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Did You Hear We Got Osama?

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Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#41

Post by unimpressive »

tristan_louis wrote: post #7

Let me be the contrarian here. If you limit yourself to a few content sources, you won't be able to make the leaps that come out of having access to information outside those sources and will eventually fall prey to group-think. Might work for you for a bit but if you want to change the world, you have to be aware of it.

In my experience, a good book about the past is worth a thousand news articles. (And then some.)

History repeats itself more often than we think.

Prime example:

One of the first hacks for the TX-0 was Peter Samson's music compiler, even though the TX-0 was not designed to have such capabilities and to most people the thought was ridiculous.

The first hack for the Altair was Steve Dompier's rendition of "Fool on the hill" using the Altairs radio interference. The Altair wasn't designed for this purpose either.

For some reason, two different people from different decades looking at similar (But very different) machines decided to do the same thing with them, without any prompting.

There are universal concepts that humans try to implement, improve, and expand upon. Keeping these in mind while trying to do cool stuff will go further than most news pieces. (Even the ones about other people doing cool stuff.)

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#42

Post by vnorby »

If you work in a tech startup, obviously you don't have to read every political story but I believe you absolutely should be aware about the Path situation, Kickstarter, and all other trends and most companies in our industry.

If you're not aware of these things, your boss is, and they are going to ask you to implement a screen that informs the user you are uploading their address book. If you've seen a large breadth of products and companies like Kickstarter, you will easily pick up on macro trends like UI/UX paradigms and significant technologies.

If you had some sophisticated filtering like a user has in another popular HN post today to get rid of things you don't like, you might miss out on trends like NoSQL or Node or Redis or Clojure, or you might upload a user's address book without permission and get caught.

If you are not up-to-date with your industry, I think in reality you will always be an employee of or a laggard to the person who knows about those things.

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#43

Post by darrikmazey »

I agree that the so-called "news" is entertainment, but being completely uninformed about current events will make you non-discerning in addition to more productive. Perhaps it would be better to consume better information as opposed to less information.

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#44

Post by kiba »

derleth wrote: post #40
kiba wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consuming information by choice allows us to express ourselves later with our opinions. Everyone should make an effort to learn about their surroundings to be an informed, contributing member of a democratic society. People say politicians are out of touch, but compared to a lot of Americans who willingly cut off their exposure to news, are they really? If you are not an expert on a political issue. You are uninforme…

> To believe that we can build our society with informed voters in democracies is extremely naive. To believe we can do anything else is the road back to Dachau.

>To believe we can do anything else is the road back to Dachau.

I am arguing that democracies can't work due to the impossibility of having informed voters by the way our democracies are organized. The first step to the road of better governance is acknowledging human limitation and nature.

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#45

Post by firefoxman1 »

peterwwillis wrote: post #20

It is really, really, really, really, really hard for me to find a good temporary distraction nowadays. The noise is so monotonous, so repetitive, so completely devoid of intellectual stimulation that I go between four websites in a loop looking for something interesting to read. HN has maybe one article every two hours that pops up to the top that I find worth reading, and maybe half the time worth upvoting. And tha…

"I don't care about politics. I don't care about the tech scene, or gadgets, or games, or celebrities, or sports, or this quarter's fiscal projections for a multinational corporation."

Then I think you may be on the wrong news site. I'm not saying that to be a jerk, I'm just saying that HN is a community-curated news site where the stories that the majority of users find interesting gets to the top. If you don't fit into that majority then maybe it would be better to find a new site that is more suited to your tastes.

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#46

Post by ryanwaggoner »

kiba wrote: post #23
mvkel wrote: post #3

Well put. My only counterpoint: sure, if you want to be 100% productive 100% of the time, don't succumb to distractions. If you see coworkers chatting over a coffee, do you think, "wow, they're being totally unproductive. They don't need those coffees, they should be working!"? Of course not. Consuming _and discussing_ news is a social activity. If your life is your work and nothing else, you'd be a very boring perso…

Consuming information by choice allows us to express ourselves later with our opinions. Everyone should make an effort to learn about their surroundings to be an informed, contributing member of a democratic society. People say politicians are out of touch, but compared to a lot of Americans who willingly cut off their exposure to news, are they really? If you are not an expert on a political issue. You are uninforme…

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

- Sir Winston Churchill

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#47

Post by anigbrowl »

celoyd wrote: post #34
Karunamon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Unless you live in Ohio or Florida, your vote is foregone. One could make a good argument that this kind of faulty thinking is the reason third party candidates can never get any footing, and also the reason that we get such downright evil people elected. Your vote is not "foregone" unless you choose not to vote. Period.

Oh? What’s the fault in the thinking? I think it’s not a problem in the utility equation for an individual voter, it’s a problem in the system. By definition, a vote in a non-swing state is insignificant. Empirically, a good showing for a third-party candidate has no significant effect on the political discourse, and your individual share of giving that candidate a strong showing is negligible. Voting in the US is ba…

By definition, a vote in a non-swing state is insignificant.

This is only true in the context of a single election. Over multiple election cycles, small movements in voting patterns can announce the start of a trend. Saying your vote doesn't count is an abdication of responsibility - 'somebody ought to do something about it, but 'they' would never allow it, hurf durf.'

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#48

Post by ThaddeusQuay2 »

peterwwillis wrote: post #20

It is really, really, really, really, really hard for me to find a good temporary distraction nowadays. The noise is so monotonous, so repetitive, so completely devoid of intellectual stimulation that I go between four websites in a loop looking for something interesting to read. HN has maybe one article every two hours that pops up to the top that I find worth reading, and maybe half the time worth upvoting. And tha…

"It is really, really, really, really, really hard for me to find a good temporary distraction nowadays."

You sound like a typical bored teenager, with too much time on their hands, wearing their boredom as a nihilistic badge of honor, expecting everyone to entertain them, while simultaneously acting as if they know everything, thereby supposedly being superior to the entertainers. If you can't find anything good to read, then use your apparently copious time to write something which you would want to read, and then anyone who responds positively to it will probably be someone like you. Find enough of these people, and you'll have created a self-entertaining community. Hackers build solutions.

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#49

Post by Rickasaurus »

mediaman wrote: post #27
peterwwillis wrote: post #20

It is really, really, really, really, really hard for me to find a good temporary distraction nowadays. The noise is so monotonous, so repetitive, so completely devoid of intellectual stimulation that I go between four websites in a loop looking for something interesting to read. HN has maybe one article every two hours that pops up to the top that I find worth reading, and maybe half the time worth upvoting. And tha…

Frequency and quality are negatively correlated when it comes to news. I would recommend Instapaper's curated list of articles, which tend to be long-form and more interesting than most, as well as The Browser ("Writing Worth Reading") for curated quality content. http://www.thebrowser.com But you're not going to find quality content many times a day, no matter where you look.

Thanks for a link to thebrowser.com. This is fantastic.

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#50

Post by epaga »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #46
kiba wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consuming information by choice allows us to express ourselves later with our opinions. Everyone should make an effort to learn about their surroundings to be an informed, contributing member of a democratic society. People say politicians are out of touch, but compared to a lot of Americans who willingly cut off their exposure to news, are they really? If you are not an expert on a political issue. You are uninforme…

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." - Sir Winston Churchill

"the best argument against democracy is a ten minute conversation with the average voter" - reportedly Churchill as well
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