Comment by kami8845 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kami8845 | Hacker News Reader

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The thought of "middlebrow dismissals" came to mind when I saw the ensuing discussion. Now I don't think I fully understand what is meant by the term. Further googling didn't bring up anything else, but if it's meant that I simply dismiss what Braintree is offering here, that is completely false. I welcome it. It's a good move. What I found issue with, and discussed at length was the wording of the post. It's not charity and I don't think anyone can disagree with that point.

>The first point is plainly false. Braintree isn't "suffering."

"suffering" may be a little colorful in choice of words, but I don't think it's strictly false, especially on HN where Stripe.com gets beaten in per-domain popularity only by the almighty domain-overlord himself, paulgraham.com

>The third point is true, but cynical and obvious.

I disagree that it's obvious. I think many people underestimate the potential cost of binding their entire business to a single platform, especially when that platform is payments, something that inherently people _do not_ under any circumstances try to mess with if it already works.

>>The thought of "middlebrow dismissals" came to mind when I saw the ensuing discussion. Now I don't think I fully understand what is meant by the term

It's a spin-off from the term "highbrow", which means "intellectually stimulating". http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/highbrow

A middlebrow dismissal means you are giving it only a half-thought before dismissing it, as opposed to critically thinking about it from multiple angles and offering an opinion that can result in a highbrow conversation.

Ah thanks! I knew there was some part missing to my full understanding of the term.

If I were to criticize my original post, I'd say it's overly negative. My tone was dismissive and that's probably what most people found issue with. It's a good lesson. I can present the same content without come across as negatively. Though I do love a good controversy :)

Why middlebrow then, and not lowbrow? Honest question, from a non-native speaker.

I first saw the term middlebrow in that thread, and I'm still not sure how i feel about the term, but "lowbrow" refers to completely non-intellectual things, and would not appeal at all to someone that values intellectual thinking. I hadn't heard the term until that comment thread, but apparently it has its own Wikipedia page, and has been around since 1925.

Because middlebrow posts appear intellectual on their surface. They are not quite lowbrow. But they aren't highbrow either, for the reasons explained.

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