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The Lost Oaks of California Ave

paulgraham.com

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Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#41

Post by TriinT »

lionhearted wrote: post #34
TriinT wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a herd phenomenon. Even if PG writes something utterly pointless, he gets upvoted to the stratosphere. It would be nice if this changed. Intelligent and successful people like PG don't need this kind of adulation.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think this comment shows a slight lack of... something... hmm... This is a bit disorganized, but I'll try to lay out how the gears are turning in my head: When you implicitly call out a community or someone very admired in that community (whose also running things for free for a lot of people's enjoyment), it's courageous but it burns some of your future ability-to-speak-out-a…

I stand by my comment. My opinion is based on evidence: some high-karma members can get away with stuff other members can't get away with. If a newbie posted about oaks getting hacked, the post would be flagged right away. Of course, since PG runs HN, the community should indeed cut him some slack as a token of gratitude.

My comment was an attack on the herd phenomenon, not on PG. It was not meant to offend anyone. If it does offend anyone, well, I really don't care. If it burns some of my future ability-to-speak-out-and-others-will-listen-edness, then I don't care either. Worst case scenario, I can always join with a new username, like IamNotTriinT.

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#42

Post by jamwt »

supahfly_remix wrote: post #30
pg wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of HN users are in Silicon Valley, and most people in SV know California Ave. This is the neighborhood Facebook just moved to, among other things.

I meant nothing towards you. PG's gonna write essays on whatever he wants. I was just pointing out evidence of the adulation/infatuation some of the HN denizens have for you. BTW I know Calif. Ave. too, I used to eat at Chu's every now and then (the little potsticker hole-in-the-wall shop). Is that still there?

Cho's is still there, and it's still serving out delicious pot-stickers and dumplings for cheap.

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#45

Post by fjabre »

lionhearted wrote: post #34
TriinT wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a herd phenomenon. Even if PG writes something utterly pointless, he gets upvoted to the stratosphere. It would be nice if this changed. Intelligent and successful people like PG don't need this kind of adulation.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think this comment shows a slight lack of... something... hmm... This is a bit disorganized, but I'll try to lay out how the gears are turning in my head: When you implicitly call out a community or someone very admired in that community (whose also running things for free for a lot of people's enjoyment), it's courageous but it burns some of your future ability-to-speak-out-a…

Are users of HN free agents or does good karma imply they must never disagree with anything coming from one particular source..?

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#46

Post by e40 »

Are there any Maple trees that do not either drop sap or other liquids or large seed pods? We're all familiar with the mess the former makes of our cars and sidewalks. The latter, at least the ones from Sugar Maples, are a real pain in the ass, clogging storm drains and such.

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#47

Post by martey »

asdlfj2sd33 wrote: post #31
supahfly_remix wrote: post #17

It might be sacrilegious to ask, but what does this have to do with hacking (other than say, hacking down of oak trees). The fact that it's ranked so highly just goes to show the amount of ass kissing going on here.

I'll take a thoughtful essay on architecture and the power of government over the crap OMG look at this crazy Sh!t! and the self help How to lose weight/How to get a date/How to be social. articles which are hitting the front page more and more often.

I agree, but I think that if this essay had been written by someone else, it probably would not have made the front page.

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#48

Post by randallsquared »

shykes wrote: post #15
tjic wrote: post #4

Private owners respect and conserve their resources. Governments (which is to say, politicians with short lifespans in their job) use up resources in a rush to accomplish short term, idiotic goals. You can look at the environmental records of capitalist countries versus centrally managed totalitarian states. ...or you can look at golf courses (which don't "cut down all the trees to keep things tidy") and compare them…

> Private owners respect and conserve their resources Except when they don't. Blanket statements like that aren't very helpful. > politicians [...] use up resources in a rush > to accomplish short term, idiotic goals. Except when they don't. Or when the goals are decided by the private owners who bought them lunch.

Or when the goals are decided by the private owners who bought them lunch.

I think you missed the point. If the property in question were privately owned, then the goals concerning the property would be the owners' goals, not the politicians' goals. To the extent that the politicians' goals control property, the property isn't privately owned (except for the corner case of property the politicians privately own).

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#49

Post by cschep »

TriinT wrote: post #22
supahfly_remix wrote: post #17

It might be sacrilegious to ask, but what does this have to do with hacking (other than say, hacking down of oak trees). The fact that it's ranked so highly just goes to show the amount of ass kissing going on here.

It's a herd phenomenon. Even if PG writes something utterly pointless, he gets upvoted to the stratosphere. It would be nice if this changed. Intelligent and successful people like PG don't need this kind of adulation.

This isn't utterly pointless. I'm glad I know about it, and I wouldn't have without this essay.

Or were you just saying "in general"? If so, point me to something PG has put online that is utterly pointless. He has a remarkably good filter for useful content, even within his own essays there are rarely sentences that are extra.

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#50

Post by natrius »

ardit33 wrote: post #36

It is sad though, that Cal. Ave, is considered on the most nicer areas of Sillicon Valley. There is nothing really special in it that you can't find in any dinky town in the us, minus the charm that small towns have. Compare to any nice areas to Cambridge, or W. D.C. or NYC, or Boulder. With the money flowing in the area, that that's what they can achieve? At least during the gilded age, the rich folks built memorial…

California Ave. is notably nice because that pattern of building is now illegal in most parts of the Bay Area and the United States as a whole. People like visiting walkable cities and the walkable enclaves of their own suburbs, but if someone actually proposes building something like that, people raise hell.

"Mixed-use is not appropriate for this site," Palmer said. "It impinges on the little residential neighborhood that's been developed."

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/story.php?story_id=1080...

Read the descriptions of the projects and see how remarkably tiny they are. Then read the comments. It's quite sad.

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