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Haters

paulgraham.com

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Re: Haters

#21

Post by ignoramous »

xwowsersx wrote: post #13

I'm not a PG fanboy ;) but I usually really admire his writing. He writes so plainly and clearly, it's something I struggle with. My issue is never ever that my writing is not flowery or interesting enough, it's that it's not simple enough. Knowing firsthand how much harder this is than one would think, I quite admire how plainly and straight-to-the-point PG writes.

If you like his style, then you would find these interesting:

http://paulgraham.com/speak.html (counter: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3720459)

http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html

http://paulgraham.com/essay.html (counter: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3306364)

http://paulgraham.com/talk.html (counter: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10448643)

Re: Haters

#22

Post by doctor_eval »

I thought the article was interesting, but this footnote left me cold:

“How can you distinguish between x calling y a fraud because x is a hater, and because y is a fraud? ... Thoughtful people are rarely taken in by [frauds]“

The world is full of “thoughtful” people who have been taken in by frauds - Theranos is a recent example - and so I think this is pretty terrible advice in general - although I can see how it might work in certain contexts.

For example, frauds often seem to work on smart people who aren’t smart in the specific field in which the fraud operates.

Re: Haters

#23

Post by hitekker »

loteck wrote: post #2

Curious, what sorts of famous people do we have hanging around HN?

dhouston dropped by a few months ago to correct an inept distortion of Andy Groves "High Output Management".

Re: Haters

#24

Post by cabalamat »

calineczka wrote: post #8
cabalamat wrote: post #4

> Haters are generally losers in a very specific sense: although they are occasionally talented, they have never achieved much. So if people become haters because they never achieved much, why do people become fanboys?

My personal theory: same reason but scoped to a limited domain. You can be a generally happy and successful person but a fanboy of an athlete because you've never achieved much in sports. You want someone to succeed because it resonates with some unrealized potential in yourself.

That makes sense. To the extent I've ever been a fanboy, it's because I wanted to emulate that person in some way.

Re: Haters

#25

Post by euske »

I've watched for a number of times that a bully became a bully victim, and a bully victim became a bully. So I eventually concluded that they're actually the same kind of people.

Re: Haters

#27

Post by SethTro »

> [1] There are of course some people who are genuine frauds. How can you distinguish between x calling y a fraud because x is a hater, and because y is a fraud? Look at neutral opinion. Actual frauds are usually pretty conspicuous. Thoughtful people are rarely taken in by them. So if there are some thoughtful people who like y, you can usually assume y is not a fraud.

I don't think that "some thoughtful people who like y" is good enough. There have been big "frauds" in the tech space (and so many in the finance space) were it took years for public opinion to catch up with their actions (Theranos, WeWorks, Epstien and MIT labs) despite some people (Matt levine, John Carreyrou) knowing they weren't above board these people and companies were defended (or not even questioned) by media coverage and big name personalities.

Re: Haters

#28

Post by thrwaway69 »

cabalamat wrote: post #4

> Haters are generally losers in a very specific sense: although they are occasionally talented, they have never achieved much. So if people become haters because they never achieved much, why do people become fanboys?

Being either seems like a lose-lose situation to me. If you are not being critical in your evaluation of someone you may gain from, then that's wasting time. I have found a reasonable way to combat that by always considering how much I would have been paid on average if I tried to work the time I spent. Currently the amount is hypothetical but I think that may change when I get stable income in future. I notice that aspect of thinking matures some people.

Re: Haters

#29

Post by qaq »

doctor_eval wrote: post #22

I thought the article was interesting, but this footnote left me cold: “How can you distinguish between x calling y a fraud because x is a hater, and because y is a fraud? ... Thoughtful people are rarely taken in by [frauds]“ The world is full of “thoughtful” people who have been taken in by frauds - Theranos is a recent example - and so I think this is pretty terrible advice in general - although I can see how it m…

Therons is an example of letting ideology drive investment decisions.

Re: Haters

#30

Post by alkibiades »

sometimes it seems like on this site 80 percent of people fall in one of those categories for someone like elon musk.

for trump it’s like 99 pct.

it’s a shame people can’t just be objective and call out good/bad

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