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Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

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Re: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

#871

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Effectively pushing against the idea makes one a "racist" or a "white supremacist" as far as I can tell. Your wording is a wee bit vague. There's nothing wrong about pushing back on the notion that if one is white than one is guilty of crimes committed in the name of white superiority (because that's actually racist too). But it also doesn't discount the fact that racism is still very much a problem.

I am not vague. What is vague is the shadowy threat of being called a racist for stating ones opinion while having the wrong color of skin. It is a problem. Just a wee bit.

I'm sorry -- that wasn't intended as an insult, more of an issue on me being able to ascertain exactly what you were saying. Comprehending other people's writing can be challenging at times even if you think you know what they're saying.

One's opinion should stand on the words/ideas behind them, not what one looks like. Getting called out for that is bullshit and should be disregarded.

Part of my confusion is also that I don't feel the threat that you mention. I'm also okay with being challenged and with being wrong. I think the key is to try to engage with respect and be prepared to listen to what the other party is trying to say -- and assume best intentions.

Re: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

#872

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. When I was doing sales, I would follow up with people seven times before they replied. I used to feel bad until I realized that it worked, then I just automated that part and didn't think about it further, the leads once they replied were sent to my CRM where I could then set them up on a call or some other action.

I've automated the opposite: three unsolicited mails, and I automatically send the sender's entire company to spam and reply with a friendly request to stop. Three more, and I send an automated cease and desist, threatening legal action (with receipt confirmation requested). If it still continues after that, I actually involve lawyers. Most people are only willing to do something after repeated attempts because they'…

See, you don't think like salespeople do. It doesn't matter how much this practice harms you, the only externality that matters is how much it benefits them.

Re: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

#873
post #797

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't cross into personal attack or name-calling. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

What name-calling did I do? I said it is how cultists behave.

"Cultists" is the name-calling.

Re: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

#874

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "they" when they say "they" created the modern world is not the membership of the organisation, but rather western civilisation/culture.

If it is silly to feel responsible for bad things that other people did, just because they happened to have the same color of skin, it is also silly to take credit for the good things other people did.

Exactly. We can only be proud of what we personally accomplish.

I wasn’t endorsing the Proud Boys, but they aren’t completely without a point either. I’m more concerned victimhood culture is destroying more lives than racism is at this point.

My wife is not a white woman. No one’s going to tell our kids that they’re doomed. I want them to flourish. regardless of circumstances, through grit, persistence, determination, and resilience.

At a certain point, we all need to deal with the hand we’re dealt in life. I certainly was not on the fortunate side of the fence myself.

There’s a reason why a lot of families no longer exist. Tough times came and they put a bullet in their head. We’re heading for tough times again and outcomes will be delineated by who has taught their children strong values.

Re: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

#875

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some interesting studies about girls and women playing chess. When blind, the two sexes perform on average about the same, but when they know the gender of their opponent, girls and women underperform. It is hypothesised that the reason behind this is because chess is a boys’ club, so to speak, and thus there is not a lot of representation. Absence of representation means that it may seem that you are the o…

I’ll bet this does not replicate, the effect of stereotype threat is notoriously overvalued. Don’t fall for junk science.

@dang

Why is GP flagged but parent isn’t?

Parent adds nothing to the conversation, but apparently GP was worth removing even though it is now supported by 3 different sources.

Re: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

#877

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "they" when they say "they" created the modern world is not the membership of the organisation, but rather western civilisation/culture.

If it is silly to feel responsible for bad things that other people did, just because they happened to have the same color of skin, it is also silly to take credit for the good things other people did.

Well strictly speaking a) they don't say they're proud of it, they say the "refuse to apologise for it" and b) they have ethnic minority members and their leader was afro-cuban (Enrique Tarrio).

Re: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

#878

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Germany, so far stricter rules apply. And often senders aren't even complying with the CANSPAM rules. Far too often have I received an email with sad gifs attached telling me they don't want to stop emailing me. Recruiters, Sales, shitty spam farms, it's all the same. My hometown already banned any kind of outdoor ads with lights and heavily regulated ad size, personally I'd appreciate if we banned advertising…

That's unfortunate in Germany, I've had people cold email me with good information, I've even gotten a few jobs from that. Similarly, I've had good clients come from cold email as well. I'm not sure how advertising as a whole could be banned, there are many types, and it could be argued that even word of mouth (or merely even showing a brand image like logos) is a sort of advertising. Also, it would be very difficult…

How would it cement existing players?

Many people already make purchasing decisions by looking at comprehensive tests from non-profit foundations (https://www.test.de/) or one of the public broadcasters' (https://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/markt/index.html, https://www1.wdr.de/fernsehen/markt/index.html), and then do price comparisons with one of the many popular price comparison websites (https://www.idealo.de/, https://geizhals.de/, https://www.hardwareschotte.de/, https://www.preispiraten.de/).

If your product is good, it'll do well in the tests and the price comparison, and be bought.

You only need advertising if your product is actually bad and you instead want to convince people to pay for it because you want it associated with a certain image of your customers. But in that case, you're not selling a product, you're selling a status symbol, basically jewellery (e.g., Apple, the sneaker market, etc)

And the market of status symbols is harmful to society anyway, so if it gets destroyed as collateral damage of a potential ad ban, that'd be awesome.

Re: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

#879

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's unfortunate in Germany, I've had people cold email me with good information, I've even gotten a few jobs from that. Similarly, I've had good clients come from cold email as well. I'm not sure how advertising as a whole could be banned, there are many types, and it could be argued that even word of mouth (or merely even showing a brand image like logos) is a sort of advertising. Also, it would be very difficult…

How would it cement existing players? Many people already make purchasing decisions by looking at comprehensive tests from non-profit foundations ( https://www.test.de/ ) or one of the public broadcasters' ( https://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/markt/index.html , https://www1.wdr.de/fernsehen/markt/index.html ), and then do price comparisons with one of the many popular price comparison websites ( https://www.ideal…

When you say "many people," it sounds more like this your workflow for purchasing decisions, not many people's. The way you outlined is so rare that I doubt many people actually do what you describe, unless you want to redefine the word "many." There is a reason advertising exists and works, and you are not realizing that you are a rare, rare exception to that. It is akin to someone using only Gentoo and saying how many people also use it. Yes, some people might use it too, but it is so far outside the range of normality in the population that it does not matter, even if the Gentoo user thinks their bubble is many other people's too.

Re: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

#880
post #662

Narcissism. My grandmother was a terrible narcissist. I loved her dearly and she had a lot of wonderful qualities, but The quality that stood out the most, sadly, was narcissism. My mother was also a narcissist to a somewhat lesser degree. It didn't occur to me that I too was a narcissist until I was about 35 years old. It took waking up in the corner of the living room in my friends one bedroom apartment Early one m…

It's interesting to read that you slowly shift the narrative from accepting your faults to making excuses to blame externalities, like inherited narcissism and ADHD. Look the word up, it's essentially an umbrella term that pretty much describes anything that can be considered negative, almost to the point that it's meaningless, except as a convenient tool to antagonize people. Selfishness and self-admiration is spect…

> Look the word up, it's essentially an umbrella term that pretty much describes anything that can be considered negative

I suggest you look up the difference between the common sense of the word narcissism and the psychiatric diagnosis (which has a more rigorous and specific definition).

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