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

The best $4 ever spent

papanotes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 160 posts

Re: The best $4 ever spent

#51

Post by divbzero »

stephen_cagle wrote: post #42

This sort of content feels good in the immediacy but ultimately lessens the quality of hn. I'm not concerned about this post specifically, but I feel that we should be more critical of things like this making it onto hn. I come to hn to mostly hear about tech, tech advances, startups, etc. I don't come here to read feel good (and admittedly, very cute) stories. They have their place, but I feel that place is not hn.

I don’t mind it in small doses and trust the community to vote appropriately.

Even the Wall Street Journal has lighthearted “A-hed” articles, which have occupied valuable space on their front page for 83 years and counting.

Re: The best $4 ever spent

#52

Post by RandomThoughts3 »

stephen_cagle wrote: post #42

This sort of content feels good in the immediacy but ultimately lessens the quality of hn. I'm not concerned about this post specifically, but I feel that we should be more critical of things like this making it onto hn. I come to hn to mostly hear about tech, tech advances, startups, etc. I don't come here to read feel good (and admittedly, very cute) stories. They have their place, but I feel that place is not hn.

I think the comment about the kid liking the puddle the best at the zoo is the best comment I have read on HN in the past decade.

90% of HN is off topic drivel, pointless ranting , overall tired and unoriginal, when it’s not flat out wrong. I include most of my contributions in these 90%. Genuinely interesting contributions are then few and far between amongst the 10% which actually desserve to exist. If it’s quality you seek, you can close your account right now and go do something useful with your time instead.

At least, this post is soulful and happy.

Re: The best $4 ever spent

#53

Post by justusthane »

aantix wrote: post #16

We took our kids to Disney World once. When asked what their favorite part of the trip was, they responded.. The hot tub. At the hotel. My kids light up the most when I am fully engaged with them, fully present, entertaining their ideas, and asking questions. Their favorite family trip so far? When we traveled to Arkansas to mine for crystals. AKA, dig in the dirt all day. They saw it on a YouTube video. They asked t…

A few months ago, we took our year-and-a-half-old daughter to Belgium and Spain for two weeks. Her favorite part of the whole trip was seeing horses, sheep, and geese (all of which, believe it or not, we have here at home in Canada).

Re: The best $4 ever spent

#54

Post by Qworg »

abeppu wrote: post #23

Certainly it's true that kids can get a lot of joy out of something that to an adult seems really small or boring. But the flip side is kids can get totally emotionally distraught or enraged over tiny things. Are these two sides of the same coin, and come from having just a smaller world, where small things can feel very big to a developing brain? Or as an adult with a fully-formed brain and access to the larger worl…

I think many adults also get distraught or enraged by tiny things - it is an emotional regulation problem, not an age problem (but adults can and should be better than children).

Re: The best $4 ever spent

#55

Post by dmd »

DowagerDave wrote: post #19
aantix wrote: post #16

We took our kids to Disney World once. When asked what their favorite part of the trip was, they responded.. The hot tub. At the hotel. My kids light up the most when I am fully engaged with them, fully present, entertaining their ideas, and asking questions. Their favorite family trip so far? When we traveled to Arkansas to mine for crystals. AKA, dig in the dirt all day. They saw it on a YouTube video. They asked t…

For our Disney(land) trip, we stayed at a motel ~ 1.5 miles from the park (Canadian walking distance) and the thing my kids LOVED was we walked by a 7-11 every day and I would buy them a slurpee on the morning walk to the gates. Probably $20 for the week (and likely not much worse for you than a typical vacation breakfast). The "make your own waffle" station at the included breakfast was also a huge hit. The park and…

I've taken my older daughter to Disney (World) twice now (at ages 7 and 9). Her absolute favorite part: riding the Skyliner to EPCOT. On our second trip we went an hour out of our way to go ride it because we weren't at a served hotel that time.

When pressed for a favorite activity within the park, it was "that time we ran all the way from Japan to Soarin', dodging people".

Re: The best $4 ever spent

#56

Post by j2bax »

stephen_cagle wrote: post #50
j2bax wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe a little bit of humanity and feel good is just what HN needs! These computers and software and such are after all for... humans mostly.

Maybe so, this is a public community and the community will decide on its own standards (as it should be). My opinions are my own. I can't exactly draw the line about what does belong on hn, but a question I sometimes ask myself is "Would I be rolling my eyes if I read similar content on Linkedin?" If so, I assume it shouldn't be on hn.

I can agree that I wouldn't want to see this type of content take over HN... and I don't think it would. But a little sprinkled in seems fine.

Re: The best $4 ever spent

#57

Post by foobarian »

brink wrote: post #29

I've been spending my entire adult life trying to rediscover this spiritual joy of being a child. I remember it so fondly. My daughter is about to turn 2 and I'm secretly hoping that she can help me find at least a little of it.

A while ago I was at our patio table with my 4 year old, we were building a house/castle thing out of scrap cardboard. At one point while painting it she pauses and looks over at the garden/woods. I asked her what she saw, she smiled at me and said, "I'm just... happy." I'll never forget it :-)

Re: The best $4 ever spent

#58

Post by cloverich »

stephen_cagle wrote: post #42

This sort of content feels good in the immediacy but ultimately lessens the quality of hn. I'm not concerned about this post specifically, but I feel that we should be more critical of things like this making it onto hn. I come to hn to mostly hear about tech, tech advances, startups, etc. I don't come here to read feel good (and admittedly, very cute) stories. They have their place, but I feel that place is not hn.

IMO the near constant dismissive, negative, and / or non-constructive criticism is what devalues HN. Genuine curiosity, sharing of contextual and tangential experiences, and constructive criticism are what makes it great. At its best its only about technology because thats where many inquisitive types end up.

In this particular case, the spark it ignited in me and others was precisely that inquisitive nature - about eschewing the expected value in lifes activities and instead reaching for that inner genuine interest can turn many experienced upside down. Maybe in reaching too far, but that was my take away from it. If similar stories were reposted ad nauseum i doubt they would make the front page and thus for me at least i am unconcerned with its presence.

Re: The best $4 ever spent

#60

Post by janalsncm »

j7ake wrote: post #26

The issue is you don’t know which of the 0-5 dollar products to spend that will make them excited. A strategy is therefore to buy lots of cheap stuff and experiences, and let the kids have the option to choose. Then throw away the stuff they don’t care for. If you buy expensive things, you tend to try to force that thing onto the kid, which can be counter productive.

In this case she asked to take the bus. I suppose that could’ve gone south, though. I think kids are generally delighted by novelty.
Post reply on HN