Welp. Guess I'm getting another hour added to my account limit after this, because I have to commit the sin of speaking candidly.
At one point, many many people believed diseases were borne by humors and miasmas, that didn't make it true. They believed the stars were etched onto crystal spheres, that didn't make it true. People believe the universe was created in a literal week, ten thousand years ago, but that doesn't make it true. People believe cancer can be healed by crystals, that doesn't make it true. More people believe the Earth is a flat disc now than did in the ancient world, that doesn't make it more true than it ever was. Is that last thing I said even true? I don't know, I just pulled it out of my ass and asserted it with confidence.
A prevailing belief that Hacker News is an educational resource does not make it true. One can be educated here, just as one can be educated anywhere. But that is not the purpose of this forum, nor is it a reasonable expectation to have. Hacker News is notorious for the gaping chasm between the proclaimed expertise of the claims made here, and actual knowledge, in any non-technical domain, and often even the technical. This tendency towards aggressive ignorance becomes obvious whenever actual experts in a field enter a thread and inevitably have to talk people down from their preconceptions, often getting harassment in exchange. No one is ever, ever as impressed with what Hacker News knows about anything, as Hacker News is with itself. This is such a well known facet of the culture here it got written up about in the New Yorker[0].
Hacker News is no better an educational resource than Reddit. Actually, it's worse than some technical subreddits, which require proof of domain knowledge and enforce a strict hierarchy between experts and lay posters - all it takes to join Hacker News is filling out a basic web form. No matter how much people want this place to be the apex of intellectual discussion, the last dying light of civilization in a culture overrun with normie scum, and the nexus of tech culture, or whatever, it is not, cannot and will never be. It is just a place where people hang out and shoot the shit. Anything more you might get from it is an anomaly, and just as often as not, a crapshoot.
You want to be educated? Take a class. Read a book. Get out and do the damn thing. Don't waste your time hanging out here expecting enlightenment. Carry water. Chop wood. Touch grass.
Yes, alright, but where else can you see comments such as yours? :-) It may not have been educational in a "learn a new skill" sense, but I found it inspiring as a reminder to stay skeptical.
Downvoting is often used as a mechanism to drive the said experts away, so the prevailing spirit is one of unfounded (celebrated) beliefs and forceful (punished) ignorance.
At one point, many many people believed diseases were borne by humors and miasmas, that didn't make it true. They believed the stars were etched onto crystal spheres, that didn't make it true. People believe the universe was created in a literal week, ten thousand years ago, but that doesn't make it true. People believe cancer can be healed by crystals, that doesn't make it true. More people believe the Earth is a flat disc now than did in the ancient world, that doesn't make it more true than it ever was. Is that last thing I said even true? I don't know, I just pulled it out of my ass and asserted it with confidence.
A prevailing belief that Hacker News is an educational resource does not make it true. One can be educated here, just as one can be educated anywhere. But that is not the purpose of this forum, nor is it a reasonable expectation to have. Hacker News is notorious for the gaping chasm between the proclaimed expertise of the claims made here, and actual knowledge, in any non-technical domain, and often even the technical. This tendency towards aggressive ignorance becomes obvious whenever actual experts in a field enter a thread and inevitably have to talk people down from their preconceptions, often getting harassment in exchange. No one is ever, ever as impressed with what Hacker News knows about anything, as Hacker News is with itself. This is such a well known facet of the culture here it got written up about in the New Yorker[0].
Hacker News is no better an educational resource than Reddit. Actually, it's worse than some technical subreddits, which require proof of domain knowledge and enforce a strict hierarchy between experts and lay posters - all it takes to join Hacker News is filling out a basic web form. No matter how much people want this place to be the apex of intellectual discussion, the last dying light of civilization in a culture overrun with normie scum, and the nexus of tech culture, or whatever, it is not, cannot and will never be. It is just a place where people hang out and shoot the shit. Anything more you might get from it is an anomaly, and just as often as not, a crapshoot.
You want to be educated? Take a class. Read a book. Get out and do the damn thing. Don't waste your time hanging out here expecting enlightenment. Carry water. Chop wood. Touch grass.
[0]https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-silicon-valley/th...