College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos • Hacker News Board

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#351

Post by therealdrag0 » Wed, May 20, 2026, 7:49 PM UTC

lkey wrote: post #111

dylan604 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trying to wrap my head around how one can still be around someone in 2023 after what happened in 2021. This confusion no way justifies what happened nor am I blaming anyone. I just don't understand it.

Staying with your rapist husband/boyfriend is the norm. He might beg for forgiveness and say he won't do it again. He might say he didn't understand you when you said no. He might threaten to kill you if you open your mouth one more time. He might do all of those in the same five minute span. Almost every women I am close to has been raped or assaulted. What part of this do you specifically not understand?

People have different abilities. It’s often hard for people to not understand why something that’s natural to them isn’t natural to others. In some lights, humans are very similar; in other lights they can be wildly different.

I have cut multiple toxic people out of my life, even very close relationships and family, and it was easy as farting for me. It’s alien to me to not be able to do that. However it’s easy to recognize different people have different capacities in this regard.

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#352

Post by Imustaskforhelp » Wed, May 20, 2026, 7:49 PM UTC

tavavex wrote: post #336

madnewgrad26 wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just graduated, my friends and I have realized that these older generations are just ladder pullers: they hate us. I’ve watched my classmates politics and outlook become more extreme over time. I don’t think I have any respect for older generations anymore, I was never this jaded before, but my classmates say more extreme stuff.

I'm also a recent graduate and I can confirm everything you've said. Both me and everyone I know in my age and social group are feeling more hopeless and jaded than ever. What are your classmates saying? Since our class has little to no power, representation or money, I'm very pessimistic about the odds of anything ever changing.

Hey, which college or country are you from? if you aren't comfortable with it publicly, you can send me a mail. Asking because I am curious although I might be 4 years younger than ya (going to a college rather than getting graduated)

I am actually at a bit of cross-roads myself as the degree would cost 30k$ where I live (for context I live in India) and so the competition and job market is so much that I would only recoup the tuition fees in 2 years. There are some other colleges if I just wanted a degree for the sake of it which are cheaper but literally 0 companies come to them and I would have to look for higher studies (masters). I would actually love some suggestions, I have went more in depth at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48097377

I am unsure of how much the industry might change 4 years from now, my only idea is to probably learn more about how things work and to have them around my curriculum and get good grades as this time it would be something that I am interested about (I wish to learn compilers, fpga, for some reason I really want to read golang codebases), I don't know how the job market might be when I land but its really messy right now and I am sorry that you are in the crossarm of it all.

I once made a project[0] on how many words a person has written on hackernews and you have written 60k words on hackernews and so have been a very decent member of it and I think that's because of not external factors or goodhart's law where something becomes a measure but rather because you genuinely enjoy doing these things. I completely understand your pessimism as I feel like I might be in the same boat albeit younger but it feels incredibly unfair to me for all the things that are happening in the world.

I think that being part of the community shows a level of curiosity which is atleast worth a interview or to get to know them more about it, I think that all you want is just a way for you to prove yourself and your skills. I urge the more experienced folks who might be looking for an applicant to perhaps show some support to @tavavex and give them an option to explain themselves.

Not sure if an interviewer reads it and you would actually get an interview and more chances to prove yourselves but the job market is so fundamentally broken at the moment with fake jobs and so much weirdness that even seniors sometimes don't find jobs & another part is that as college graduates, we worry about all the money and time spent on it and all we want is a fair chance. So I just hope that my comments atleast tries to nudge it towards that, perhaps I recommend taking part in the who wants to be hired thread within HN too.

Sorry this got long but I understand this struggle in some sense and its hard to explain but I have tried to try to do best in both explaining it and hopefully helping you out and I hope that you find a decent and stable job.

[0]: https://serjaimelannister.github.io/hn-words/

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#353

Post by johnnyanmac » Wed, May 20, 2026, 7:55 PM UTC

delecti wrote: post #120

bckr wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you have everything but can’t even keep your hands to yourself. Shameful.

It seems that when you can have anything money could buy, you start to look at the things money can't buy.

Why can't that ever be talent, or wisdom, or passion? So many filthy rich people. Seem to instantly go "hmm, what's some illegal stuff I can do despite so many legal things available to me".

I'm sure all the above happened back in the day too, but: rich people of previous centuries would go to the arts to find meaning. Being part of an orchestra or theatre troupe or artist alley was a peak achievement. Now we just have boring dystopia where rich guys literally build bunkers for the end of days they are personally bringing about. What the hell happend?

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#354

Post by smallmancontrov » Wed, May 20, 2026, 7:57 PM UTC

skybrian wrote: post #339

smallmancontrov wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice try, now use a deflator that doesn't systematically understate housing and forced substitution.

A national average (which is what an inflation rate is) can only do so much. It's going to include people who spend very different amounts on housing, probably not much like the situation where you live.

No, the "averages smear out details" problem is completely separate to the core accusation I made and much less interesting. My accusation -- which you completely failed to address -- is that CPI systematically fails to account for forced substitution, introducing a systematic downwards bias that forces "real" incomes to rise over the long term as a direct result of the solvency constraint on individuals rather than improved access to goods and services in the economy.

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#355

Post by archagon » Wed, May 20, 2026, 8:07 PM UTC

WarmWash wrote: post #115

whizzter wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, people in art production are far far more negative about AI than most sceptical developers. I wouldn't be surprised if a huge percentage of concept artists are out of jobs or changing specialization these days (Creating a throwaway image for a pitch or imaging document can probably be as easily conveyed through a prompt and the people looking at them are probably often not savvy enough to appreciate the differe…

The most jarring thing for me is that artists tend to be the most "communally oriented, socially forward" group of people. I've definitely spent my fair time around them. As soon as tools came about that socialized their skill, opened it to everyone, they immediately and violently opposed it. Which is totally understandable, except when your core ideology you have been pushing for your whole life is to socialize ever…

“Why bother making art when the slopbox can just extrude some art for you?”

Gee, I wonder why artists have such negative reactions to this technology. I’m actually baffled by your comment to the point where I have to wonder if you’re posting in good faith.

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#356

Post by skybrian » Wed, May 20, 2026, 8:09 PM UTC

smallmancontrov wrote: post #354

skybrian wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A national average (which is what an inflation rate is) can only do so much. It's going to include people who spend very different amounts on housing, probably not much like the situation where you live.

No, the "averages smear out details" problem is completely separate to the core accusation I made and much less interesting. My accusation -- which you completely failed to address -- is that CPI systematically fails to account for forced substitution, introducing a systematic downwards bias that forces "real" incomes to rise over the long term as a direct result of the solvency constraint on individuals rather than…

I'm not sure what you mean by forced substitution.

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#357

Post by Ferret7446 » Wed, May 20, 2026, 8:13 PM UTC

romaniv wrote: post #106

GenAI is the first technology that I've ever seen that is actively rejected by young adults and fervently pushed by people over 55. It seems Eric Schmids of the world think they (in their 70s) have more say about the future of these students than the students themselves. That is very unlikely.

It's really quite simple. AI is threatening to take their jobs. Everyone gets defensive when their livelihood is on the line.

Most technologies offer new opportunities to young adults.

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#358

Post by rurp » Wed, May 20, 2026, 8:41 PM UTC

steelkilt wrote: post #174

mpalmer wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't need much help, the industry's incentives are not aligned with the public interest.

Disruption, by definition, has winners and losers and the losers tend to be more visible, more vocal, and more immediate than the winners.

We're talking about an entire generation being impoverished and powerless, and the response from people like you and Schmidt is a dismissive "winners and losers". If this is the whole plan from AI evangelists be prepared for a heck of a lot more blowback.

If you care about society and this technology reaching its potential I hope you find your way to "yes" on giving a shit about other people.

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#359

Post by watwut » Wed, May 20, 2026, 8:42 PM UTC

SirMaster wrote: post #255

honeycrispy wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you trying to say? That AI benefited the students because they skipped their homework?

I am trying to understand how many of the students are complaining about AI when they themselves may have been using it a great deal. Because that seems hypocritical.

It is not hypocritical to hate tool you use. Likewise, it is not hypocritical to dislike people you work or live with.

And it is not hypocritical at all to hate or dislike or fear impact of a thing you used.

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#360

Post by watwut » Wed, May 20, 2026, 8:51 PM UTC

hnlmorg wrote: post #340

dragontamer wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The increased younger vote for Trump is a big part of our current set of problems. Remember: Google was declared a monopoly by Bidens Justice department. We were setting up a system to break down monopolies and restore order to the market. Trump got rid of that.

The problem was Trump marketed himself as being anti-establishment (like many far-right parties do) and people fell for that crap. It’s the same problem time and time again. people conflate regulation with “the establishment” when in fact it’s usually strict rules and processes that prevent us slipping into a dystopian nightmare. But of course people make this mistake because the same people who stand to benefit from…

I dont think so. Trump promissed male supremacy and many men liked it. The move toward Trump is in men specifically. If it was about establishement, women would move the same way.

Trump also promissed that it will be ok to mistreat some groups and people who hated one of those groups loved the message - sometimes even when they were members of some of those groups.

But, the young voters moving to Trump was male thing and 100% based on misogyny and male supremacy.