Ask HN: Similar communities to HN that are less cynical?

This post was on the front page a few days and really resonated with me [1]. I love HN, because there is nowhere else on the internet with the same concentration of intelligence, deep knowledge and mature perspective on things.

However like the author I’ve noticed myself becoming increasingly cynical about tech, and the world. This is a very bad attitude to have for any startup ambitions, where optimism (bordering on irrationality) is necessary to succeed. So I want to start reading other things more often.

What other communities are there that are more optimistic, but still have a similar level of intelligence, experience etc?

1. https://kg.dev/thoughts/i-love-you-hn-but-youre-toxic

I noticed that when I discovered the wonderful world of !!Con. It's a fun, joyous conference where the 10-minute talks can be about anything programming-related, they just have to have at least one exclamation mark in the title! Programmers doing all kinds of cool things, and being unashamedly enthusiastic about them. It's lot more hacker-y than HN mostly too. It's not the least of Julia Evans' gifts to the world.

https://bangbangcon.com/

The talk videos are on youtube. There's also since recently a !!Con West, and possibly others. !!Con encourages people to start their own !!Con, wherever in the world they live.

https://bangbangcon.com/west/

You would like to find a community where cynicism is banned? I think your perspective is flawed. In tech, being correct or incorrect matters much more than optimism or cynicism. The best optimism is the kind that can withstand critical thinking.

When someone says "that's not possible" it's a challenge for you to prove otherwise not a discouragement to give up. Adversarial thinking is a fundamental component of critical thinking.

It's not others' sentiment that is toxic, it is your lack of perspective and willingness to subject your views and convictions to negative, critical and adversarial opposition and come out unscathed because not only is you optimism that strong, it is correct (hopefully).

It's like those people on sharktank that get wound up over Kevin O'Leary. I mean, he does lack tact and manners but that aside they should have anticipated his cynical and critical response and prepared a counter argument every single time. At worst their idea sounds better to other sharks and the tv audience, at best you can convince him by showing he can be wrong and you do know more than him and your confidence is not founded in wishful thinking but in facts, reason and reality.

In the end my friend, you can only have one priority and your success should be that priority. Thinking wishful thinking and unfounded and unquestioned optimism will get you there is a fool's errand in my opinion.

I notice dedicated communities around PARTICULAR TECHNOLOGIES. If you want fun fun fun and tech, get into the zillions of hobbyist communities centered around things like: those little dev boards (teensy, arduino, rpi, espressuino, whatever...) or digital audio, or 3D modelling, or whatever floats your boat.

Seeking good natured nerding on a venture-capital sponsored "tech news" site, however much "better than Reddit" the members depict it (I've found fun communities on sub-reddits, FWIW...) is a recipe for sadness... this place exists to kick tires and act skeptical. it's a sounding board where reactions to ideas react with each other, for better or worse. It's not to devalue what we have here, but to recognize what it is, and not seek to squeeze orange juice from bicycle locks.