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This entire site is a recommendation engine. What the person stated above was a recommendation, much like advice, people don't have to do anything with it. Your

This entire site is a recommendation engine. What the person stated above was a recommendation, much like advice, people don't have to do anything with it. Your example of something being toxic because not everyone succeed as well as others or do not poses an innate ability in something is very difficult to conceptualize for few reasons. 1. There are plenty of people who excel at items better than others. Athletes, researchers, hackers, plumbers, electricians, basically anyone. 2. Our entire human evolution has been taking chances on things that might not succeed. 3. This is literally what YC/Hacker News is and was formed from, i.e Things posted or commented on are not given with the intention that it will work for everyone. Its all an experiment. To loosely quote Eleanor Roosevelt[1]: > "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." [1] https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/03/30/not-inferior/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/03/30/not-inferior/

ajb 3y ago
This is all true. But my point is true as well. HN is recommendation engine, but it's kind of targeted to people who have the time and space to do a lot of experiments, because they are young and without responsibilities. People who have mental health issues often have limited energy, so need to consider carefully the amount of time they should invest in each possible thing that might help them.
- ZeroSolstice 3y ago
  I believe your first statement makes a broad assumption about the targeted audience. >People who have mental health issues often have limited energy, so need to consider carefully the amount of time they should invest in each possible thing that might help them. This can apply to everyone not just people with mental health issues. The onus is placed on the reader here since we have established that HN is just an recommendation engine. Everyone is has a responsibility to do their own due diligence, especially from comments made on the Internet.
gessha 3y ago
One way to reconcile the two viewpoints is to find the conditions in which the recommendation is useful and instead of saying: “everyone can benefit from this therefore everyone should do it” To “People who are X and Y can benefit from this and should try it” Kind of like the sanity checks/boundary checks we put in the beginning of a function before we start processing data.
- ZeroSolstice 3y ago
  As a person making the recommendation why would you place bounds on it? There could be an unlimited number of conditions in which the suggestion could work as intended verse trying to consider all possible interpretations of your recommendation by all the people that might read it. Why would the onus for this not be on the reader to place within their own bounds of understanding and abilities?

ajb 3y ago

This is all true. But my point is true as well. HN is recommendation engine, but it's kind of targeted to people who have the time and space to do a lot of experiments, because they are young and without responsibilities. People who have mental health issues often have limited energy, so need to consider carefully the amount of time they should invest in each possible thing that might help them.

ZeroSolstice 3y ago
I believe your first statement makes a broad assumption about the targeted audience. >People who have mental health issues often have limited energy, so need to consider carefully the amount of time they should invest in each possible thing that might help them. This can apply to everyone not just people with mental health issues. The onus is placed on the reader here since we have established that HN is just an recommendation engine. Everyone is has a responsibility to do their own due diligence, especially from comments made on the Internet.

gessha 3y ago

One way to reconcile the two viewpoints is to find the conditions in which the recommendation is useful and instead of saying: “everyone can benefit from this therefore everyone should do it” To “People who are X and Y can benefit from this and should try it” Kind of like the sanity checks/boundary checks we put in the beginning of a function before we start processing data.

ZeroSolstice 3y ago
As a person making the recommendation why would you place bounds on it? There could be an unlimited number of conditions in which the suggestion could work as intended verse trying to consider all possible interpretations of your recommendation by all the people that might read it. Why would the onus for this not be on the reader to place within their own bounds of understanding and abilities?