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Comment by edw519 | Hacker News Reader

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edw519

You forgot the biggest bullshit of all, Marco.

Hacker News users:

I'm so mad that the government is doing <xyz>!

I'm so mad that big business is doing <xyz>!

I'm so mad that venture capitalists are doing <xyz>!

I'm so mad that angel investors are doing <xyz>!

I'm so mad that <xyz> got funding!

I'm so mad that language <abc> doesn't do <xyz>!

I'm so mad that I can't jailbreak <xyz>!

I'm so mad that I'm actually expected to pay for <xyz>!

I'm so mad that more people don't visit my blog!

I'm so mad that so many people visit blog <xyz>!

I'm so mad that person <xyz> is a jerk!

So what did you build today?

Nothing. I can't focus.

View on HN

This applies to all criticism. Far more people judge than do because it's that much easier. That doesn't pull the rug out from under their complaints though. Few claim they could do better when they say XYZ sucks; they are just saying it sucks. Media critics, political pundits, even non-developer Steve Jobs do/did little more than evaluate others' work while creating none of their own. That doesn't render invalid their criticisms though.

I like the reference to government. Govts b.s., startups b.s. , what next?

Isn't this comment just as cheap and reductionary? Many of the things you've listed their affect developers, startups and the system in which they are either able to succeed or fail. Even the characterization as nothing more than "I'm so mad" seems unfair.

Perhaps it's just an accident that edw519 has juxtaposed this comment against a post that's built out of pure tasty linkbait, an artfully constructed pop-music confection of a post that's predictably climbing the HN charts even though it's built out of truisms that old-school HN readers have read one million times each.

But I doubt it.

Yes, of course each one of edw519's bullet points refers to something important and true, just as each of Marco's bullet points refers to something important and true. They were true yesterday, and they'll be true tomorrow, and they'll be true the next hundred thousand times each one of them gets upvoted.

But the point is that the urge to spend time pressing the RIGHTEOUS TRUTH button over and over like a lab rat can become an addiction that ultimately does not serve you.

And with that I'm taking Ed's hint and trying to leave HN for the day. ;) Bugs must be fixed!

> Yes, of course each one of edw519's bullet points refers to something important and true

Isn't edw519 making an error in his implied equivalence of the power relationship between the B.S. and whining of the dependent ones?

Not quite. It a pretty good list of things that don't affect HNers as much as HNers think they might. What HNers learn about Angel investors prior to trying to raise doesn't help that much when it's actually time to raise. Jailed devices affect developers, and are important to factor into decisions, but jailbreaking itself is a distraction for the vast majority of developers who do it. Worrying about government regulations is a waste, instead we should build things that will make it difficult for regulators to stop things they don't like without also stopping things that they need.

So, what did YOU build today?

And why do you assume we all have to build something?

Some of us have actual paid work we like, you know, we're not all "entrepreneurs" building the next whatever...

Everyone should be building something. Technical or otherwise.

Everyone should be building something employed or entrepreneurs.... Even analysts, are building something a model for his boss to make decisions based on...

If you think Hacker News sucks that bad, you're free to go read reddit and bitch about the users there. This comment is shitty and cynical and you should feel bad about it.

All he is trying to say is that being a hard boiled cynic more often than not hampers your productivity.

I totally agree with that.

Compare:

http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/comments&q=by%3Ae...

to:

http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/comments&q=by%3Af...

A superficial cheap shot would be to note that you have to go nine pages into Ed's results to find a comment scored as low as 'funkah's top-scored comment. Less superficial observations follow readily from actually reading the two sets of comments.

Veteran status readily accounts for the spectacularly high amount of karma Ed has here. That and name recognition surely biases the score on any given recent Ed comment upwards. But the difference in tone, effort, and craft between Ed's comments and 'funkah's is hard to miss; put more succinctly, the reason Ed has an average comment score of 27 (27!) and 'funkah has an average of 2 is that Ed doesn't write things like "This comment is shitty and cynical and you should feel bad about it." He's more likely to draw an ASCII art picture.

I point this out mostly because 15 minutes spent reading the best of Ed on HN is time well spent, and so there you have it: a convenient link off this stupid thread.

Maybe I am missing your point, but I think that judging comments on the basis of their authors karma is a bad idea.

If we're talking about my comments, I agree. If we're talking about Ed's, no. I'm not interested in a nerdy argument about whether we should have karma at all.

You must be new here. Check out edw519's profile and comment history. It should provide you with a little more context.

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