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It’s not that, honestly I prefer to see how far irrationality can go, on even the best forums. Because a lot of times this is exactly what people have to go th

by EGreg 3y ago

It’s not that, honestly I prefer to see how far irrationality can go, on even the best forums. Because a lot of times this is exactly what people have to go through who have “built a better mousetrap” but the world doesn’t “beat a path to their door”, not even their peers care, depending entirely on how it is presented

jncfhnb 3y ago
So what I’m hearing is: > People who have done something successfully often had others disagree with them, ergo if others disagree with me it’s probably a sign that I’m on the right path. And also that they’re “irrational”. Airtight my man
- EGreg 3y ago
  My point is that many people reject very rational solutions, and don't even want to look at them, because of groupthink, and yes that's irrational. Ask yourself, for instance, what chance does a real Web3 solution have on HN? Even Jack Dorsey's bluesky, for instance, instantly lost HNers when Jack started branding it as "Web5". IPFS no longer generates much interest because of FileCoin. Just one example, of the "halo effect".
  - jncfhnb 3y ago
    > Ask yourself, for instance, what chance does a real Web3 solution have on HN? Perhaps this is because they’re near universally bad ideas. Web3 is a strong leading indicator of poorly thought out garbage. Maybe you can find a way to make it work for something useful. But if your pitch starts out with “Web3!” Or worse “Web5!” It sure sounds like you’ve just tried to jam tech into something rather than solving an actual problem that happened to leverage the tech.
    - EGreg 3y ago
      Or perhaps that's not the reason, but you're just extremely biased by the groupthink. Consider that! I am currently at a conference called Government Blockchain Association. We built the app for it. There are lots of people here gathered in DC, including the US top money manager, people from the World Bank, IMF, academia, regulators. They understand things like zero-knowledge proofs and see how blockchains are useful. Yet you are sure that they're all just wasting their time?
      - jncfhnb 3y ago
        Wow these guys seem really credible and dedicated to rationale exploration of blockchain uses in government. I hope you enjoy their upcoming session called Space, featuring a picture of a flying saucer https://gbaglobal.org/events/space/#post_content https://gbaglobal.org/events/space/#post_content > Embark on a journey beyond the bounds of Earth’s atmosphere and delve into the mysteries of space and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) or Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
        EGreg 3y ago
        Is this what you do? Go through a website ignoring 99% of it, ignoring all the members including current politicians, technologists, reaearchers, bureaucrats of major institutions, and searching for the one thing that might — if presented in a weird light and without context - dishonstly paint the entire organization and its members as a bunch of quacks to be disregarded? You really think the Government Blockchain Association is primarily concerned with space and UFOs? If not, why highlight it? One word: strawman! A dishonest way to argue. I know HN members are biased against blockchains but I am always surprised more and more by the methods employed in argument. For a long time I thought HN members would avoid such tactics merely because they disagreed with something.
        jncfhnb 3y ago
        Well the first thing I did was go to the about page to see who started it, but they don’t list anyone in the section titled “who are we”. I sort of found loose evidence of who might actually involved and not just some random email signup, but it was not helpful. A straw man is an attacking a different argument, not focusing on one particularly noteworthy piece of evidence. Asserting that I’m saying space is their primary concern is, ironically, a straw man argument. Because I’m not saying that. I’m saying that it’s a red flag. An organization focused on financial technology has no reason to be hosting a talk on UFOs. I don’t think their thing is UFOs. But I do think maybe their thing is trying to attract complete fucking morons that think they know better than the rest of society in the vein that “UFOs are aliens” is markedly compatible with “blockchain is the solution society needs”. I actually feel very comfortable writing off any organization as idiots, crazies, or predatory snake oil salesmen for hosting a single event on the presence of aliens among us. I don’t require that to be their whole thing. That’s just a hilariously bright red flag.

by EGreg 3y ago

jncfhnb 3y ago

So what I’m hearing is: > People who have done something successfully often had others disagree with them, ergo if others disagree with me it’s probably a sign that I’m on the right path. And also that they’re “irrational”. Airtight my man

EGreg 3y ago
My point is that many people reject very rational solutions, and don't even want to look at them, because of groupthink, and yes that's irrational. Ask yourself, for instance, what chance does a real Web3 solution have on HN? Even Jack Dorsey's bluesky, for instance, instantly lost HNers when Jack started branding it as "Web5". IPFS no longer generates much interest because of FileCoin. Just one example, of the "halo effect".
- jncfhnb 3y ago
  > Ask yourself, for instance, what chance does a real Web3 solution have on HN? Perhaps this is because they’re near universally bad ideas. Web3 is a strong leading indicator of poorly thought out garbage. Maybe you can find a way to make it work for something useful. But if your pitch starts out with “Web3!” Or worse “Web5!” It sure sounds like you’ve just tried to jam tech into something rather than solving an actual problem that happened to leverage the tech.
  - EGreg 3y ago
    Or perhaps that's not the reason, but you're just extremely biased by the groupthink. Consider that! I am currently at a conference called Government Blockchain Association. We built the app for it. There are lots of people here gathered in DC, including the US top money manager, people from the World Bank, IMF, academia, regulators. They understand things like zero-knowledge proofs and see how blockchains are useful. Yet you are sure that they're all just wasting their time?
    - jncfhnb 3y ago
      Wow these guys seem really credible and dedicated to rationale exploration of blockchain uses in government. I hope you enjoy their upcoming session called Space, featuring a picture of a flying saucer https://gbaglobal.org/events/space/#post_content https://gbaglobal.org/events/space/#post_content > Embark on a journey beyond the bounds of Earth’s atmosphere and delve into the mysteries of space and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) or Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
      - EGreg 3y ago
        Is this what you do? Go through a website ignoring 99% of it, ignoring all the members including current politicians, technologists, reaearchers, bureaucrats of major institutions, and searching for the one thing that might — if presented in a weird light and without context - dishonstly paint the entire organization and its members as a bunch of quacks to be disregarded? You really think the Government Blockchain Association is primarily concerned with space and UFOs? If not, why highlight it? One word: strawman! A dishonest way to argue. I know HN members are biased against blockchains but I am always surprised more and more by the methods employed in argument. For a long time I thought HN members would avoid such tactics merely because they disagreed with something.
        jncfhnb 3y ago
        Well the first thing I did was go to the about page to see who started it, but they don’t list anyone in the section titled “who are we”. I sort of found loose evidence of who might actually involved and not just some random email signup, but it was not helpful. A straw man is an attacking a different argument, not focusing on one particularly noteworthy piece of evidence. Asserting that I’m saying space is their primary concern is, ironically, a straw man argument. Because I’m not saying that. I’m saying that it’s a red flag. An organization focused on financial technology has no reason to be hosting a talk on UFOs. I don’t think their thing is UFOs. But I do think maybe their thing is trying to attract complete fucking morons that think they know better than the rest of society in the vein that “UFOs are aliens” is markedly compatible with “blockchain is the solution society needs”. I actually feel very comfortable writing off any organization as idiots, crazies, or predatory snake oil salesmen for hosting a single event on the presence of aliens among us. I don’t require that to be their whole thing. That’s just a hilariously bright red flag.