Nobody Cares • Hacker News Board

Re: Nobody Cares

#71

Post by hythloday » Sat, Aug 11, 2012, 4:17 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #10

Jare wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come to Spain then, most people don't care and there's no effort to hide that. Stuff like this happens often: - having to chase a store clerk while he flees and tries to hide because his chatting with his friend on the cell is obviously more important. - "Oh could you also please bring ..." replied with a "why didn't you say that before?" at say a restaurant. I used to be annoyed by fake attention in the North Americ…

I live in the US Midwest. Yes, it is true that if someone asks you casually "How are you?" they are not expecting your life story, and the waiter's question about "how's the food so far?" is generally not an invitation to give a three paragraph review of the food. But it is legitimately a time to ask for refills, and a clerk's question is legitimately a time to tell them about the bathroom being dirty or something. I…

Taken to extremes by the colloquial English greeting of "alright?" where the answer is "alright" and the formal introduction of "how do you do?" which is responded to with "how do you do?" with no change of inflection.

Re: Nobody Cares

#72

Post by AznHisoka » Sat, Aug 11, 2012, 4:31 PM UTC

drumdance wrote: post #58

taroth wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making a "code" is like building a habit. Maintaining the code might be tiring at first, but consistently caring about others, just like consistently brushing your teeth, will inevitably get easier. If you truly are feeling exhausted/insane after treating people well for a day, its unlikely you think people are worth treating well to begin with.

Exactly. You weren't born with the instict to say "fine, how are you you" or "please" and "thank you." You were taught to do that by your parents. Habits like this are a muscle that can be developed. Relatedly, the concept of ego depletion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion

I think most humans are kind by nature, since we're social beings. In a setting like a tribe or a small community, it's relatively easy since we depend and know everyone else. It's when we have to be like that to everyone, including strangers.. that's tough.

Re: Nobody Cares

#73

Post by sirmarksalot » Sun, Aug 12, 2012, 12:31 AM UTC

randallsquared wrote: post #14

Have a good what? Have a good time? Have a good weekend? Have a good life? Day. It means "have a good day ".

It's funny, the first time I heard this, I thought it was a really neat thing to say. It's like wishing somebody a good day, weekend, evening, whatever, not worrying too much about the specifics. The kind of laziness that seems more sincere.

Now it's become just another greeting, part of our business culture. The fact that it's probably in some ESL textbook kind of kills the intent. Probably a sign that I'm getting old.

Anybody know what the young people are saying to each other nowadays? Aside from racist, homophobic slurs, I mean.