Hacker News Reader

Comment by rhizome | Hacker News Reader

Is "stun-locked" from a video game I don't play or TV show I don't watch?

A lot of the psychologizing and self-diagnosis in this post could be cut out if the author realized he was simply being verbally abused by an asshole. Which he was. No need for the "red" and "green" stuff. "Why" rarely matters, and even less often is something you can do anything about, while choosing your response is. Sometimes that response should be "you're a fuckin' asshole, Chad," which doesn't rely on knowing why they're being an asshole. Do I have to feel that I grasp the "Warrior" mentality in order to tell someone they're being rude?

There's a lot of metaphor and cruft in this story as it trundles on, and oftentimes naming things is used to not deal with them. Is anybody disrupting copy-editing as a service for bloggers?

View on HN

"stun-locked" is video game terminology, at least as far as my understanding of it goes.

Essentially some act "stuns" you, in this case a direct challenge or statement made by the guy verbally assaulting him sends him reeling. Each statement is made successively so he was stunned by each statement... hence "stun-locked" as in he was stunned, then stunned again, then again, and had no time to collect himself or respond.

In video games "stun-locking" usually means to render another player out of control of their character temporarily, but when the effects are chained the other player can do basically nothing until the perpetrator has run out of ways to keep the "stun-lock" going.

As an illustration, here's a speedrunner stun-locking the first boss of Final Fight [1].

[1] https://youtu.be/_UPVa_ftVWk?t=58

(Explanation: in Final Fight, you can normally only chain 3-4 hits on an enemy before knocking them down, which makes them invulnerable until they stand up. However, if you miss an attack, it resets the counter. Turning around, punching the air, and then landing another hit can be done in less than the length of most enemy stuns.)

My guess is that you don't intend to be insensitive, but the awareness you're demonstrating here shows a lack of empathy and true understanding/acceptance of the emotional sensitivities to others, particularly this author. To minimize someone's emotional state/response isn't only insensitive (intended or not), it's also abrasive. I'd imagine it's also likely causing problems for you in other areas of your life, if you look and/or solicit candid feedback from people around you that aren't quite like you are.

If you're (or anyone else) interested in talking more about it, feel free to let me know. I had to do a lot of similar work starting from a similar place as you're describing. You (and anyone else seeing nothing "wrong" with the author's response) might also consider reading Karla McLaren's _The_Language_of_Emotions_.

"Do I have to feel that I grasp the "Warrior" mentality in order to tell someone they're being rude?"

Yes, that's exactly the point made in the article. How did you manage to miss that point, Chad, you fuckin' asshole?

I'm pretty sure its 'Eric'

"They're good roots, Pablo."

> "Do I have to feel that I grasp the "Warrior" mentality in order to tell someone they're being rude?"

The point of the article is that for some people it's impossible to respond in that situation, hence the "stun-locked". You feel the adrenaline rushing, but something holds you back. The author describes this fairly comprehensively.

Also, if you look at this guy's achievements, he's no blogger. I remember studying his lock free hash table implementation at one point.

But alas, I do agree with you that all this stuff is pseudo-scientific, and could well use some epistemic framework.

It used to be "fight or flee", but recent research finds that most people freeze. Hence it is now "fight, freeze or flee".

(Src: read it on HN a few weeks ago ;) )

I didn't know it was from pop culture, but I knew immediately what it meant poetically. It's the "freeze" in "fight, flight or freeze".

People have a prerogative to speak freely in the language that makes sense to them, and you are totally capable of making the effort to figure out what they mean when they say stuff in their chosen tongue.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com