How will the miracle happen today? • Hacker News Board

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#211

Post by ocdtrekkie » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 3:19 AM UTC

throw4432w56 wrote: post #201

gostsamo wrote: post #2

> I am not sure I would invite a casual tourist I met to take over my apartment, and cook for him, as many have done for me. leaves a bad taste. I've helped and been helped in all kinds of situations. The sense of entitlement in this guy and the way he proudly explains how he is using people is just awful. Help is to give when you know that the gesture will have an disproportional effect for the other person and will…

He sounds like a “begpacker.” Reading this makes me think badly about the author. Taking from those less fortunate is horrible. If you are rich enough to travel to a poor country, please don’t exploit the people by taking more from them.

Imagine the good he could have done if he actually paid people back! He could've bought a cart of food for the family generous enough to share their last can of meat. He could have spotted a generous driver with a full tank of gas right at the end of the trip.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#212

Post by wavemode » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 3:28 AM UTC

gcanyon wrote: post #193

I see others expressing this point, but I'll add my two cents: this essay really bothered me. 1. The writer describes hitchhiking to work every day, presumably for months or years. He doesn't describe in any way how he paid back that kindness, either to the people he rode with directly, or just by paying it forward. 2. The writer describes traveling in Asia for 8 years, and many of the instances of kindness he descri…

The author's philosophy is that, what the people doing him kindness got in return was that they got to do something kind for someone.

To be honest, I think there's something to that. It could certainly be taken too far, but your assumption that it has been taken too far in this case is mostly based on an uncharitable reading of the text, in which the author was "pushing himself on people" and they were secretly resentful of him.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#213

Post by parineum » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 3:32 AM UTC

zoeysmithe wrote: post #168

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When Joe Rogan is more interesting than talking about your day with your spouse or friend ... ... you may (just may!) have been married for a rather long time. I still think that is sad, but in a different sort of way than it would be for younger couples/pairs.

Rogan pushes fairly regressive and misogynistic narratives, so I would expect a "Rogan guy" to not have a great relationship with his wife and would not at all be surprised they stopped getting along or just lacked a lot in common anymore, unless she's also a Rogan type.

Way to totally miss the point. You can just pretend he said The Young Turks instead if you care to follow along with the conversation.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#214

Post by lutusp » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 3:34 AM UTC

I'm very happy to see this account of what once passed for normal life. It serves as a reminder that doomscrolling, however addicting it may be, is not reality.

During my time hitchhiking across the lower 48 U.S. states (in the 1960s), I only had to learn one rule -- smile. All the rest followed from that.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#215

Post by moron4hire » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 3:52 AM UTC

gcanyon wrote: post #193

I see others expressing this point, but I'll add my two cents: this essay really bothered me. 1. The writer describes hitchhiking to work every day, presumably for months or years. He doesn't describe in any way how he paid back that kindness, either to the people he rode with directly, or just by paying it forward. 2. The writer describes traveling in Asia for 8 years, and many of the instances of kindness he descri…

I'm with you 100% on this. I kept reading it and thinking to myself, "is... is this guy admitting out loud to being a grifter?"

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#216

Post by Tempatio » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 4:06 AM UTC

Beautiful article. This is kind of the antidote to the more cynical side of things that you see in posts such as, say, Meditations On Moloch (neither is wrong, I think, but there is more to humanity than either alone).

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#217

Post by moron4hire » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 4:22 AM UTC

bpt3 wrote: post #157

JKCalhoun wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did not realize, thanks for the clarification. I think you're leaning a little too hard on Kevin though. Grifting is putting a bit of a fine point on it.

I figured not, apologies for not making it clear. KK is basically encouraging people to go out in the world and say "what can this place do for me today?" which is bad enough on its surface, but he's doing it while interacting with people (in this story at least) who have much, much less than him in so many ways. I'm not sure what you want to call it exactly, but it feels exploitative and antisocial to me at a minimu…

"Grifter" is exactly the word that came to my mind as I was reading the article, for whatever that's worth.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#218

Post by rconti » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 4:23 AM UTC

arjie wrote: post #183

Before I quit riding my motorcycle, I recalled one important thing: all the way from the Oakland Hills to downtown San Francisco, many (I dare say 'most') drivers would step their cars to the edges of their lanes to make room for me to lane-split. I know there are lots of people who use their phones will driving, but this was clearly intentional, and a large number of people would do it. I was riding a Ducati but in…

I used to ride as well, and I had the same reaction. The sheer number of people who moved over for me (in California) blew me away every time I rode. They'd never hear me coming; they SAW me and made the choice to move over. I constantly felt that I was underestimating how many people were truly paying attention while they were driving, despite how much "we" like to complain that everyone's in their own world and nobody pays attention anymore.

I try very hard to do the same. I did before I rode, and I still do now. I'm a skilled and trained and attentive driver who is rarely distracted. And yet, I am ashamed at how often I am surprised when a motorcycle splits past me. Maybe I shouldn't think so highly of my attentiveness compared to the "average" person.

It's also a lesson on law and culture. Here in CA where it's legal by statute (if not always practiced in a legal manner), and where drivers are aware it happens, and MOSTLY aware that it's legal, the drivers are very kind. In places where it is ILLEGAL, drivers can be a lot more antagonistic and unsafe about the practice. But at the end of the day, the laws are arbitrary; on the asphalt, it's just another human trying to get from one place to another, doing nothing to inhibit the journey of the other.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#219

Post by raincole » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 4:31 AM UTC

gcanyon wrote: post #193

I see others expressing this point, but I'll add my two cents: this essay really bothered me. 1. The writer describes hitchhiking to work every day, presumably for months or years. He doesn't describe in any way how he paid back that kindness, either to the people he rode with directly, or just by paying it forward. 2. The writer describes traveling in Asia for 8 years, and many of the instances of kindness he descri…

The article reminds me of The Art of Asking. If you never heard of it, it's a TED talk where a musician/singer shared how much favors she received from fans (without expectations of returning them.)

Years later the said musician, Amanda Palmer, was accused and sued for sexual assault and human trafficking. Together with her husband, Neil Gaiman.

I'm not saying the author has done anything illegal, but I think one should be extra cautious about people who take others' kindness for granted.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#220

Post by moron4hire » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 4:33 AM UTC

scotty79 wrote: post #110

gbjw wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think it's a curse to be alive?

Not sure if I'd use word curse. It at least slightly implies agency. I'd just say it's a burden and a bother.

It's certainly a responsibility. A responsibility that, through its unique circumstances, you were not given the opportunity to accept our reject on your own volition.

I generally view that life has no meaning out of the box. We tend to think of terms like "meaningless" as a negative thing, but I see that more as a reaction to the indoctrination of a society that insists on lives having meaning. You wouldn't say a scattering of sand on the floor had "meaning," but you also wouldn't call the scattering "meaningless" in its negative connotation.

And just as we could use our finger to arrange the sand into a message and assign it meaning, we can choose to assign a meaning to our own lives. But that's still doesn't mean it started having meaning. If it did, that would be predestination, which is absurd.