Hacker News Reader

Comment by hurrckplgbd | Hacker News Reader

I consistently see this commenter making a single comment, of questionable relevance, expressing a strong opinion which isn't particularly thoughtful or interesting or true. Then they ignore the pushback and move on to the next thread, where they post another tangential hot take. I'm not at all surprised at the result. Those comments attract a lot of downvote because they aren't very good.

This thread is a microcosm of that. They went on a tangent from a tangent to express how little they think of their colleagues working in security. It wasn't out of curiosity, it didn't raise interesting questions or provoke interesting debate. They didn't defend or substantiate their opinion so that they and we could learn something from it. It was just a drive-by flamebait to stir the pot and express derision. It should be downvoted; it's a bad comment.

Perhaps that pattern is difficult to see when their hot takes align with your own takes.

View on HN

A microcosm indeed.

I didn't write my comment to applaud them.

I don't understand what "you seem to speak the truth" means if it isn't an endorsement?

I post my view that is against the HN hive mind and don't always feel like rebutting the same hive mind talking points again and again. I like to post to prove there is an alternative view out there

I don't know your motivations but I know the "HN hive mind" isn't the problem. When you do engage with people who disagree with you, it usually becomes evident to me that there isn't much substance behind your views and that you struggle to disagree amicably. I also see lots of people on HN with a similar perspective to yours who don't have the same problems or engage in the same patterns of behavior.

The facts are that HN has a diverse set of perspectives with many conservative/libertarian commenters who would align with you, but that your comments are frequently shallow flamebait. Though I have seen a couple good points you've made, as well. Do with that information what you will.

I disagree entirely, I don’t even post very frequently so it’s surprising I have someone tracking my posts. The shorter a comment the better it is, if the same opinion that takes an essay can be distilled into a sentence

Maybe you disagree, maybe you don't. Since you chose to veer in different direction and reply to something I never said, I don't know either way.

In any case, brevity is something great writing and shallow hot takes share.

My first comment on this whole thread was how security in tech is theater, and the sellers mostly snake oil salesmen. I’m not the first to make this observation and I don’t think it’s wrong. Which is why employment in the sector is down, full circle to the OP

Go ahead, take that slim, speculative, tangential connection and interpret it as permission to inject your hot take into the discussion. Decline to elaborate when your supposition is challenged. You've every right to do that.

Just don't pretend that it's for our benefit or that we downvote it because we're unthinking drones, or that you decline to elaborate because we're simply not capable of having the discussion.

I tell you this because if I were insulating myself inside a bubble and rationalizing my interactions with those who disagree with me as being the reflexive behavior of a hive mind, I would hope someone would point that out to me. So here it is; again, do with the opportunity what you will.

This website is full of unthinking drones acting with hive mind behavior, that is my contention, and I think very differently, not just on here but with almost everyone I engage with. However I succeed over and over with asymmetric bets on a wide variety of things, including and especially tech and making money in tech, so if we compare bank accounts and career trajectories, investments, etc. it would be wise to let me speak

Overweighing people's opinions on matters they demonstrate a shallow engagement with on account of their success in other areas is cargo culting. Maybe you should worry less about HN and more about your own reflexes to accept bad ideas from yourself and others based on their wealth. Maybe succeeding in contrarian bets doesn't make you "correct" in some moral sense, but only successful in the trade.

It's easy for me to believe you're an intelligent person who's accomplished impressive things. But it wouldn't contradict anything I've said.

I own a software business with hundreds of employees I built from nothing. I know all about tech security, hiring security guys, etc. It is a cost center, the directors / VPs / CSOs are overpaid salesmen, 99% of the products you want are features from cloud vendors or provided by standard tools like device management or password managers. I totally get the patina desired by large corporations who need to show wall street they care about security. When I box check I use a super cheap cut rate firm who can check boxes for me at the lowest cost because it is total bullshit. I'm sorry this is the reality

It's understandable to have sour grapes after having some bad experiences, but what I'm hearing is unrelated to any impact AI is having on the job market. You're talking about security products you think are snake oil and executives you think are overpaid; that is unrelated to trends in job postings for security professionals, working at software companies, and how that might be impacted from AI.

This is what I've been saying. You've got some random grievance, you want to take this discussion as an opportunity to get it off your chest. But you don't want to engage with people challenging your ideas. And when for whatever reason you do explain yourself to me, your explanation is "I am wealthy and successful, so I must be right. Those who disagree with me are an undifferentiated mass of imbeciles that I have nothing to learn from."

If that's how you want to live, it's your right. You're only cheating yourself, so maybe I'll just shut up and let you get on with it.

> This website is full of unthinking drones acting with hive mind behavior

Maybe not "full", statistically, but many times I receive a similar impression.

> Just don't pretend that it's for our benefit or that we downvote it because we're unthinking drones

The reason many comments are downvoted on HN in general is most often unknown to me. One interpretation is that it's a major flaw in HN.

This design decision by HN could be intentional, as a trade-off to achieve something else. For example, it could be done to have high velocity of discussion. High velocity could preserve an invariant of keeping or pulling users on the site.

If it's a trade-off, which would suggest something is given up for it, it might be worth exploring what's given up.

I'm also guilty of what they accuse you of. Sometimes my internet comments are not made for the purpose of sparking discussion, but more of a "vent" where I know my take is not popular but I feel the need to throw it out there anyway. The comment is more for "me" than anyone else. And, yeah.. that makes it a bad comment lol.

I also just love playing devil's advocate, and I'm adverse to hivemindy-feeling opinions (even when I share them). Maybe this all describes you, too.

I don't have a problem with people doing that as long as they don't pretend that every other commenter holds the same contrary opinion and that the downvotes indicate they're too sensitive to discuss such things, or other similar rationalizations. If you want to leave some drive-by snark without rationalizing it as being about other people, it's not my favorite kind of comment but I'm not going to object to it either.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com