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Why on earth is this on the front page of hacker news. I understand that HN is not all about tech, and interesting articles of all kinds should percolate up. Bu

by x0054 13y ago

Why on earth is this on the front page of hacker news. I understand that HN is not all about tech, and interesting articles of all kinds should percolate up. But why is this at the very top for so long. It's about Internet hate, and we all know that Internet hate is due to the anonymity that Internet provides, nothing more or less. This has little to do with hipsters or counter culture. SOME People on reddit don't hate hipsters, or puppies, or anything else. They just hate, period. They hate because there is a % of human population which just likes to hate. Think about the Sexual Harasment Panda episode of South Park and the "we don't take kindly to..." line from it. That kind of attitude + anonymity = net hate. The good thing is, net hate very rarely = real life. Any way, I think this guy is pretty cool. And it makes perfect sense to me that he uses a typewriter. He sells stories to tourists. He needs to give them a physical object, rather then an email, to inspire them to give him money in return. I know I would pay more money for a story written on a typewriter and given to me, rather then one emailed to me for the following reasons: 1. I know it's original, or at least typed just for me. 2. I will own the only exact copy of it. 3. I know some one actually spent time to type it out, which takes skills and effort. Besides, if he wants to give people a hard copy, what is he supposed to do, lug a printer and power generator with him.

jamesmiller5 13y ago
Actually, I found it to be one of the best links that has come up in the last few days on HN. It, to me, is a critical look at what ways these amazing tools created by the tech community are used for. For example, reading the comments about him before his reply show a case of the fundamental attribution error on most of the commentators parts, ie assuming he is a 'hipster' and 'stand out for standing-out's sake'. As soon as he revealed the financial reasons for his dress and actions a lot of the stereotyping/prejudicial comments were stopped as well. That to me is interesting and worthy of studying. Perhaps the use of a typewriter set off the tech community, it seems quite a few both here and in the original article declare it a novelty and inferior to more technical means. To answer your question, sure anonymity enables the hate to flow out but why was it present in the first place? How are the tools we are building to give people such power being used and what can we do to make sure people such as himself have a way to be understood? At least the article brings such topics up :)

by x0054 13y ago

jamesmiller5 13y ago

Actually, I found it to be one of the best links that has come up in the last few days on HN. It, to me, is a critical look at what ways these amazing tools created by the tech community are used for. For example, reading the comments about him before his reply show a case of the fundamental attribution error on most of the commentators parts, ie assuming he is a 'hipster' and 'stand out for standing-out's sake'. As soon as he revealed the financial reasons for his dress and actions a lot of the stereotyping/prejudicial comments were stopped as well. That to me is interesting and worthy of studying. Perhaps the use of a typewriter set off the tech community, it seems quite a few both here and in the original article declare it a novelty and inferior to more technical means. To answer your question, sure anonymity enables the hate to flow out but why was it present in the first place? How are the tools we are building to give people such power being used and what can we do to make sure people such as himself have a way to be understood? At least the article brings such topics up :)