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I salute the cynics. There's nothing worse than throwing good at a bad idea only to one day realize you've wasted your time, money, and effort. If one cynical
by readme 13y ago
I salute the cynics.
There's nothing worse than throwing good at a bad idea only to one day realize you've wasted your time, money, and effort.
If one cynical comment is enough to derail your ambitions, you shouldn't be doing a startup.
- pkfrank 13y agoI don't think there's anything inherently wrong with cynicism. It definitely serves a purpose, as you point out. The problem I see is that OPs tend to receive a reliable and sustained torrent of cynicism, and little else. Sure, there is value in those comments, and often super enlightening exchanges, but the default attitude of being the smartest-guy-in-the-room can get exhausting and counter-productive. Oftentimes would-be worthwhile discussion get buried or passed up for a bitter exchange with both parties just trying to prove their intellectual worth and cleverness.
- sjtgraham 13y agoThe problem is that the very vocal snarky minority heap shit on absolutely anything and everything.
- GhotiFish 13y agogot some candidates that fit that description? It's easy to tell yourself that the only reason someone's objecting, is because they object to everything.
- sjtgraham 13y agoIt's blindingly obvious that there is extraordinary negativity on HN. - I don't think it's fair to call people out publicly (or necessary). Especially as they are unlikely to see my comment and have the opportunity to defend themselves. - I don't tell myself anything of the sort.
- yen223 13y agoI have one. Me, 5 years ago :) The fact is, building something is hard. Criticizing something is easy. There's no special skill involved in picking apart somebody's project, making a big deal out of what is otherwise a minor flaw, and using that to dismiss that guy's work. That was a great way to make myself feel better about the fact that someone else built something, and I didn't.
- loqi 13y agoPerhaps nothing perfect has yet been posted?
- omegant 13y agoIf you do something public there are always going to be negative reactions, always. Because it´s socially much much easier to do it online due to anonymity(even when you have a reputation online, you are pretty much anonymous on you normal live) that grants you no social consequences to your rants (such negativity in real live could make your life quite solitary in no time), don´t expect a majority of positive reviews online. Just in case there is a global fever around you and people is drown to support you no matter what, just then you´ll have lot´s of supporters. But then the critics will be more fierce and personal also. Just read them and see if there is something worth to be used to improve your idea now or in the future. Ignore the rest as social noise.
- readme 13y agoThere are a good amount of people out there who just don't have anything nice to say about anything. There are also a lot of people who are just giving their honest reply. Key is to tell who is who. Someone who just rants and rants about how bad it is, versus someone who's giving some useful criticism.
- omegant 13y agoEven honest replies that have good intentions have a high probability of adding nothing of valor to the OP. As humans we always try to make people think the same way we do, so even when we know nothing about an issue we are going to give an opinion and try bring people to our side. It´s not if the opinion is positive or negative that matters (given that it´s not just a rant),you are always going to have more negative opinions of course, but what´s really important is to know if that opinion has any valor and gives you an opportunity to improve.