Ask HN: Why are HN comments so cynical?

The problem with using “lucky” as a single term is it loses all nuance.

If I am a successful entrepreneur, it is likely I have been lucky. But the luck factor is less than a trust funder, born to rich parents. Or someone who won the lottery. And the lottery winner is less lucky than someone who didn’t buy a lotto ticket but won publishers clearinghouse (ie they had to at least buy the ticket)

The worlds rewards depend heavily on luck, but all too often I see things decried as “lucky” when that was only one piece of the equation. If we reduce luck to a binary, we may as well just do nothing and wait for good fortune.

because they're written by humans with anonymity

Never forget https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863

> 1. For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software.

That said, right now the industry is going through some turmoil. We're coming off the high of low interest rates, and it's turning into a mighty hangover. Plus, we're trying to automate ourselves away with AI, and (working in) tech just isn't fun with Scrum/Agile/Meetings/Sprints/Bluh.

I see threads like this one from time to time and wonder where OPs do find it. There may be some outbreaks, but nothing systemic to worry about, afaic. Are you sure you’re not overreacting on that specific thread? E.g. there’s a chance that most negative commenters just happened to be there in their active hours.

I think it is one of those darker sides of human nature. It takes concerted effort to think a problem through enough to realize if a proposed solution is really good or not. Our first instinct does not seem to be to praise someone for a thoughtful act or word; but to find a flaw in it.

Sometimes it is laziness. Sometimes it is just ego. But too often we will spend more effort on attacking a bad idea than in promoting a good one. This is not to say that much of the criticism isn't deserved. There are plenty of horrendous ideas floating around out there. But if we ignore them and spend our efforts on the good ones, then the cream will rise to the top faster.

A lesson I learned from raising kids - try to say two positive things for every corrective action you take. It will not only improve the world around you, but it will be good for your own well being.