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Yes. From my perspective the conversation here is generally awful. It’s the same tired faux genius rhetoric over and over again. How many times will I read “th

Yes. From my perspective the conversation here is generally awful. It’s the same tired faux genius rhetoric over and over again. How many times will I read “these companies are just way too bloated” as the top comment on a layoff post? It’s always written with perfect confidence as if the commenter understands the chaos of the tech industry better than anybody else. People upvote it because it sounds good without ever thinking critically about what they just read. Well written, confident, and reassuring to me (as one of the few competent tech employees)? Upvote! How many times will people reply to the top comments with some vaguely related point they desperately want to make and that they feel is worth hijacking your attention for? Every single time. How many times will a top comment ask questions that are clearly answered in the link? We’re not even allowed to tell them to RTFA because that’s against HN rules. Posting the comment isn’t though. I stick around for those rare diamonds in the rough. The moments where an actual, proven genius logs in to post their yearly comment. Usually because somebody posted a link to their work and the top comment has hopelessly misunderstood it.

danielmarkbruce 3y ago
I know it's just one example, but you'll keep reading about the tech bloat while the companies are bloated. No one is pretending to be a genius, they just worked in it. The upvotes come from people who worked in it. They aren't random outsiders, they actually worked in these places. Big tech has been bloated for a long time.
- sosodev 3y ago
  Yeah, I’m sure the guy at the bottom of Google’s org chart knows for a fact that Discord is bloated.
  - kkoncevicius 3y ago
    I originally upvoted the commend you replied to, as it seemed to make a good point, but after reading your reply I had to take the upvote down and give it to you. Just wanted to share.
  - danielmarkbruce 3y ago
    People have friends, co-workers than move on etc etc. If you work at a couple decent sized companies in the bay area there is a good chance you come to know a person or two at a lot decent sized companies. And, the people at the bottom of the org chart often see it the clearest. They know what people are actually working on. If you haven't worked in one of the super bloated companies, it's hard to describe exactly how wild it is. Really, people aren't trying to sound smart, they've just had their butt in a seat at one of the places.
thot_experiment 3y ago
I feel like you're really focusing on the negatives, HN has a lot of great content and I generally find it to be a big positive but it's not like, very positive on the whole, I just feel like you can mostly ignore the bad parts and have fun with the good (and I do occasionally engage with the bad too). You're going to have to wade through garbage for high quality content pretty much everywhere, and HN has been consistent and valuable to me over the years for sure.
mcbishop 3y ago
I think it's a testament to HN that your very-critical comment is at the top. I generally love HN and the discussions here. My life is better with it.
5350-uiop-1130 3y ago
> It’s the same tired faux genius rhetoric over and over again. > I stick around for those rare diamonds in the rough. > The moments where an actual, proven genius logs in so you are the one to judge who is a genius :). a little condescending? imo hn has become quora-ified. anecdotal commentary has become common.
- subtra3t 3y ago
  Unpopular opinion but I think unproven unbacked anecdotes need to be punished, here and elsewhere. In my experience many of them could be easily debunked by someone with a deep understanding of the subject being talked about, but newcomers are given the wrong impression.
  - danielmarkbruce 3y ago
    That's for academic papers and textbooks. This is just a message board. It's akin to a pub - water tight arguments not needed.
latexr 3y ago
> We’re not even allowed to tell them to RTFA because that’s against HN rules. Yes you are, it’s not against the rules. From the guidelines: > Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that". It’s right there as an example of what you can respond: “The article mentions that”. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
marklubi 3y ago
> I stick around for those rare diamonds in the rough. It used to be that most posts were worthwhile. Sad to see what it's devolved to. I'm aghast at how many comments these days are against a startup/company doing well. It used to be Startup News, I think the branding change was the turning point.
muzani 3y ago
I noticed the same phenomenon. But there's a hack - look at the middle or near the bottom. On especially heated topics, I might scroll all the way to the bottom first. I thought one topic was pretty amusing, where people were discussing financial planning for millionaires. The top was full of cynical replies or reddit style rants by people who aren't millionaires, like maxing out insurance. The middle had people who did make their money and lost it. The bottom-ish had the actual rich folk. You gotta search for the geniuses. 90% of people are in the bottom 90%. Someone asks for the key to happiness. Your average person will say "diet, exercise, sleep". This is insightful to those at the bottom, and those who are above average won't disagree. Then some dude comes along and says "life is suffering" and rants about why chasing luxury is going to make you unhappy. That dude is going to be downvoted or ignored.
dn2e 3y ago
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danielmarkbruce 3y ago

I know it's just one example, but you'll keep reading about the tech bloat while the companies are bloated. No one is pretending to be a genius, they just worked in it. The upvotes come from people who worked in it. They aren't random outsiders, they actually worked in these places. Big tech has been bloated for a long time.

sosodev 3y ago
Yeah, I’m sure the guy at the bottom of Google’s org chart knows for a fact that Discord is bloated.
- kkoncevicius 3y ago
  I originally upvoted the commend you replied to, as it seemed to make a good point, but after reading your reply I had to take the upvote down and give it to you. Just wanted to share.
- danielmarkbruce 3y ago
  People have friends, co-workers than move on etc etc. If you work at a couple decent sized companies in the bay area there is a good chance you come to know a person or two at a lot decent sized companies. And, the people at the bottom of the org chart often see it the clearest. They know what people are actually working on. If you haven't worked in one of the super bloated companies, it's hard to describe exactly how wild it is. Really, people aren't trying to sound smart, they've just had their butt in a seat at one of the places.

thot_experiment 3y ago

I feel like you're really focusing on the negatives, HN has a lot of great content and I generally find it to be a big positive but it's not like, very positive on the whole, I just feel like you can mostly ignore the bad parts and have fun with the good (and I do occasionally engage with the bad too). You're going to have to wade through garbage for high quality content pretty much everywhere, and HN has been consistent and valuable to me over the years for sure.

mcbishop 3y ago

I think it's a testament to HN that your very-critical comment is at the top. I generally love HN and the discussions here. My life is better with it.

5350-uiop-1130 3y ago

> It’s the same tired faux genius rhetoric over and over again. > I stick around for those rare diamonds in the rough. > The moments where an actual, proven genius logs in so you are the one to judge who is a genius :). a little condescending? imo hn has become quora-ified. anecdotal commentary has become common.

subtra3t 3y ago
Unpopular opinion but I think unproven unbacked anecdotes need to be punished, here and elsewhere. In my experience many of them could be easily debunked by someone with a deep understanding of the subject being talked about, but newcomers are given the wrong impression.
- danielmarkbruce 3y ago
  That's for academic papers and textbooks. This is just a message board. It's akin to a pub - water tight arguments not needed.

latexr 3y ago

> We’re not even allowed to tell them to RTFA because that’s against HN rules. Yes you are, it’s not against the rules. From the guidelines: > Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that". It’s right there as an example of what you can respond: “The article mentions that”. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

marklubi 3y ago

> I stick around for those rare diamonds in the rough. It used to be that most posts were worthwhile. Sad to see what it's devolved to. I'm aghast at how many comments these days are against a startup/company doing well. It used to be Startup News, I think the branding change was the turning point.

muzani 3y ago

I noticed the same phenomenon. But there's a hack - look at the middle or near the bottom. On especially heated topics, I might scroll all the way to the bottom first. I thought one topic was pretty amusing, where people were discussing financial planning for millionaires. The top was full of cynical replies or reddit style rants by people who aren't millionaires, like maxing out insurance. The middle had people who did make their money and lost it. The bottom-ish had the actual rich folk. You gotta search for the geniuses. 90% of people are in the bottom 90%. Someone asks for the key to happiness. Your average person will say "diet, exercise, sleep". This is insightful to those at the bottom, and those who are above average won't disagree. Then some dude comes along and says "life is suffering" and rants about why chasing luxury is going to make you unhappy. That dude is going to be downvoted or ignored.

dn2e 3y ago

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