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Comment by tomc1985 | Hacker News Reader

tomc1985

Why do we even bother to give any credence at all to company PR-provided explanations like this?

They are spin doctors lying through their teeth, because literally everyone is. The culture of business writing/speaking has become so far disconnected from physical reality that it is amazing that anyone accepts these explanations at all, ever.

Like seriously, these guys have proferring casually miquetoast explanations for anything down to a science. If there is one thing you can guarantee, it's that the provided explanation simply isn't true.

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> Why do we even bother to give any credence at all to company PR-provided explanations like this?

It's propaganda and it would be great if it didn't work, but it works at least partially. Someone who doesn't know anything about the subject will hear it and repeat it, someone will hear the repetition and give it credibility because it doesn't come directly from a company. I have heard the most stupid opinions from people that go directly against their interests. You don't need fancy algorithms to manipulate society, just perseverance.

People should bother a second to think who benefits from their unexamined beliefs.

To be honest, a lot of people seem to want to kiss ass for the “prestigious” companies, too. You can see this phenomenon on all Apple threads, for example. They either don’t want their status symbols tainted, or they subconsciously believe that flattery will net them something.

Not all companies abuse PR to such a degree. Newegg took on patent trolls and I enjoyed hearing about that. It's just that controversial topics make the news, and if LinkedIn wants to make themselves look like idiots then you can be sure TechCrunch is going to report on that as the drama unfolds.

And that's commendable. Also very rare among large companies.

As an a aside, I visited Newegg last night for the first time in quite a while. It is a depressing remnant of it's former self. Totally changed.

I'm wondering why there is a statement from LinkedIn, but nothing from Hiq Labs? I don't mind giving companies an opportunity to defend themselves when an article is written about them, but I'd expect the author of the article to get counter statements from other parties.

> The culture of business writing/speaking has become so far disconnected from physical reality that it is amazing that anyone accepts these explanations at all, ever.

The execs, lawyers, judges, public relations crews, and others who deal with the language day in and day it must become inured to it. Joe Public might never read an EULA, and might be shocked (if not already pessimistically resigned) to understand what companies actually do with his data, but an arbitrator who hears 6 complaints a day has been sitting in the boiling pot for a long time.

You overestimate the average intelligence of a human.

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