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Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing (2013)

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Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing (2013)

#21

Post by thomasmeeks »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #17
thomasmeeks wrote: post #13

I’d add arguing by using inline quotes. Example: some snippet of text from parent comment I disagree because x, y, z. another snippet This is wrong because a, b, c. (End example) Doing so obliterates context from a position, especially long form comments (which is the main reason I’m here) in two main ways. First, the technique rarely reproduces the parent in its entirety, picking out black and white statements that…

Maybe it's my age and having come up via years of Usenet where inline quoting was absolutely standard, but I find inline quoting of a discussion helps me keep the flow of discussion. I find it's easier to follow than trying to retain a lengthy parent that a commenter is replying to, also at length. If it's a long comment it's also likely some commenters are only able to address parts of it - again an inline quote cla…

I can see that, and perhaps my experience has just been unlucky. I missed usenet by a few years.

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing (2013)

#22

Post by [deleted] »

dmfdmf wrote: post #19
RyJones wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as a reformed C programmer, I get a little kick out of the elevators in Europe starting on floor 0. Starting with index [0] is a little thing. Can we have little things? I'm not trying to antagonize anyone, it isn't a finger in anyone's eye, I'm not trying to make your day worse - it just a little thing that makes my life very slightly nicer for a very short period of time.

No problem, its not a serious pet-peeve. I even find it a bit amusing.

[deleted]

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing (2013)

#23

Post by 628C6l0 »

thomasmeeks wrote: post #13

I’d add arguing by using inline quotes. Example: some snippet of text from parent comment I disagree because x, y, z. another snippet This is wrong because a, b, c. (End example) Doing so obliterates context from a position, especially long form comments (which is the main reason I’m here) in two main ways. First, the technique rarely reproduces the parent in its entirety, picking out black and white statements that…

> Generally I just see it as a big warning sign that the quoter is more interested in winning than learning or getting to the truth of the matter and thus is best ignored.

But,to be fully honest, isn't it what this kind of conversation is about, ultimately speaking? There is a reason it happens mostly in low-stake contexts: dinner tables, casual conversation, comments section. Places where "bullshit pass" is implicitly granted to all participants. If we are not allowed to pick and choose and distort other's meanings then where's the fun and drama in all of this?

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing (2013)

#24

Post by tomallalone »

All these are good (to avoid).

I'd add to the comments to that start a certain way: 'nope' I don't know exactly why but I find this phrasing both dismissive and insulting. Also, all those starting with adverbs, like 'Interestingly,...'. Just say what you got to, I say. It hurts the message if what follows isn't interesting at all. Edit: I'm not trying to insult anyone, I just think this kind of formality where one has to justify, verbally, the existence of ones comment is distracting.

I'd also add the gross over- and misuse of italics for emphasis. I'd almost say it was a phenomenon. Like the amount of emphasis italics is inversely proportional to to commenters knowledge of the subject.

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing (2013)

#27

Post by noobermin »

mtmail wrote: post #2

I haven't seen a couple of these recently. Especially the +1 seems to be less popular (personal observation, not backed up by any data). My addition would be "Oh [based on the title] I thought the article was about [something totally different]" which adds no value to other readers.

The thing is I joined in 2013, and unless things were substantially different before then, isomorphisms of "+1" comments were always heavily downvoted to maintain the HN level SNR. I wasn't aware they were ever welcome.

Also, many people share a comment consisting of one of the annoyances they list but go on to explain and elaborate. That's much better and just because someone goes "causation != correlation" doesn't invalidate their post if they give good reasoning for how it's relevant.

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing (2013)

#29

Post by Felz »

I feel like a lot of 'platitudes' are worth repeating. Again and again, ad nauseum, long past where people are tired of hearing it. Because they're true, but they're very easy to forget.

If platitudes can be used to dismiss most articles out of hand, well, maybe things that look like "interesting news" at first glance are often... not.

My personal list:

- From the article: Correlation IS NOT causation. This should be written in giant flaming letters above every study. It dismisses almost all of them out of hand.

- Nearly every judgment you make about somebody is fundamental attribution error. For example, every technical interview ever is nearly fatally flawed. (No, I don't currently have better alternatives.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error

- Goodhart's law. Also known as the tragedy of the OKR. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing (2013)

#30

Post by noobermin »

ravenstine wrote: post #15

My standards are probably different, but I don't feel like I see very much those those kind of comments. Our conversations are really pretty decent in contrast to much of the web. The overattribution of notable effects and fallacies gets a bit tiring, though. As the article mentions, we love to bring up things like the Dunning-Kruger effect, the Peter Principle, the confirmation bias, etc. Sometimes I don't think peo…

Tbh, you can blame pg for that. He famously said downvoting to disagree is fine and people have let that reasoning turn into downvoting for almost everything.
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