Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Dust Over India

postmasculine.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 325 posts

Re: A Dust Over India

#191

Post by statictype »

darien wrote: post #41
baseh wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great comment. You have hit the nail on the head. One has to immerse oneself into the ocean of sweat, dirt and garbage to see the real india and what makes it tick. It is like swimming in an ocean of raw-sewage with a 1000 foot, 1000-headed serpent. >> The most unfortunate in India are amongst the most fatalistic - they give up trying. : This is again so true. Experienced first-hand with some of my relatives. You mig…

It has been explained to me that it is common for many indians to justify another person’s plight by believing that a condition of suffering is that person’s ‘karmic destiny.’ Therefore it would be ‘bad karma’ to help such a person.

Besides the point others have made that many Indians don't think like this anymore, I just want to point out that it is possible to believe in karmic destiny and not use that as an excuse to not help people. The 'therefore' part of your observation doesn't necessarily follow from the premise and is more of an excuse used by people to justify behavior.

Re: A Dust Over India

#192

Post by grandalf »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #172
grandalf wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very true. The US prison system is on equal footings with the worst gulags of history.

Now that is a serious exaggeration, and an unproductive one as well.

What percent of your lifetime income / net worth would you give up to avoid a 6 month term in a maximum security penitentiary?

Re: A Dust Over India

#193

Post by capex »

photon137 wrote: post #14

The mistake the author made is that he lived in India for three weeks. Had he stayed for six months or a year, he'd have been able to figure out what makes India tick - India is the very embodiment of clever innovation to survive - it will ask you very tough questions and it will compel you to innovate, often rapidly, just in order to survive - not even succeed. This, in India, is known as "jugaad". He missed the "ju…

"jugaad" is the equivalent of a 'hack'. When there are limitations imposed by circumstances, people try to 'hack' the system, without paying any attention to when they cross the legal line.

Re: A Dust Over India

#194

Post by r00fus »

aggronn wrote: post #140
srean wrote: post #100

It is hard to give a well rounded response to the post and yet keep it short. So I will not even try. A lot has been written about India, so people who want to know more will dig deep on their own, whereas many will be happy with poverty porn . One thing that I do want to mention is that India is a very high variance country. For almost any statement one makes, there will be a un-ignorable part of the country where t…

In what way is regulatory capture corruption? What is the alternative? I'm reluctant to consider it corruption in the same sentence as bribery, despite that it is an inherent conflict of interest.

Regulatory Capture is, according to Wikipedia, a clear aspect of corruption, see "corruption" wiki template: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Corruption

Not sure how else to remedy your confusion here.

Re: A Dust Over India

#195

Post by frasertimo »

modarts wrote: post #143
frasertimo wrote: post #90

Hey guys, I work for Postmasculine and just wanted to jump in quickly. First, thanks for sharing this Arun2009. I've been reading HN daily for the last 9 months and love it. Amazing to open up my computer today and see us as the number one link. I believe my reaction was something like this: http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/excit... Anyway, I mainly wanted to ask what people thought of the site…

Pretty good site, and the content is refreshingly devoid of the PUA type garbage you'll read on askmen

Thanks. One of our unofficial goals is to not be an Askmen ripoff with better writing. I enjoy reading Askmen articles once in a while, especially when I need something very specific and practical like how to tie a bow tie, or when I want to waste some time on a 'top 10 hottest chicks in surrealist Angolian horror films' list or something equally mindless. But we're aiming to go a little deeper than that :)

Any more feedback, negative or positive is much appreciated.

Re: A Dust Over India

#196

Post by frasertimo »

badclient wrote: post #184
frasertimo wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Employee of the site here. Just want to point out a few things. 1. The submitter of the article to HN has no affiliation with Postmasculine as far as I know, nor did we request them to post it here. We're very grateful for them doing so however! 2. While the author of the site was involved in the pickup industry for a while, he chose to no longer identify with that scene over two years ago, and specifically moved his…

Fair points, mostly. I would say that it is a new trend for pick-up instructors to distance themselves from the pick-up industry mostly for marketing purposes. I think it's mostly semantics and at the end of the day, you're just fearing the phrase "pickup industries" focuses too much on the negative and not enough about the positives. On the otherhand, as someone who's spent fair bit of time observing pickup companie…

Definitely agree that it was and still is a trend. I won't claim we were the first to distance ourselves, but I think we were the best!

Our POV on what defines 'pickup' advice versus regular dating advice is that 'pickup' is the decision to objectify your sex life in order to improve it. We don't believe that this is a healthy or effective mindset, hence we don't define our material as 'pickup'.

Honestly, I think if you read some more of the site, for example http://postmasculine.com/why-its-so-hard or especially http://postmasculine.com/pickup-artist (warning: long) you'd come to the conclusion that we're a far shot from what most people associate pickup with. But it's up to you whether you want to spend the time :)

Re: A Dust Over India

#197

Post by prawn »

pirate_is_back wrote: post #38

I am an Indian and I find this piece quite authentic. However, the OP and most of the other foreigners who visit India, visit places or deal with people that are known to be hostile. I, as an Indian, will be utterly shocked if I visit a ghetto in downtown Detroit. Heck, there are more chances of getting mugged or shot in such ghetto. However, I will not visit such places as they are known to be hostile. India is a we…

"I can identify whether a person is playing me."

The giveaway in every touristed country almost worldwide is that they've approached and are talking to you. Exaggerating a bit, but not far off the truth.

Sadly, the things that tourists often yearn for - that natural, personal contact, the local insight - is exactly what you'll get from many scammers, and it leads you to shun so many approaches (e.g., the kids in Wangfujing who will eventually want to sell you art on commission or drag you to a tea ceremony) that you are forced to detach somewhat from your travel experience.

Re: A Dust Over India

#198

Post by quesera »

spitx wrote: post #138
irahul wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Come on, that picture is more exception than the norm. The norm isn't too far from the exception. I spent 4 years in Chennai, and this was a common sight. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-4o_J8R8OVg/TIy3nfGUzdI/AAAAAAAAAo... Though I have never seen the bent buses in Bangalore yet in the 5 years I have been here. That is not to say public buses are pleasant here - you still deal with being densely packed with other commu…

You guys should come by the Mission district or China Town or Lower Haight ( here in San Francisco ) or take public transit (any of the BART stations - 16th, 24th, Civic Center or Glen Park). The foulest stench of excrement anywhere. Some blame the Hispanic population and some blame the Hmong and others blame the street urchins. But I never expected to smell anything so odious in a major metropolis in the U.S.

I am certain that you have never been to India.

I question whether you've been to New York City, in the summer.

Re: A Dust Over India

#199

Post by chunkbot »

frasertimo wrote: post #90

Hey guys, I work for Postmasculine and just wanted to jump in quickly. First, thanks for sharing this Arun2009. I've been reading HN daily for the last 9 months and love it. Amazing to open up my computer today and see us as the number one link. I believe my reaction was something like this: http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/excit... Anyway, I mainly wanted to ask what people thought of the site…

I really enjoyed the article. I was already familiar with Mark Manson and the "pickup" scene, so imagine my surprise when I saw the http://postmasculine.com link on the front page of Hacker News. I highly recommend the book Models by Mark Manson [1] if you're a man at all interested in being more attractive to women.

[1] - http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1463750358

Re: A Dust Over India

#200

Post by bluekeybox »

powertower wrote: post #153
bluekeybox wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The viewpoint that European countries surged ahead due to the industrial revolution rather than colonial oppression has been widely debunked. Neither the Austrian-Hungarian Empire nor Germany had colonies, yet their standard of living had improved dramatically over the second half of the 19th century. One could argue that these countries initially had feudal-style serfdom, yet in both of them serfdom was abolished…

Agreed. It's too easy to blame the white man while pretending that the European and American advances were 95-99% a product of the white man's racism and brutality subjugated on the rest of the world. Not relevant but a really good watch: http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/the-vice-guide-...

Oh my god. Thank you for the link; that video is quite enlightening.
Post reply on HN