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Ask HN: Why so much negativity?

12 points by marklubi ↗ HN
I joined this community almost 10 years ago, and it has been amazing for the better part of those years.

It started as a place with so much optimism and sharing of ideas and concepts, and a place that relished in and congratulated others for their individual success (e.g., patio11).

While there's still some of it that still occurs, much of it lately is being overrun by hatred and disdain for others (Melissa Mayer/Yahoo/Verizon, Juicero, Uber, Microsoft, Trump, wealthy people, etc.).

How do we correct this? Can we even have a constructive conversation about it?

11 comments

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dvdhnt
Honestly, it may be that the status quo of modern times is finally bleeding into HN. People generally can't sustain high levels of optimism or positivity in the midst of a primarily negative and cynical environment. I saw it in the military; new recruits came in bright eyed and bushy tailed only to have their optimism stunted by the existing military culture. Of course, that's only a hypothesis and I may be barking up the wrong tree.
smt88
I see lots of positive messages (look at any thread about Rust or many of the Show HN posts), but I get the most value out of the criticism and arguments on HN, which some might call "negativity".

Also, people write about and discuss things that are relevant to them. All those topics are relevant to our industry, if not our everyday lives. Why shouldn't we talk about them?

snowpanda
One thing I've noticed is people are very quick to downvote different opinions.

I've gotten into the habit of upvoting comments that have been downvoted (given that they are somewhat constructive). Even if I strongly disagree with them.

It's something we could all do in my opinion. Just my 2 cents.

I think we live in a time where disagreements or different opinions are quickly seen as offensive and "wrong".

toexitthedonut
An interesting phenomena I heard is Cunningham's law. It states, "the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question, it's to post the wrong answer."

It probably is stated because people are very quick to correct other people when they are wrong, I guess.

thiagooffm
It might be because a lot of startups ended up becoming companies and we started seeing how people change as soon as they have a lot of money and is perceived to be successful.
telebone_man
I would say you can have a constructive conversation in both a negative and positive frame of mind!
iLemming
Nothing wrong with the world, you're getting old, that's it.
psyc
I was also here 8 years ago, under my real name. In those days, HN was a literal community of smart entrepreneurs (as opposed to a figurative internet "community"). I'm afraid that ship has long since sailed, more than 5 years ago.

These days, Luddite News is little more than a chat bot that spams you with disingenuous requests for citations, points out that your anecdote isn't data, and asserts that everything is explained by some combination of the placebo effect and confirmation bias.

meric
And tells you they've stopped reading.
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iLemming2
In general there's a hatred or disdain for anyone that does not belong in the majority of a group. Over the last centuries, the majority has always tried to destroy anyone that's different. This century is no different than the last four in that regard.

In psychology we call these in-groups and out-groups. In-groups often have this behavior regardless of country, religion or age.

I don't know how to correct this.