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Explaining Sex Rate Changes

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Re: Explaining Sex Rate Changes

#131

Post by woke_up »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #92
gnicholas wrote: post #69

In a way, this mirrors how technological advances have created winner-take-all markets in other areas. Thanks to CDs (and then the internet), we can now all listen to the very best musicians in the world — where previously we just had to settle for whoever was the best in our town. Similarly, technology may be shifting the dating/intimacy market toward a winners-take-most equilibrium, which favors the most attractive…

Hmm, reading the comments here suggests to me this is an area that is both important and where we perhaps do not even know what "woke" looks like - it feels like a huge complex area - as such I have edited my comment to - "yeah dating apps are likely to be the only major environmental change in the past decade to have had such an effect - but the mechanisms around this are manifold and complex and we must avoid being…

This is the worst comment I've ever read. Have fun with your stupid "woke" word. It proves to me that you're useless, and not worth talking to.

Re: Explaining Sex Rate Changes

#132

Post by novia »

freyir wrote: post #103
novia wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hacker News Guidelines What to Submit On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cut…

The article isn't about politics, and controversial topics are not out of bounds. If you don't like an article, you have the option to ignore it, or even better, contribute your perspective to the conversation. The flag button isn't there to suppress any and all discussion of a topic that you don't personally care for.

I flagged it AND I'm contributing to the conversation.

Re: Explaining Sex Rate Changes

#133

Post by black-tea »

jamescostian wrote: post #127

Ask a heterosexual woman in that age range about how many awful conversations she's had with men in that age range via dating apps. She won't say "a few", she'll say "A LOT", and be able to show that the vast majority of messages she gets are either very dry or insanely forward (sexually). If you're a great-looking guy and you can't start or hold a good conversation, you can still get laid on the basis of looks. But…

Yes. Don't forget that the male IQ bell curve is wider than the female one. The most intelligent people in the world are men. The stupidest people in the world are men too.

Re: Explaining Sex Rate Changes

#134

Post by taxicabjesus »

novia wrote: post #83
ronnier wrote: post #75

Why are articles like these yanked so quickly from the front page of HN?

Because people like me flag them. If you want an actual explanation: I am a woman and this does not match with my lived experiences. In fact, the article seems to dehumanize women in a lot of places. I'm really tired of the incel narrative and the sorts of moral arguments that come along with articles of this type in the comment section. Seeing us represented this way really stresses me out. I'm just here to learn ab…

Men and women are wired to go about relationships differently. One problem is that people don't come with clear instruction manuals to help us understand how the relationship game works.

> I'm really tired of the incel narrative

Men generally play a numbers game, where their romantic overtures get rejected most of the time. It doesn't help that a lot of the time their romantic overtures are annoying [1]. Supposed "incels" just have no idea what it is that makes them so obnoxious [2].

Women have to screen candidates until they find someone they think is interesting.

> Seeing us represented this way really stresses me out.

Maybe the comment section on these types of articles 'stress you out' because you see a bunch of men debating their "flat earth" theories of how women go about relationships, you can tell that their theories are clearly wrong, but there's no point in even trying to expand their 'flat earth relationship' theories?

Sociologists have determined that men peak sexually around 18 years old [3]. Women peak at a much later age (30's and 40's). Hopefully better understanding will help the stress you experience dissipate.

> I'm just here to learn about tech stuff, geez.

Interpersonal relationships can be hacked too. Women especially need constructive strategies to better deal with unwanted overtures from the other gender.

I try to provide constructive comments on the topic. This comment was about how my passengers helped me figure out "attraction": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17810906 (this one got lots of upvotes and downvotes). For the record, I never hit on my passengers, but sometimes they were intrigued by me...

[1] "As a woman, is it simply 'understood' that you’ll have to contend with inappropriate male advances & suggestive language?" - https://www.quora.com/As-a-woman-is-it-simply-understood-tha...

[2] my comment ending with "Relationship coaching for men is mostly about teaching them how to be less obnoxious." - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17554503

[3] "But around the time I turned 29 or 30 I rapidly began to lose interest in sex." - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19602351

Re: Explaining Sex Rate Changes

#135

Post by abledon »

RandomInteger4 wrote: post #128
abledon wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enforced communal participation in events — similar to having to file your taxes , you just participate in X number of community events in a X km region from your residence — would help people get off the screens and get outside in a context other than work. Similar to how In high school you need 40 hrs of community service to graduate Edit: ok not ‘enforced’ but there should be some sort of government incentive

Sounds like something out of Nazi Germany. I'm all for people engaging with the community, but enforced?

"dude F that S*, I'm staying home, rolling a bunch of fat ones, and grinding on my level 80 Warlock, then logging on to grind up my PathOfExile smurf" (repeat loop for next 40 years) -- lots of people who are no way voluntarily going to break their comfortable cocoon created by addictive gaming & drugs.

Re: Explaining Sex Rate Changes

#137

Post by thatoneuser »

abledon wrote: post #135
RandomInteger4 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like something out of Nazi Germany. I'm all for people engaging with the community, but enforced?

"dude F that S *, I'm staying home, rolling a bunch of fat ones, and grinding on my level 80 Warlock, then logging on to grind up my PathOfExile smurf" (repeat loop for next 40 years) -- lots of people who are no way voluntarily going to break their comfortable cocoon created by addictive gaming & drugs.

Well then that's their choice and they will have to live and die with the consequences.

Re: Explaining Sex Rate Changes

#138

Post by siwatanejo »

nostrademons wrote: post #53
manfredo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since 2010 GDP is growing, unemployment is going down, and real wages have at least remained steady and many analysts claim it has risen. If the economy really was tied to lack of sex we should be seeing a large spike around 2008/2009 and continuing until 2010 or 2011 and then returning to normal rates by 2018. Granted, there may be some sort of lag between economic changes and the effect on sex lives. E.g. a boyfrie…

GDP, unemployment, and real wages are all averages (well, technically GDP is a total, but per-capita GDP is an average). GP's point is that while the economy as a whole is doing great, nearly all the gains are concentrated in the top quintile, and the remaining 4 quintiles have seen real wages stagnate, older men drop out of the labor force, and young men fail to enter the labor force, all while watching other people…

Bingo.

Re: Explaining Sex Rate Changes

#139

Post by anonytrary »

novia wrote: post #110
anonytrary wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Population dynamics and sexual activity statistics is arguably something that "good hackers would find interesting". If those statistics are changing significantly, then I'd definitely consider that something "that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity". Edit: And to clarify, lots of science can be political, but that doesn't make it not-science. For example, breaking news about a new discovery in climate change pro…

Yes climate change is political, but would the comment section to a climate change article on this site be full of the types of comments we see in here? Would it be an actually divisive topic for the users of this site? What I love about Hacker News (usually) is the lack of flame-wars. I know they exist, but they get hidden very quickly. After reading the article in full, and finding it sparse in actual data, I decid…

This[0] and this[1] are previous discussions on HN about climate change, with plenty of trolls. Just because something gets trolls, doesn't mean the whole thing should be destroyed or censored. Look at all of the other great discussion in those threads (and this one). If you get rid of every thread that is a potential double-edged sword, then you will eventually find yourself browsing an empty forum. There is no such thing as a perfect safe-space for discussion, and places that claim to be are typically void of interesting discourse.

> I decided it would most likely generate the sort of discussion that does not belong on the site.

The current thread as well as the two linked threads have plenty of positive discussion. Again, every topic is a double-edged sword. You're going to get people who agree and disagree, people who are serious and others who are trolls. That doesn't mean threads should be completely destroyed. The best course of action here is to flag the offending comments, rather than the entire thread.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17698237

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18332012

Re: Explaining Sex Rate Changes

#140

Post by anchpop »

coldtea wrote: post #106
gnicholas wrote: post #69

In a way, this mirrors how technological advances have created winner-take-all markets in other areas. Thanks to CDs (and then the internet), we can now all listen to the very best musicians in the world — where previously we just had to settle for whoever was the best in our town. Similarly, technology may be shifting the dating/intimacy market toward a winners-take-most equilibrium, which favors the most attractive…

> we can now all listen to the very best musicians in the world — where previously we just had to settle for whoever was the best in our town Yeah, so billions the world over progressed from their local musicians and folk tradition to Kanye West, Coldplay, Taylor Swift, and Nicky Minaj.

Like him or not, but it's hard to deny that Kanye West is a talented rapper. I'm not exactly sure what point you're making here.
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