Hacker News Reader

Comment by beebmam | Hacker News Reader

Wow, I'm shocked at how religious these people are about their ideas. There's a lot of statements that many in this video make that have no serious evidence behind them, beyond their own experimental analysis.

When I was younger, I watched an interview with Richard Feynman where he described how exceptionally difficult it is to truly know something. I wish more people took that approach when it comes to their own workplaces.

View on HN

If that religious behavior led to products that people loved, is it really wrong to be religious about it? What's the alternative? Believe that you can't truly know anything and not build anything worthwhile?

As I've grown older, I've come to believe that holding strong opinions and being decisive is extremely important and impactful. It comes with the caveat though that as soon as you find you're wrong, you need to be able to change direction and not cling to your disproved beliefs.

> holding strong opinions and being decisive is extremely important

it is, and yes you can be wrong. but it's being strongly opinionated that matters, not being right (assuming you don't confuse that with just being stubborn). Many "meh" projects are just due to not being able to make strong, bold choices.

Unlike human behavior, laypeople don't typically have default/traditional views about physics that they'll act out unless convinced otherwise. Extreme skepticism is adaptive when you are pursuing truth. Extreme skepticism only of the ideas you're not already acting out is less adaptive when making operational decisions.

It is only human to be over confident in our own stupidity. Rarely do we know it's even stupidity.

Can you point to something said in the video that isn't true or that you disagree with? If people believe passionately in something, is that grounds enough to discredit their belief?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com