6 ms·

HN comments are absolute garbage on anything medical, endless uneducated "theories" and emotional anecdotes you don't need to share your personal backstory, ev

HN comments are absolute garbage on anything medical, endless uneducated "theories" and emotional anecdotes you don't need to share your personal backstory, everyone knows someone with mental health or cancer or alzheimer's, your idea that DNA is like compiled code makes me think you should go read a book, and your self-medication is probably not scientifically founded

podgorniy 3y ago
> HN comments are absolute garbage on anything medical They are of the same quality on other topics. You just know less about those other topics.
- HKH2 3y ago
  You're still reading them so they must be somewhat valuable to you.
  - fkyoureadthedoc 3y ago
    Doesn't mean the value is in their accuracy, and there are often good comments on software industry posts. The Jupyter Lab 4.0 post currently on the front page for example has a lot of great tips!
  - bazeblackwood 3y ago
    As an endless source of unintentional humor, absolutely.
  - coldtea 3y ago
    This is the most tired response. People also read all kinds of shit, watch cat and celeb videos, or doomscroll and hate themselves for wasting that time. People read stuff just to laugh at the ignorance, or in the off chance they'll find a good nugget. People also watch train wrecks. Being "somewhat valuable for them" doesn't imply anything further about it's overall value, or about its objective benefit for them.
    - HKH2 3y ago
      > This is the most tired response. Undoubtedly, but it forces cynics to concede value.
  - podgorniy 3y ago
    They are. On HN nouise/signal ratio is one of the best I saw on internet in public forums.
- nickpeterson 3y ago
  Hah, so true! But, to be fair to HN users, I do find good information on here a lot. Whenever a tool or product comes up I don’t know, I tend to look it up in the HN search to see if there was ever any discussion of it. Tends to be a good way to find experience reports or possible alternative solutions.
  - graypegg 3y ago
    I find HN to actually be really nice for the things HN knows well. People tend to correct comments from others with at least some respect, and normally the most accurate information floats to the top of the thread. The thing I generally find the least valuable is the “I’ll be downvoted for this” comments. Don’t prime people to be defensive!
- amelius 3y ago
  Other topics _except_ IT-related stuff, I guess.
downWidOutaFite 3y ago
And yet you're commenting on HN on something medical, so that means your comment is absolute garbage, which means that HN comments actually are not absolute garbage, which means my comment is absolute treasure. Air tight deduction, you're welcome.
- coldtea 3y ago
  You know about higher order (meta) statements, right?
  - downWidOutaFite 3y ago
    Are they exempt from being garbage?
    - coldtea 3y ago
      They are exempt from what they attribute to their lower-order siblings. When someone makes such a statement in a coversation, that should be the implicit charitable interpretation, so much so, that your kind of statement is uncharitable/disingenuous.
      - downWidOutaFite 3y ago
        "You lower order sibblings are all garbage and I won't engage with you because I'm higher order and refuse to stoop to your level" is the most garbage comment on here.
        uoaei 3y ago
        You simply don't understand how logic works, but you're too proud to admit it. At least you've demonstrated it adequately.
      - burnished 3y ago
        I think they are being funny - at least, their comments make me laugh, and it would be difficult to interpret the comment about higher order statements 'stooping' in a serious or literal context. Neat side topic though
ImHereToVote 3y ago
On the topic of geopolitics. HN users are a bunch of galaxy brain geniuses however.
- bee_rider 3y ago
  It is a little easier to believe that you could do better in that field, though, given the state of the world.
bee_rider 3y ago
Yea obviously DNA is like bytecode. RNA is the compiled code (it was jitted from DNA).
- phkahler 3y ago
  It's an analogy. It might fit or not. The same problem exists the other direction though. A biologist or doctor may not understand the relevant parts of the analogy and call it nonsense.
arkades 3y ago
Physician here, and I cannot emphasize this enough. To the point where I actively avoid most medical/healthcare threads - it’s oppressive to contribute.
- freedomben 3y ago
  I feel the same way when threads come up where I know the area very well. The ignorance and strong opinions from people that don't know what they're talking about can be maddening. But, the small signal to noise (maybe 1/10 or 1/20) that I often find on HN makes it worth it. I for one appreciate attempts!
- throwaway2990 3y ago
  Anything non tech related is a drain to read because people here fall for propaganda so easily, or just don’t have any ability to think about topics outside of tech.
freedomben 3y ago
> your idea that DNA is like compiled code makes me think you should go read a book, and your self-medication is probably not scientifically founded You're not wrong, but I think this goes against the hacker spirit on which HN is based. People who are curious, like to think, and like to make having a discussion. The theories may be unscientific, but the journey is worth something too. People should definitely maintain a huge dose of humility and socratic ignorance, but I think we'd lose something if we weren't able to throw out potentially dumb ideas and have other smart people shoot them down and tell us why we're wrong. The process in itself can be deeply intellectually satisfying. I think of it much the way I do when I read philosophy. Go on this thought journey with somebody. Try to understand their position/arguments, try to refute them, then read the refutations of others and repeat.
- p_j_w 3y ago
  >I think we'd lose something if we weren't able to throw out potentially dumb ideas and have other smart people shoot them down and tell us why we're wrong. The issue you'll run into here is there aren't enough professionals in field X on HN to adequately do this, so it just turns into software engineers throwing a bunch of ideas around, and probably bad ones! >I think of it much the way I do when I read philosophy. Go on this thought journey with somebody. Try to understand their position/arguments, try to refute them, then read the refutations of others and repeat. I think to really understand something you need to engage with an actual living human on the matter.

podgorniy 3y ago

> HN comments are absolute garbage on anything medical They are of the same quality on other topics. You just know less about those other topics.

HKH2 3y ago
You're still reading them so they must be somewhat valuable to you.
- fkyoureadthedoc 3y ago
  Doesn't mean the value is in their accuracy, and there are often good comments on software industry posts. The Jupyter Lab 4.0 post currently on the front page for example has a lot of great tips!
- bazeblackwood 3y ago
  As an endless source of unintentional humor, absolutely.
- coldtea 3y ago
  This is the most tired response. People also read all kinds of shit, watch cat and celeb videos, or doomscroll and hate themselves for wasting that time. People read stuff just to laugh at the ignorance, or in the off chance they'll find a good nugget. People also watch train wrecks. Being "somewhat valuable for them" doesn't imply anything further about it's overall value, or about its objective benefit for them.
  - HKH2 3y ago
    > This is the most tired response. Undoubtedly, but it forces cynics to concede value.
- podgorniy 3y ago
  They are. On HN nouise/signal ratio is one of the best I saw on internet in public forums.
nickpeterson 3y ago
Hah, so true! But, to be fair to HN users, I do find good information on here a lot. Whenever a tool or product comes up I don’t know, I tend to look it up in the HN search to see if there was ever any discussion of it. Tends to be a good way to find experience reports or possible alternative solutions.
- graypegg 3y ago
  I find HN to actually be really nice for the things HN knows well. People tend to correct comments from others with at least some respect, and normally the most accurate information floats to the top of the thread. The thing I generally find the least valuable is the “I’ll be downvoted for this” comments. Don’t prime people to be defensive!
amelius 3y ago
Other topics _except_ IT-related stuff, I guess.

downWidOutaFite 3y ago

And yet you're commenting on HN on something medical, so that means your comment is absolute garbage, which means that HN comments actually are not absolute garbage, which means my comment is absolute treasure. Air tight deduction, you're welcome.

coldtea 3y ago
You know about higher order (meta) statements, right?
- downWidOutaFite 3y ago
  Are they exempt from being garbage?
  - coldtea 3y ago
    They are exempt from what they attribute to their lower-order siblings. When someone makes such a statement in a coversation, that should be the implicit charitable interpretation, so much so, that your kind of statement is uncharitable/disingenuous.
    - downWidOutaFite 3y ago
      "You lower order sibblings are all garbage and I won't engage with you because I'm higher order and refuse to stoop to your level" is the most garbage comment on here.
      - uoaei 3y ago
        You simply don't understand how logic works, but you're too proud to admit it. At least you've demonstrated it adequately.
    - burnished 3y ago
      I think they are being funny - at least, their comments make me laugh, and it would be difficult to interpret the comment about higher order statements 'stooping' in a serious or literal context. Neat side topic though

ImHereToVote 3y ago

On the topic of geopolitics. HN users are a bunch of galaxy brain geniuses however.

bee_rider 3y ago
It is a little easier to believe that you could do better in that field, though, given the state of the world.

bee_rider 3y ago

Yea obviously DNA is like bytecode. RNA is the compiled code (it was jitted from DNA).

phkahler 3y ago
It's an analogy. It might fit or not. The same problem exists the other direction though. A biologist or doctor may not understand the relevant parts of the analogy and call it nonsense.

arkades 3y ago

Physician here, and I cannot emphasize this enough. To the point where I actively avoid most medical/healthcare threads - it’s oppressive to contribute.

freedomben 3y ago
I feel the same way when threads come up where I know the area very well. The ignorance and strong opinions from people that don't know what they're talking about can be maddening. But, the small signal to noise (maybe 1/10 or 1/20) that I often find on HN makes it worth it. I for one appreciate attempts!
throwaway2990 3y ago
Anything non tech related is a drain to read because people here fall for propaganda so easily, or just don’t have any ability to think about topics outside of tech.

freedomben 3y ago

> your idea that DNA is like compiled code makes me think you should go read a book, and your self-medication is probably not scientifically founded You're not wrong, but I think this goes against the hacker spirit on which HN is based. People who are curious, like to think, and like to make having a discussion. The theories may be unscientific, but the journey is worth something too. People should definitely maintain a huge dose of humility and socratic ignorance, but I think we'd lose something if we weren't able to throw out potentially dumb ideas and have other smart people shoot them down and tell us why we're wrong. The process in itself can be deeply intellectually satisfying. I think of it much the way I do when I read philosophy. Go on this thought journey with somebody. Try to understand their position/arguments, try to refute them, then read the refutations of others and repeat.

p_j_w 3y ago
>I think we'd lose something if we weren't able to throw out potentially dumb ideas and have other smart people shoot them down and tell us why we're wrong. The issue you'll run into here is there aren't enough professionals in field X on HN to adequately do this, so it just turns into software engineers throwing a bunch of ideas around, and probably bad ones! >I think of it much the way I do when I read philosophy. Go on this thought journey with somebody. Try to understand their position/arguments, try to refute them, then read the refutations of others and repeat. I think to really understand something you need to engage with an actual living human on the matter.