2 ms·
> It seems to me like in the past there were a lot more entrepreneurs and technical people with significant seniority. It feels like the age of the crowd is muc
by Mezzie 5y ago
> It seems to me like in the past there were a lot more entrepreneurs and technical people with significant seniority. It feels like the age of the crowd is much younger now, and let's be blunt... there are reasons that stereotypes exist around 20-something techie young (predominantly) men as being arrogant and having few social graces. In this regard, HN has become a reflection of its commenters.
It's fascinating because I agree with you on the former but not the latter. I definitely think there's been a demographic shift from the 'original' people who just built their own things because that's what everybody was doing (a space of creativity) to the next generation who is emulating instead of creating. Which is odd.
On the other hand, the 20-something techie men culture was always a problem, speaking as someone who was here in the beginning. I was a 19 year old lesbian when HN was founded, and it was pretty damn hostile. I learned to keep it to myself.
- poulsbohemian 5y agoI hear what you are saying, especially since we lack real quantitative data here and are speaking subjectively about how we perceive a decade+ of discussion... I'm sure you are right that there was always an undertone of young men trying to one-up each other with comments. My gut tells me though that if we go back in time, there were more actual experts commenting, who drowned out or downvoted the people just here to shit post. Maybe not though, as your experiences bear out.