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HN is a pretty negative place these days. Ellen Huerta, if you're reading this, I applaud that you decided not to accept the path that was laid out for you. Al

by neilk 13y ago

HN is a pretty negative place these days. Ellen Huerta, if you're reading this, I applaud that you decided not to accept the path that was laid out for you. Also, I suspect that most HN readers won't understand the maturity & security in one's own self-worth it takes to walk away from that level of career success, and particularly a company like Google.

ryanSrich 13y ago
Aside from the article having no real connection to hacking or the startup world; the prevalent self absorption is what I assume to be the biggest factor in the negative reviews this article is receiving here on HN. Was it well written? Absolutely. Could someone take away something beneficial from it? Most likely. But is it worthy of being on the front page of hacker news? I'd guess not. Again, though I've seen a drastic decline in the quality of posts in the short time I've been here, which is most likely indicative of the overall decline in quality since combining hacker news and startup news.
- ricardobeat 13y ago
  I'm in the "hacker and startup world" and find the article absolutely worthy. It resonates with me. It's deeper and more interesting than most of what I've read here for the past weeks. If something doesn't interest you, save your upvote, move on. This comment you just made is a perfect example of the decline in quality of posts here - and please don't take this as a personal attack, one of the reasons discussions get poorer everyday is going 'meta' about HN and the thread itself, like what we're doing right now :/
- ladybro 13y ago
  Why is it not worthy of being on the front page of HN? While I acknowledge that this is a tech forum and a thousand posts about Javscript alternatives do probably belong on the front page, but we're all human and this offers a good lesson on internal reflection for a situation that we're all probable to experience down the road.
  - ryanSrich 13y ago
    > this offers a good lesson on internal reflection for a situation that we're all probable to experience down the road. Really? All of us? Honestly though I didn't mean any disrespect to the author or anyone who got something out of this article. I was simply pointing out why I thought the majority of the comments were critical of the piece, which the parent seemed to attribute to HNer's [not] understading "the maturity & security in one's own self-worth it takes to walk away from that level of career success" to which I would have to strongly disagree.
- subsystem 13y ago
  "though I've seen a drastic decline in the quality of posts in the short time I've been here" Far more likely that it is just the novelty wearing off. A variation of this opinion is actually so common that it is in the rules [0]. A general rule for a "happy stay" at HN is to read and comment on the things that interest you. Partly out of self interest, but also out of respect for those who might like a given story and don't want it filled with vague complaints. People complain all the time about the quality of stories, but as indicated by the low scores on the new page (at least for anything without a popular keyword) they aren't doing anything about it other than complaining. By that ruining the comments for everyone else. [0] "If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. (It's a common semi-noob illusion.)"
- pmorici 13y ago
  I'm going to disagree. I've reading HN a for a while now; over 5 years. This article reminds me of Paul Graham's post, "You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss" from 2008 which was one of the things I read on the site early on that I particularly liked and identified strongly with. Though the focus of this article is different I think the underlying themes are the same and I also identify with some of the things here as well. I think it is a decent article, certainly worthy of consideration for up-votes, and strongly in the tradition of the type of material that has been posted here for some time. http://www.paulgraham.com/boss.html http://www.paulgraham.com/boss.html
- neilk 13y ago
  I am frustrated with HN these days too, although I can't seem to break the habit. But for sites which rely on community moderation like this, the articles that rise to the top are by definition the right articles. We have a different set of people now, that's all. I will say that my tastes, and that of the HN community, have diverged. Personally I'd rather avoid a judgment mindset, where we debate about whether articles 'deserve' to be on the front page or not. HN isn't some star chamber where you get to say what is and isn't worthy of appreciation by the hacker community, whatever that is. Mostly, it's just an algorithm. And it's designed to encourage variety, not uniformity - this is why most can upvote, but only a few can downvote. Lastly - I don't know how you can legitimately accuse her of self-absorption. This article is about a difficult personal decision, so no kidding, it's about her thoughts and feelings. This isn't the totality of everything she's ever done in her life (a life which, by her account, was more about achievement than reflection). And even if she was a little self-absorbed (unlike everyone else in their twenties), so what? Do you want a gold star for putting her in her place? Criticism is good, but real criticism has analysis. Not just labelling.
drtse4 13y ago
I don't know of what level of "success" are we talking here, but most HN readers won't understand? I'm sure instead that they understand what it means to leave a safe career path to embrace the "unknown".

by neilk 13y ago

ryanSrich 13y ago

Aside from the article having no real connection to hacking or the startup world; the prevalent self absorption is what I assume to be the biggest factor in the negative reviews this article is receiving here on HN. Was it well written? Absolutely. Could someone take away something beneficial from it? Most likely. But is it worthy of being on the front page of hacker news? I'd guess not. Again, though I've seen a drastic decline in the quality of posts in the short time I've been here, which is most likely indicative of the overall decline in quality since combining hacker news and startup news.

ricardobeat 13y ago
I'm in the "hacker and startup world" and find the article absolutely worthy. It resonates with me. It's deeper and more interesting than most of what I've read here for the past weeks. If something doesn't interest you, save your upvote, move on. This comment you just made is a perfect example of the decline in quality of posts here - and please don't take this as a personal attack, one of the reasons discussions get poorer everyday is going 'meta' about HN and the thread itself, like what we're doing right now :/
ladybro 13y ago
Why is it not worthy of being on the front page of HN? While I acknowledge that this is a tech forum and a thousand posts about Javscript alternatives do probably belong on the front page, but we're all human and this offers a good lesson on internal reflection for a situation that we're all probable to experience down the road.
- ryanSrich 13y ago
  > this offers a good lesson on internal reflection for a situation that we're all probable to experience down the road. Really? All of us? Honestly though I didn't mean any disrespect to the author or anyone who got something out of this article. I was simply pointing out why I thought the majority of the comments were critical of the piece, which the parent seemed to attribute to HNer's [not] understading "the maturity & security in one's own self-worth it takes to walk away from that level of career success" to which I would have to strongly disagree.
subsystem 13y ago
"though I've seen a drastic decline in the quality of posts in the short time I've been here" Far more likely that it is just the novelty wearing off. A variation of this opinion is actually so common that it is in the rules [0]. A general rule for a "happy stay" at HN is to read and comment on the things that interest you. Partly out of self interest, but also out of respect for those who might like a given story and don't want it filled with vague complaints. People complain all the time about the quality of stories, but as indicated by the low scores on the new page (at least for anything without a popular keyword) they aren't doing anything about it other than complaining. By that ruining the comments for everyone else. [0] "If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. (It's a common semi-noob illusion.)"
pmorici 13y ago
I'm going to disagree. I've reading HN a for a while now; over 5 years. This article reminds me of Paul Graham's post, "You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss" from 2008 which was one of the things I read on the site early on that I particularly liked and identified strongly with. Though the focus of this article is different I think the underlying themes are the same and I also identify with some of the things here as well. I think it is a decent article, certainly worthy of consideration for up-votes, and strongly in the tradition of the type of material that has been posted here for some time. http://www.paulgraham.com/boss.html http://www.paulgraham.com/boss.html
neilk 13y ago
I am frustrated with HN these days too, although I can't seem to break the habit. But for sites which rely on community moderation like this, the articles that rise to the top are by definition the right articles. We have a different set of people now, that's all. I will say that my tastes, and that of the HN community, have diverged. Personally I'd rather avoid a judgment mindset, where we debate about whether articles 'deserve' to be on the front page or not. HN isn't some star chamber where you get to say what is and isn't worthy of appreciation by the hacker community, whatever that is. Mostly, it's just an algorithm. And it's designed to encourage variety, not uniformity - this is why most can upvote, but only a few can downvote. Lastly - I don't know how you can legitimately accuse her of self-absorption. This article is about a difficult personal decision, so no kidding, it's about her thoughts and feelings. This isn't the totality of everything she's ever done in her life (a life which, by her account, was more about achievement than reflection). And even if she was a little self-absorbed (unlike everyone else in their twenties), so what? Do you want a gold star for putting her in her place? Criticism is good, but real criticism has analysis. Not just labelling.

drtse4 13y ago

I don't know of what level of "success" are we talking here, but most HN readers won't understand? I'm sure instead that they understand what it means to leave a safe career path to embrace the "unknown".