Live data from Hacker News

Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com

301–310 of 399 posts

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO There are bad people out there and some of them will want to hurt you. You don't have to sacrifice who you really are because of them. You just have to live a little bit differently. means don't use AirBnB

If the implication is don't use AirBnB, then the implication is also: never leave your own home and never let anyone in, which is paranoid and absurd. You might object that what you say applies only to strangers and not to those you trust, but then you would be forgetting that everyone you trust was once a stranger. Simply walking down the street is a testament to one's notion that in general humans are good and that…

There's a difference between all of those and giving a person you've never met free, intimate access to your home.

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#303
post #289

Why was the title of this post changed? It used to have the name "airbnb" in it earlier this morning, around 400 votes.

Is there any way to find out who changed the title? The submitter or admins?

Most likely admins since, IIRC, a submitter has only a short time window to edit a submission.

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any way to find out who changed the title? The submitter or admins?

Most likely admins since, IIRC, a submitter has only a short time window to edit a submission.

not cool.

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#305
post #147

I get angry when I realize I will never again be who I've always been before, someone who lived strong and free by the creed that people are essentially good, that if you think optimistically, trust others. Please don't let them steal this too. I'm really sorry for your bad experience, but remember: - You can still live strong and free. - People are still essentially good. - You can still think optimistically. - You…

> People are still essentially good. Experiment indicates that the majority (65%) are not: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment I am sorry to be a downer, and I agree that it is nice to pretend that people are essentially good. Ignoring the Milgram results, however, leads us to forget why we have to maintain societies with complex crime deterrent schemes, and why we should not trust anonymous individuals w…

That experiment shows you exactly the opposite, rather: that people who seem essentially bad (i.e. bad in essence) may simply be responding to circumstances, incentives and social pressure.

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People are still essentially good. Experiment indicates that the majority (65%) are not: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment I am sorry to be a downer, and I agree that it is nice to pretend that people are essentially good. Ignoring the Milgram results, however, leads us to forget why we have to maintain societies with complex crime deterrent schemes, and why we should not trust anonymous individuals w…

"I don't think that means what you think it means." That experiment deals with ability to disobey authority, not with the basic goodness of the people performing the actions. Nearly 100% of the people performing the actions questioned what they were doing. That indicates they knew it was wrong, instinctively and didn't wish to do it. But we are well trained to listen to authority, and the authority figure was telling…

I wouldn't call someone that acts against their conscience "good" (unless their survival is at stake).

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#307
post #218
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you against requiring car insurance to drive? (another situation with a small chance of a large loss that most people can't afford) If yes, please explain why. If not, please tell me what's different here. I'm genuinely confused why you said what you said.

Usually the only insurance you're required to have is for damage you do to others, not your own car. You're allowed screw yourself over.

But if the driver who hits my car can't afford insurance or the repairs for my car, then the other driver has screwed me over.

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People are still essentially good. Experiment indicates that the majority (65%) are not: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment I am sorry to be a downer, and I agree that it is nice to pretend that people are essentially good. Ignoring the Milgram results, however, leads us to forget why we have to maintain societies with complex crime deterrent schemes, and why we should not trust anonymous individuals w…

"I don't think that means what you think it means." That experiment deals with ability to disobey authority, not with the basic goodness of the people performing the actions. Nearly 100% of the people performing the actions questioned what they were doing. That indicates they knew it was wrong, instinctively and didn't wish to do it. But we are well trained to listen to authority, and the authority figure was telling…

I don't find it that surprising, given that we are taught from birth to obey authority figures (parents, family, teachers, policemen) /without question/. It's perhaps a useful simplification in early life but is one I've long-considered harmful.

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO There are bad people out there and some of them will want to hurt you. You don't have to sacrifice who you really are because of them. You just have to live a little bit differently. means don't use AirBnB

If the implication is don't use AirBnB, then the implication is also: never leave your own home and never let anyone in, which is paranoid and absurd. You might object that what you say applies only to strangers and not to those you trust, but then you would be forgetting that everyone you trust was once a stranger. Simply walking down the street is a testament to one's notion that in general humans are good and that…

That doesn't follow at all.

First, I'd like to be clear that I'm not advocating for or against AirBnB (and my sole experience as a buyer of accommodation via AirBnB was positive).

It should be transparent that different actions have different levels of risk and reward. Often by accepting higher risk (e.g. accepting the risk of letting strangers into your apartment) you can get higher reward (e.g. some money, a sense of community and connection, etc). But risk is risk, and so you can also get anti-rewards, sometimes huge ones (home ransacked and burglarized and vandalized, identity stolen, sense of life violated, etc).

If you want to draw conclusions from events like this, they should be about modulating your risk tolerance, not about setting your risk tolerance to zero (which is incoherent anyway). You might decide that although things like this happen, it's a risk you're willing to take. Or maybe not. You might decide that if you're going to rent your apartment out to sight-unseen strangers, you're going to put all your identity documents in a safety deposit box first, to slightly limit the maximum damage. Or you might decide that that would offset the benefit too much, and thereby just go back to the no-renting-to-strangers option. Or you might decided to take martial arts lessons, and not let strangers in. Or you might decided to install security cameras, with real-time transmission to offsite backup, so that if something bad happens you'll always be able to strike back and regain a sense of control. Whatever. All of those options are coherent alternatives, and all are a far cry from 'never leave your own home, never let anyone in'.

It's certainly true that simply walking down the street requires trust, and it's certainly true that transforming strangers into friends is a process that requires risking trust, but both of those _can_ be done with very small trusts. Or they can be done with large trust, which has greater risk, greater possible reward, and greater possible injury.

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#310
post #147

I get angry when I realize I will never again be who I've always been before, someone who lived strong and free by the creed that people are essentially good, that if you think optimistically, trust others. Please don't let them steal this too. I'm really sorry for your bad experience, but remember: - You can still live strong and free. - People are still essentially good. - You can still think optimistically. - You…

> People are still essentially good. Experiment indicates that the majority (65%) are not: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment I am sorry to be a downer, and I agree that it is nice to pretend that people are essentially good. Ignoring the Milgram results, however, leads us to forget why we have to maintain societies with complex crime deterrent schemes, and why we should not trust anonymous individuals w…

Most people are able to think 'this would make me feel awful, I don't want to make someone else feel this way' - those that aren't are usually canny enough to pretend.

People might not be essentially 'good' - but most people are rational and lucid enough to stay within the bounds of what's socially acceptable .. even if they're unable to empathise.

This was a random nutter / group of nutters .. stuff like this, unfortunately, happens all the time - although, thankfully, on a minimal scale.

The issue for me, is related to some fundamental flaws in AirBnB's business model .. flaws which are seem largely absent from the alternative of CouchSurfing.

Post reply on HN