4 ms·

This type of comment seems to me more of a problem than this type of article. The article may or may not be interesting to the intellectually curious, but yet

by pg 17y ago

This type of comment seems to me more of a problem than this type of article. The article may or may not be interesting to the intellectually curious, but yet another comment about something not being hacker news definitely isn't. Though the article is a bit superficial, the question it explores is an interesting one. Kids' lives have become dramatically more circumscribed in just one generation. I've spent a good deal of time wondering about that: why it happened, and what the consequences will be.

lsc 17y ago
My comment came from a place of arrogance, something that is wholly inappropriate when I'm talking with someone like you. Now, clearly, your opinion of what hacker news ought to be counts a lot more than mine, but I will explain my opinion anyhow. I am here because this site attracts a reasonable proportion of people who are better than I am (or, at least measurably better than I am at something.) My problem with the article was that it's a subject that anyone can talk about, with no real 'right' or 'wrong' answer. there's no provability. When speaking of politics or religion everyone has equal authority. Articles like this attract the sort of people who make slashdot mediocre, which is to say, everyone. I could write a few pages on childhood independence, and how that shaped me. But I don't know any more about it than the next guy over, so unless you have some personal interest in me, I don't think what I'd have to say would be interesting. The thing is, articles like this, where anyone can comment are inherently more popular, and will take over any site on which they are tolerated, because people like being the authority. I do it too. Hell, I'm doing it right now. The thing is, it's not very much fun reading someone write about something they know little about.
- petercooper 17y ago
  I agree. Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. It's not intellectually curious, is vaguely a "crime" story, and it's exactly the sort of story they bring up on TV news editorials. Personally, I'd only want to see social science, crime, or general news stories here if they have just a smidgen of specific relevance to hackers, programmers, techies, whatever. This story is prime time news all over. The fact that it's gotten voted up quite a bit says a lot, however, but many stories that are relevant to techies have been voted up and then killed nonetheless.. so I don't see any consistency here.

by pg 17y ago

lsc 17y ago

My comment came from a place of arrogance, something that is wholly inappropriate when I'm talking with someone like you. Now, clearly, your opinion of what hacker news ought to be counts a lot more than mine, but I will explain my opinion anyhow. I am here because this site attracts a reasonable proportion of people who are better than I am (or, at least measurably better than I am at something.) My problem with the article was that it's a subject that anyone can talk about, with no real 'right' or 'wrong' answer. there's no provability. When speaking of politics or religion everyone has equal authority. Articles like this attract the sort of people who make slashdot mediocre, which is to say, everyone. I could write a few pages on childhood independence, and how that shaped me. But I don't know any more about it than the next guy over, so unless you have some personal interest in me, I don't think what I'd have to say would be interesting. The thing is, articles like this, where anyone can comment are inherently more popular, and will take over any site on which they are tolerated, because people like being the authority. I do it too. Hell, I'm doing it right now. The thing is, it's not very much fun reading someone write about something they know little about.

petercooper 17y ago
I agree. Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. It's not intellectually curious, is vaguely a "crime" story, and it's exactly the sort of story they bring up on TV news editorials. Personally, I'd only want to see social science, crime, or general news stories here if they have just a smidgen of specific relevance to hackers, programmers, techies, whatever. This story is prime time news all over. The fact that it's gotten voted up quite a bit says a lot, however, but many stories that are relevant to techies have been voted up and then killed nonetheless.. so I don't see any consistency here.