5 ms·

I think there's an xkcd, with the same thing. I really enjoy sharing a planet with Ms. Evans. She seems to be a genuinely decent person, and we could always us

I think there's an xkcd, with the same thing. I really enjoy sharing a planet with Ms. Evans. She seems to be a genuinely decent person, and we could always use more of those.

rhplus 4mo ago
XKCD: 10,000 people learn something “everyone knows” every day: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
cryptopian 4mo ago
I really enjoyed her talk "Making Difficult Things Easy"[1]. She's got a real talent for taking complex technical subjects, recognising the difficulties in understanding them, and explaining them back in a friendly way that doesn't mystify them. Almost the opposite of the modern IT industry. [1] https://jvns.ca/blog/2023/10/06/new-talk--making-hard-things-easy/ https://jvns.ca/blog/2023/10/06/new-talk--making-hard-things...
ChrisMarshallNY 4mo ago
Hmm... the reactions to this post are rather revealing about the HN community. One quite positive, and sharing an excellent link (thanks). One neutral, and sharing the xkcd link I referenced (thanks). A couple of anonymous downvotes. I assume because it says something positive about someone, and we'll have none of that, here, thank you very much.
- akerl_ 4mo ago
  The concept of not feigning surprise may be related to the linked xkcd comic, but I don’t see any indication that it’s the “original”, and I downvoted several comments that seemed keen to steal thunder from the post by trying to frame it as just a rehash of a popular comic.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 4mo ago
    I sincerely wasn't trying to "steal her thunder," as my preface to the comment makes clear. Lots of people reference xkcd, myself, included[0]. It doesn't cheapen her post, one, tiny bit. I did change it, so it doesn't say "original." Good point. It's entirely possible that people can be decent to each other. I know, I know, that's crazy talk, but I'm kind of relentlessly positive. I have had plenty of negative fuel, but I guess I'm just a Pollyanna. [0] https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qQDAuhGvBvBlZVH2zn_VjLsW5IrYSOv3fWj9R5QEhWg/ https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qQDAuhGvBvBlZVH2zn_V...
    - akerl_ 4mo ago
      > It's entirely possible that people can be decent to each other. I know, I know, that's crazy talk This is nearly comical phrasing given the topic of the page. I provided enough context about the specific kind of comment I found to be in bad faith that I don’t understand why you felt concerned that I took offense to any mentions of xkcd.
      - ChrisMarshallNY 4mo ago
        It was meant to be comical, and, judging from some of the comment threads in the posting, I think a lot of folks are really, really uncomfortable, being positive, or seeing other folks trying to be positive. I tend to hang with a fairly ... unkempt ... crowd, IRL. Many of them have been through serious personal trauma, and have great difficulty seeing anything good in life, or in others. They are a minority, in society, in general, but some communities tend to gather them in greater numbers (like the one in which I participate, which is about people trying to heal from trauma, amongst other things). It's not unusual to encounter folks that sincerely believe that expressing optimism, open-mindedness, or kindness is an expression of weakness, to be treated with contempt. They sincerely believe that these expressions of positive energy are fake -often for good reason, as they have seen plenty of fake good faith. I have learned not to allow myself to be drawn into their world, which often means that I am treated with contempt. I shrug it off, and continue to be positive, anyway. I enjoy Julia Evans, because she remains relentlessly positive, in a community that is often ... unreceptive ... to that kind of energy.
appplication 4mo ago
I know she seems to be popular enough on HN, and I’ll admit I don’t know her in any capacity other than what posts I occasionally see here, which are innocent enough. That said, her bluesky or mastodon profile leads with “I have DMs muted from people I don’t follow”, which just rubs me in such a wrong way. The vibe is “don’t be confused: communication is for me to give and you to receive, and NOT the other way around”. I’m sure she has her reasons (presumably weird/angry onliners), but this - and in particular its digital real estate indicating it’s one of two facts you need to know about her - feels like the digital equivalent to checking out at the grocery store with headphones on: “I don’t know you and I don’t want to know you.” Just makes me feel sad seeing things like that, and I don’t know that I resonate with being happy to share a planet with people with such world views. They certainly don’t seem happy to share it with me.
- akerl_ 4mo ago
  She's not DMing you, is she?
  - ChrisMarshallNY 4mo ago
    I remember a weird show (don't, however, remember the name). It had a promotional spot that went "What if you could have sex with anyone you want? What if anyone that wants, can have sex with you?". Every relationship has at least two parts.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 4mo ago
      Just an update. The AI Oracle (AI Search Result from Sri Google), says that it was actually an HIV awareness ad, from last century.
- krapp 4mo ago
  On the other hand we can't even have DMs on Hacker News because the feature is considered hostile and disruptive and many people don't even bother to put contact information in their profile. Her rules for discussion seem no more limiting than HN's own guidelines, which are extremely tone policed. I can't hold it against her - it isn't the 1990s anymore, the entire web has become an aggressively toxic space and one has to curate everything nowadays.

I think there's an xkcd, with the same thing. I really enjoy sharing a planet with Ms. Evans. She seems to be a genuinely decent person, and we could always use more of those.

rhplus 4mo ago

XKCD: 10,000 people learn something “everyone knows” every day: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/

cryptopian 4mo ago

I really enjoyed her talk "Making Difficult Things Easy"[1]. She's got a real talent for taking complex technical subjects, recognising the difficulties in understanding them, and explaining them back in a friendly way that doesn't mystify them. Almost the opposite of the modern IT industry. [1] https://jvns.ca/blog/2023/10/06/new-talk--making-hard-things-easy/ https://jvns.ca/blog/2023/10/06/new-talk--making-hard-things...

ChrisMarshallNY 4mo ago

Hmm... the reactions to this post are rather revealing about the HN community. One quite positive, and sharing an excellent link (thanks). One neutral, and sharing the xkcd link I referenced (thanks). A couple of anonymous downvotes. I assume because it says something positive about someone, and we'll have none of that, here, thank you very much.

akerl_ 4mo ago
The concept of not feigning surprise may be related to the linked xkcd comic, but I don’t see any indication that it’s the “original”, and I downvoted several comments that seemed keen to steal thunder from the post by trying to frame it as just a rehash of a popular comic.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4mo ago
  I sincerely wasn't trying to "steal her thunder," as my preface to the comment makes clear. Lots of people reference xkcd, myself, included[0]. It doesn't cheapen her post, one, tiny bit. I did change it, so it doesn't say "original." Good point. It's entirely possible that people can be decent to each other. I know, I know, that's crazy talk, but I'm kind of relentlessly positive. I have had plenty of negative fuel, but I guess I'm just a Pollyanna. [0] https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qQDAuhGvBvBlZVH2zn_VjLsW5IrYSOv3fWj9R5QEhWg/ https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qQDAuhGvBvBlZVH2zn_V...
  - akerl_ 4mo ago
    > It's entirely possible that people can be decent to each other. I know, I know, that's crazy talk This is nearly comical phrasing given the topic of the page. I provided enough context about the specific kind of comment I found to be in bad faith that I don’t understand why you felt concerned that I took offense to any mentions of xkcd.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 4mo ago
      It was meant to be comical, and, judging from some of the comment threads in the posting, I think a lot of folks are really, really uncomfortable, being positive, or seeing other folks trying to be positive. I tend to hang with a fairly ... unkempt ... crowd, IRL. Many of them have been through serious personal trauma, and have great difficulty seeing anything good in life, or in others. They are a minority, in society, in general, but some communities tend to gather them in greater numbers (like the one in which I participate, which is about people trying to heal from trauma, amongst other things). It's not unusual to encounter folks that sincerely believe that expressing optimism, open-mindedness, or kindness is an expression of weakness, to be treated with contempt. They sincerely believe that these expressions of positive energy are fake -often for good reason, as they have seen plenty of fake good faith. I have learned not to allow myself to be drawn into their world, which often means that I am treated with contempt. I shrug it off, and continue to be positive, anyway. I enjoy Julia Evans, because she remains relentlessly positive, in a community that is often ... unreceptive ... to that kind of energy.

appplication 4mo ago

I know she seems to be popular enough on HN, and I’ll admit I don’t know her in any capacity other than what posts I occasionally see here, which are innocent enough. That said, her bluesky or mastodon profile leads with “I have DMs muted from people I don’t follow”, which just rubs me in such a wrong way. The vibe is “don’t be confused: communication is for me to give and you to receive, and NOT the other way around”. I’m sure she has her reasons (presumably weird/angry onliners), but this - and in particular its digital real estate indicating it’s one of two facts you need to know about her - feels like the digital equivalent to checking out at the grocery store with headphones on: “I don’t know you and I don’t want to know you.” Just makes me feel sad seeing things like that, and I don’t know that I resonate with being happy to share a planet with people with such world views. They certainly don’t seem happy to share it with me.

akerl_ 4mo ago
She's not DMing you, is she?
- ChrisMarshallNY 4mo ago
  I remember a weird show (don't, however, remember the name). It had a promotional spot that went "What if you could have sex with anyone you want? What if anyone that wants, can have sex with you?". Every relationship has at least two parts.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 4mo ago
    Just an update. The AI Oracle (AI Search Result from Sri Google), says that it was actually an HIV awareness ad, from last century.
krapp 4mo ago
On the other hand we can't even have DMs on Hacker News because the feature is considered hostile and disruptive and many people don't even bother to put contact information in their profile. Her rules for discussion seem no more limiting than HN's own guidelines, which are extremely tone policed. I can't hold it against her - it isn't the 1990s anymore, the entire web has become an aggressively toxic space and one has to curate everything nowadays.