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I find Andreas's short non-technical posts to be fairly unenlightening, and am consistently surprised to see them attract so much attention on HN. The informati
by blueyes 3y ago
I find Andreas's short non-technical posts to be fairly unenlightening, and am consistently surprised to see them attract so much attention on HN. The information value here is low.
- jrvarela56 3y agoThis is good writing. Highlights a very important concept in very few words. I am thankful for the reminder.
- markusstrasser 3y ago+1
- m3kw9 3y agoI find the opposite, I find myself saying “I like this format”, because he boiled it down and I can extrapolate and understand just by reflecting on the simple ideas he put out.
- strikelaserclaw 3y agomaybe its good to have a reminder of obvious information which is vital once in a while
- passion__desire 3y agoSometimes it's just that you need to be reminded of what you already know. Taking your own advice and all that.
- OldManRyan 3y agoI enjoy them. It's a paragraph or so of easily digestible information. Not everyone has read something like Atomic Habits so the value is relative. Worst case scenario it acts as an excuse to kick off discussion.
- fsociety 3y agoPerhaps it’s not meant for you. Does not mean it’s not meant for others.
- stefncb 3y agoBesides what the others said, they're also good conversation starters.
- specialist 3y agoThey're descriptive, not prescriptive. Like journaling. Like "writing to understand" (oneself). Andreas benefits from the process itself. If other's appreciate it, woot. If not, just move on. I personally find Andreas's efforts comforting. Whereas I eschew the majority of our culture's prescriptive self-help BS. Just one sincere, yet still excretable, example is Mark Manson's middle brow rehash of philosophy; I get more from reading the OCs like Zeno and Epicurus.
- idlewords 3y agoI share your surprise at how simplistic self-help bromides consistently bubble to the top of this site.
- TillE 3y agoI dunno that it's surprising. Every time the subject of books comes up here, everyone's like yeah I read non-fiction. And it's never anything interesting, it's all self-helpy fluff with titles like Business Warrior: Brain Mindset.
- JHer 3y agoIt irritates me a bit that many comments on HN are like a Yelp review of the linked article instead of adding to the discussion of their comments. Maybe you see HN primarily as a community-curated list of links while I see it as a place of discussions? In this thread, for example, wccrawford gave an interesting perspective on choices in life. While they used the linked article as a reference point, the contents of their comment stand entirely on their own. The information value in the linked article is not that important, the value of the discussion is much more important. To me, that is.
- dpbriggs 3y agoNot everyone has heard this advice or is in the audience for which it's important. Andreas' audience includes a lot of young people for which this is valuable.
- drefinel 3y agothe message is self-evident, but seeing obvious advice rephrased by someone they respect can help many people stop ignoring and internalize it. I'm reminded of people who ignored "clean your room" every time their parents told them until Jordan Peterson said it.