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Poll: How old are you?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: How old are you?

#231

Post by SiVal »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #221
SiVal wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The older I get, the more interested I am in the thoughts of people from another time. I discovered long ago that there is far less continuity of wisdom than young people realize. There is a common assumption among young people that the best ideas of the past are carried forward while the failed ideas are left behind. This is true to some extent, but it is much less true than most young people seem to think. People v…

Pah. Why are old-people's 'experiences' not also 'plausible-sounding bad ideas' from another time? In fact, that's the only mechanism your pessimism permits. I'd guess, instead, that these modern bad ideas are possibly good ideas that just don't jibe with your experience.

Currently popular ideas are not the result of a historical meme ratchet, whereby ideas have only been replaced by better ideas. A cursory knowledge of history provides ample evidence that bad ideas have often reemerged and become the orthodoxy of the time, supplanting earlier hard-earned wisdom.

With that history in mind, the common notion that today's popular ideas are all wiser than any of the past can be seen as absurdly unlikely. Does that imply that all old ideas are better than new replacements? Of course not. It implies that some of them are.

It implies that if you are more interested in wisdom than in popularity, you should look beyond what is taken for granted as the orthodoxy of your own generation.

Re: Poll: How old are you?

#232

Post by efnx »

garethadams wrote: post #196
bjhoops1 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was really hoping "making more" would be followed with "love". Money's great too, though. :)

Since this is Hacker News I think you can treat `$` as a placeholder variable for any word you want

My first thought was that I should evaluate everything to the right of it first!

Re: Poll: How old are you?

#233

Post by tinco »

VladRussian2 wrote: post #229
tinco wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't a prudish guilty verdict. It was a reasonable response from the community, given the circumstances and the knowledge of the case at that time. I don't think at all voicing your reasonable opinion on a public forum counts at all as a douche move. Not if it later turns out this opinion missed crucial information about the mental state and fragile support framework of Aaron. And especially not if that opinion…

>Not if it later turns out this opinion missed crucial information about the mental state and fragile support framework of Aaron it is not about "later" and specific Aaron's mental state. It is about very specific pattern of "holier than thou" types making up and leading the approving crowd throwing rotten tomatoes and kicking a witch being drawn toward the prepared stake, an "enemy of the people" being shot or sent…

>it is not about "later" and specific Aaron's mental state. >It is about very specific pattern of "holier than thou" >types making up and leading the approving crowd throwing >rotten tomatoes and kicking a witch being drawn toward the >prepared stake, an "enemy of the people" being shot or >sent to Gulag, a school teacher being sent to reeducation >camp, a blacklisted for "unamerican activities" actor >being denied a job, and yes, a young prodigy whose life >being crushed and flushed down the drain for a Prometheus >like action.

Have you even read what Edward said in that comment? No such things were insinuated. He just voices his opinion on the way Edward was raising money. It's not that radical to think Aaron's action were a bit reckless!

>Surprise! they cite the same comment. Yes.. that article was written after Aaron had already passed, and nowhere says anything about wether the comment leaded a community response. It is just an example of a community response. >Sounds like that of a tormented man? Everyone has his demons, I think if people stop blaming him for stuff he didn't do in threads that are completely unrelated, he would feel a bit better after making a nice contribution to our community like that top voted comment.

Oh and I still think you should apologize.

Re: Poll: How old are you?

#234

Post by 3pt14159 »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #216
3pt14159 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Besides general interest, I've noticed that every year these ages get a little bit older. I'm starting to think that this isn't coincidental. I think us Gen-Yers that hacked on QBASIC had the best head start.

1996 born here (17yo), but my first computers were chucked-out old ones, so I grew up on DOS, Win3.1 and 9x and QBASIC.

Yeah, I'm seriously considering starting my (yet-to-be-conceived) children on a CLI computer unless there is something more awesome in 2021 or something.

Re: Poll: How old are you?

#235

Post by tritchey »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #44
tritchey wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sliding down the other side of that distribution myself. One evening I was having dinner with my wife and her nearly 70 year old parents. Her mom made a comment that has stuck with me: "You know, we still think and feel the same way we did when we were your age."

Yeah; but those thoughts are now 50 years out of date. That's why old people feel different; they are from another time.

Ooh, I like that.
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