will be cool eventually. When they are unteathered and running an open OS. I will grudgingly admit that the stupid siri voice assist ball thing my wife bought is useful. We use it a lot for setting timers and alarms, playing music, and we are slowing finding more ways it can be useful. I can see that as Siri gets smarter, she will be more useful, so I can understand why everybody is going ape shit over AI. I think e-bikes scooters are cool. I think EV cars will change the world significantly. I do a 15 minute commute on a scooter every day. There is a lot of great new tech out there. VR is not one of them.

I don't think that's an age thing as much as a knee-jerk cynicism thing that's been here since at least 2011. Don't read HN if you want to be excited about something new, read HN if you want it to be torn apart with constant negativity.

gfodor 5y ago

Yup HN is legacy at this point. A bunch of old people yelling at clouds. It’s the new Slashdot. So it goes.

qorrect 5y ago
I'm going to go ahead and ask you to get off my lawn.
jgilias 5y ago
I've seen all kinds of demographics and localities on HN. What would be the new HN then?
Oddskar 5y ago
Such hogwash. Because people dismiss the latest lofty vision of a tech behemoth (that has a long graveyard of unsuccessful services behind them) we're now "legacy" and "old people yelling at clouds"? Disregarding Meta entirely, I would say it's completely normal for people on HN to be sceptical of new things. Most new things don't work out. Most new things are either vaporware or snake oil. It's hard to tell the good from the bad sometimes.
- gfodor 5y ago
  > Because people dismiss the latest lofty vision of a tech behemoth No, the reason is because many new technologies are dismissed here not due to technical infeasibility, but because posters cannot understand the point or value proposition. When this is happening in response to technologies that many people are using and investing in as early adopters, which provides proof of some kind of value at a minimum, is generally speaking a sign of being out of touch to write it off entirely as doomed to fail, vaporware, etc, because you simply do not understand what people are investing their time and capital in. For example this comes up continually with VR and AR and crypto, extremely rapidly growing technologies with tons of capital flooding into them. It's one thing to say we can't do something, it's another thing to see entire industries forming around you and tons of capital being allocated and saying it will all fail simply because you don't see the point.
  - Oddskar 5y ago
    Will you recognize that it doesn't actually have to be a point to it, though? As long as you can spellbind investors there doesn't actually need to be something useful that's build at the end of the day. "Crypto" is a good example of this. A lot of the products and services that were build using Blockchain could just have used a normal RDBMS.
    - rapiz 5y ago
      > A lot of the products and services that were build using Blockchain could just have used a normal RDBMS. That's how you dismiss the value and can't understand
    - gfodor 5y ago
      Sure, no doubt. But the arguments fielded on HN as to why these various technologies are dead ends and will implode once people become rational are weak. They're usually from people who literally have never used the technology (or, used it many years ago.) At best, they have, don't get it (which is fine) but then go on to make the leap that since they didn't get anything out of it, the whole thing is a house of cards. This is a similar error as thinking every new tech that comes along is going to be the next big thing. The value prop of VR and AR is remote social presence on par with f2f and full sensory override. This is why Facebook is pivoting the entire company around it. This is not something to ignore and dismiss, unless you think Zuck is a complete idiot. The value prop of crypto is economic freedom. This is why VCs are pivoting their entire portfolios around it and why more than a trillion USD have rushed into it. This is not something to ignore and dismiss, unless you think the entire alternative Internet-based financial system being developed around crypto is a bunch of hot air. At a minimum, for those technologies, they deserve steelmanning given how far they've run without dying. The hubris it takes to dismiss things as big as these, which as much potential to radically alter society, isn't just unfounded, but foolish, given that being on the wrong side of this trade in the direction of dismissiveness is hugely risky if you are a technologist.
      - unixbeard1337 5y ago

jay_kyburz 5y ago

I'm nearly 50, I think the Metaverse is a solution looking for a problem, but I don't hate all new tech. I'm excited about Deno. I really like the idea of serverless, cloud functions, and these new durable cloud objects that Cloudflare is talking about. I'm super excited about the Steam Deck. A powerful, handheld PC running Linux, with real buttons I can click, not all just touch screens. I can understand how Smart Watches will be cool eventually. When they are unteathered and running an open OS. I will grudgingly admit that the stupid siri voice assist ball thing my wife bought is useful. We use it a lot for setting timers and alarms, playing music, and we are slowing finding more ways it can be useful. I can see that as Siri gets smarter, she will be more useful, so I can understand why everybody is going ape shit over AI. I think e-bikes scooters are cool. I think EV cars will change the world significantly. I do a 15 minute commute on a scooter every day. There is a lot of great new tech out there. VR is not one of them.