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Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com

291–300 of 399 posts

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#292

Woman gives apartment keys to complete stranger. Gets robbed. 279 points and 124 comments on HN.

Thanks for the -4, I think a.) that's worth it b.) proves my point. A "new" business model aka AirBnB does not change any facts.

+1.

It's because HN is fundamentally biased and always will be. The top 2 comments are not surprisingly pro airbnb:

a) People are still good fundamentally - because that's exactly what I'd want to hear if someone ransacked my place.

b) PR from a guy who works there.

I personally wouldn't want to stay in a stranger's house and I don't think I ever will - no matter how big airbnb becomes I believe there will always be a percentage of people who are uncomfortable with the airbnb business model.

Obviously a lot of people don't care and airbnb will go on to be successful I'm sure but it's a shame this community has such a hard time being honest with itself.

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#294
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're very optimistic. While I don't agree that people are essentially good, I envy your ability to see the world that way.

I was sitting here mulling over why you wouldn't think that people are essentially good and it dawns on me that a lot of people are scared and likely have behaviors that suggest they aren't good (e.g. drive by someone with a flat tire in the rain because they are scared it's a robbery setup for passer-bys) I think if you just look at your day to day interactions, most people are decent. I doubt many people are trying…

I'm not so sure about this. People might know what is good (for the most part), but in weakness it is violated, and in strength it is often ignored to pursue self-interest.

Let's just say that, I've been betrayed, and I'm very aware of the circumstances needed to be betrayed by people I care about -- some of them are impossibly extreme (and some aren't so much), but they do exist, and you do have to navigate that. Whether the person would be apologetic or not after the fact really doesn't enter into it.

If one lives, I think you automatically develop protections against other people. I think that you've set up a protection zone around yourself just like everyone else. But it's a good one -- instead of withdrawing, you simply force the surface interaction to be a positive one (as much as you can). Sometimes this translates, sometimes it can backfire. For what it's worth, I think this is the right way to go. You can be wary, but still positive about your interactions.

But there's a necessary bit of detachment -- I can wave to people on the street, but I'm not going to let just anyone into my apartment.

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#295
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a kid, I lost an Atari Lynx to burglars, but I still feel sad about it. Last laugh was on them though, as they left the battery pack. NICE 1.5 HOUR BATTERY LIFE, YOU SCUM.

Glad I still have my Lynx. And I'm going to play some Skweek when home. Thanks for reminding me of that :-)

Enjoy! 'Twas a fine machine. :)

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#296
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, when I was burgled, alongside a MacBook, watch and my freakin' backups, which were on a separate drive on a nearby bookcase , they also took some bath soap and a bottle of dessert wine that my gf and I brought back from France specially. I hope they choked on the wine. That said, I also had they keys to brand new Audi on the kitchen counter (I used to be a car journalist and it was a press test car) and they com…

From someone who had building burn down: back up to offsite locations, ideally off-state, ideally off-continent, over the Internet, and CHECK YOUR RESTORE PROCEDURE PERIODICALLY. A wifi backup to a time capsule hidden up in the rafters (digital rat line!) isn't going to help you if crackheads break in...and then burn your place down with an errant crackpipe. (also, envy on the car journalism; being an equipment revie…

The internet backup option isn't really feasible for a normal home connection. With the Comcast 250gb monthly quota it would take me half a year to get all my data up.

In this case physical drives is the way to go.

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that these can be the same people on different days.

So it's possible that actually all 100 people are assholes.

Only in the same sense that we can say "intenex wears a diaper" (because you were once a baby). Defining somebody by an off moment is one way to look at things, but I'm not sure it's particularly reasonable.

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People react wildly differently in different circumstances. This has been proven over and over. The Milgram experiment was heavily designed to influence how people act. A twist in circumstances can easily get 100% of people to do the "right" thing. If you only look at extreme cases like this, you won't get an accurate idea of human behavior. I think it's fair to say that the vast majority of people, in normal circums…

Certainly, you can get nearly 100% of people to do the right thing most of the time. That is what judicial deterrents accomplish. Those don't work if people are anonymous, however. The Milgram experiment was not intended to be "extreme". They expected less than 3% of participants to actually torture their (fake) victim to death. The U.S. group was to act as a control, such that they could proceed to compare results i…

Every day I see people act nice and behave well even though it would be trivial to be a dick or a thief with no appreciable consequences.

In real life, under ordinary conditions, most people simply act decent and it does not seem to be fear of punishment.

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