Out of curiosity, what does the vb in vb.html stand for?
"what does the vb in vb.html stand for?"
possibly, shortened 'aVoiding Bullshit'.
Life is Short
81–90 of 452 posts
Re: Life is Short
#82Mr Graham, I respect you and you've accomplished more that I will in my life, but I sincerely hope that this essay against "bullshit" and "arguing online" isn't you declaring that you'll be "bubbling" yourself after your last essay was met with wide disagreement. It's possible that sometimes, no matter how smart you are, your experiences have been limited in a way and you're missing a part of something everyone else…
Wide disagreement? Sure, the people who disagreed wrote essays, but people who agree are usually invisible (how do you write an essay about agreeing with some other essay? and why would you bother?). I think the reason some people got so riled up was that there was so much uncomfortable truth in those essays. Just as people usually don't bother to post when they agree with something, they usually don't bother to post…
People got riled up because he touched an issue that effects people a lot in real life, is seriously effecting our society and democracy for the worse and got it really, really laughably wrong. And as one of the hyper-rich he has a bully pulpit with which to broadcast his thoughts.
Also because most of his essays are very good, so this one was uncharacteristic and surprising.
Re: Life is Short
#83Life is short, art long. If you cannot escape the bullshit, you might at least make an art of bullshitting. ;)
Re: Life is Short
#84[deleted]
Re: Life is Short
#85Am I the only person on HN who doesn't have this problem?
Other people's bullshit has never bothered me.
I regularly just turn my phone off and pick up the pieces when I feel like it.
Maybe that comes from my musician background. I don't know.
Or maybe I'm just the most inefficient person in the world because I don't give a shit about anything. I just do what I think is necessary when I think it's needed.
I think I'm a fairly productive person. I get things done. But I don't worry about it much.
I spend most of my thoughts and energy on my family and my girlfriend, not work.
Okay, that's not fair: I spend quite a lot of time reading books.
Is this a real problem? Or is it a straw man?
Re: Life is Short
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Incidentally, one of the stickiest lessons I received from my Econ 101 prof was that if you ever have a choice to go out with a couple with kids or a couple without kids, you should opt for couples with kids, for they value their leisure time as though it was ground up rhino horn.
On the other hand, how long does it really take to build a new PC? Maybe an hour for research and ordering parts... another two hours at most to put it together. Seems like a small investment for something you're going to use a lot.
Well, sure, but if you spend a bit more money it will take no time at all, because somebody else will do it for you while you get on and do something else :)
Much easier to find more money than more time.
Re: Life is Short
#87Mr Graham, I respect you and you've accomplished more that I will in my life, but I sincerely hope that this essay against "bullshit" and "arguing online" isn't you declaring that you'll be "bubbling" yourself after your last essay was met with wide disagreement. It's possible that sometimes, no matter how smart you are, your experiences have been limited in a way and you're missing a part of something everyone else…
Nope, you've completely missed the point. This entire conversation is a waste of time, for example. And yes, I am self-aware and realize that I'm adding zero value too. People will reference his "long-form" for years, while this conversation will be forgotten within days. Don't waste your time on things that add zero value, or are quickly forgotten.
Re: Life is Short
#88Mr Graham, I respect you and you've accomplished more that I will in my life, but I sincerely hope that this essay against "bullshit" and "arguing online" isn't you declaring that you'll be "bubbling" yourself after your last essay was met with wide disagreement. It's possible that sometimes, no matter how smart you are, your experiences have been limited in a way and you're missing a part of something everyone else…
Lots of people will pick fights with people who have an audience (like pg) just so they can borrow that audience for a short while. I'm not convinced that most of the aforementioned responses weren't motivated by that. So, given that almost anything pg will write/has written will get the same treatment, why would he play their game by bothering to defend himself? In fact, there is a pureness to insulating yourself fr…
If you propose a radical idea like "income inequality isn't bad", you need to expect a debate because the idea is far from proven.
It sounds lame, but PG's essay is a stanza in a larger societal conversation, and conversations involve more than one person. To weigh in on one side invites response, especially if you're influential.
Re: Life is Short
#89I'm a more productive engineer now that I have small kids than I ever was before. I don't have time for bullshit. I don't build my own PCs, I buy Macs. I don't waste time building some over-architected nonsense on a side project, I ship the MVP. When I do take time away from my kids I maximize it by learning three or four new technologies, patterns, or libraries at once. When you realize how short time really is you…
You just made the best argument for maternity leave.
Re: Life is Short
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sure he's well aware of the critizism. I think this is mostly about the random hate one gets for doing original thought.
Graham’s essay that got dumped on was hardly an “original thought”. The whole “we rich people deserve to have 100x more than the poors because we’re pushing humanity forward” schtick is as old as civilization, and Graham’s version was a particularly lazy and poorly argued one.
That is a hostile interpretation of the essay.