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Haters

paulgraham.com

131–140 of 308 posts

Re: Haters

#131
"Could a hater be cured if they achieved something impressive? My guess is that it's a moot point, because they never will."

This is entirely wrong. History is full of people with spectacular achievements whom pg would classify as "haters".

The whole essay is really poor (and yes, I've also achieved more than flipping a web-shop to friends at Yahoo during the bubble.).

Re: Haters

#132
post #27

> [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 l…

Basically yes, but it should be said that John Carreyrou didn't act like a hater. Perhaps a better test is, that a thoughtful person thinks y is a fraud, whereas more or less by definition a hater does not come across as a thoughtful person.

Re: Haters

#133

I never could learn to deal with this. I set up a blog way back when blogs were first a thing, maybe 20 years ago. Started posting articles about internet, culture, tech, anything I found interesting. Almost immediately, I had people dropping by and posting the most vile comments. Whatever I did, I did for bad reasons. I was a bad person and there just wasn't anything I could do or say to fix that. I never learned ho…

I want to say I remember your blog and that I enjoyed it. Thanks for that.

Re: Haters

#134
Well, consider sports fans for a moment. There’s nothing rational in particular about worshipping a uniform, and yet you will find sports fans all over the place. And sports fans are almost all haters of the other team.

And yet... there are plenty of wildly successful people that are fans of sports, and haters of the rivals. Obama is famously a basketball fan, for instance.

I get that it’s a lot milder than hating on a person, my point is that this is a thing that is in almost all of us. The smart people just know when to compartmentalise those feelings.

Re: Haters

#135

I never could learn to deal with this. I set up a blog way back when blogs were first a thing, maybe 20 years ago. Started posting articles about internet, culture, tech, anything I found interesting. Almost immediately, I had people dropping by and posting the most vile comments. Whatever I did, I did for bad reasons. I was a bad person and there just wasn't anything I could do or say to fix that. I never learned ho…

> Somebody else will take seriously.

I think there's an reasonable expectation to respect, but there are people out there that will take offense to almost anything.

We shouldn't be sacrificing our own rights to accommodate those people.

Re: Haters

#136
...haters are not always complete losers... some have some amount of talent. In fact I suspect that a sense of frustrated talent is what drives some people to become haters.

I vibe to this. Anyone who has leveraged talent into success in any area knows how much work it is to be successful at anything. It inspires a level of empathy for people who have trod a similar path.

The fanboy is so slavishly predictable in his admiration that he's diminished as a result. He's less than a man. And I think this is true of haters too.

I'm kind of disappointed by the choice of words here. I get the point of the phrase "less than a man", but it implies some toxic ideas about masculinity that are kind of ugly.

Re: Haters

#137

...haters are not always complete losers... some have some amount of talent. In fact I suspect that a sense of frustrated talent is what drives some people to become haters. I vibe to this. Anyone who has leveraged talent into success in any area knows how much work it is to be successful at anything . It inspires a level of empathy for people who have trod a similar path. The fanboy is so slavishly predictable in hi…

>but it implies some toxic ideas about masculinity that are kind of ugly.

Oh no, you nearly mentioned the thing. You can't mention the thing on Hacker News, it never goes well.

Re: Haters

#138

I never could learn to deal with this. I set up a blog way back when blogs were first a thing, maybe 20 years ago. Started posting articles about internet, culture, tech, anything I found interesting. Almost immediately, I had people dropping by and posting the most vile comments. Whatever I did, I did for bad reasons. I was a bad person and there just wasn't anything I could do or say to fix that. I never learned ho…

I forget where, but I read something once that said "Don't be afraid to delete a stranger's mean-spirited comments."

I've taken that up as a mantra, and never regretted it!

Re: Haters

#139
The unexpected hyperlink was such a 'nice' touch! I guess that means we have a reverse-fanboy on our hands too, don't we?

Re: Haters

#140

I never could learn to deal with this. I set up a blog way back when blogs were first a thing, maybe 20 years ago. Started posting articles about internet, culture, tech, anything I found interesting. Almost immediately, I had people dropping by and posting the most vile comments. Whatever I did, I did for bad reasons. I was a bad person and there just wasn't anything I could do or say to fix that. I never learned ho…

> Somebody else will take seriously. I think there's an reasonable expectation to respect, but there are people out there that will take offense to almost anything. We shouldn't be sacrificing our own rights to accommodate those people.

I completely agree with this. Ironically, it's also almost word-for-word what I've experienced many people say in defense of expressing hatred for people.
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