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Also, I think Hacker News mostly believed the hype about self-driving cars, with relatively little pushback. Many people were influenced by what the CEOs/inves
by chubot 1y ago
Also, I think Hacker News mostly believed the hype about self-driving cars, with relatively little pushback. Many people were influenced by what the CEOs/investors said, and of course the prospect of jobs and "cool tech"
e.g. in 2018, over 7 years ago, I was simply pointing out that people like Chris Urmson (who had WORKED ON self-driving for decades) and Bill Gurley said self-driving would take 25+ years to deploy (which seems totally accurate now)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16353541 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16353541
And I got significant pushback
Actually I remember some in-person conversations with MUCH MORE push back than that, including from some close friends.
They believed things because they were told by the media it would happen
People told me in 2018 that their 16 year old would not need to learn how to drive, etc. (In 2025, self-driving is not available in even ONE of their end points for a trip, let alone two end points)
Likewise, at least some people are convinced now that "coding as a job is going away" -- some people are even deathly depressed about it
- hluska 1y ago[flagged]
- chubot 1y ago[flagged]
- scns 1y agoPeople believe what they want. Ergo they side with the people who state that those beliefs are true, makes them feel good. Listening to experts who know better and oppose the held beliefs makes the believers feel bad, ergo they won't believe them. Sometimes it is good to disregard the opinion of experts who are absolutely sure something can't be done, might by a prerequisite to making it happen. The four minute mile comes to mind. Beliefs are powerful, they can enable you to reach goals, become prisons of the mind trapping you or become delusions when feedback is disregarded.
- pessimizer 1y agoHacker News fell for f'n 3D TVs. Hacker News goes for anything that they think they might be able to make money off of, just like all middle-class people. They evaluate events based on how they could affect them personally. Actual plausibility isn't even secondary, they simply defer to the salesmen (whom they admire and hope one day to be.)
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]