HN Explorer

Tell HN: Thanks for All the Fish

2 points by neilv ↗ HN
Dear fellow HNers: I said my account has a max karma of 32767, and I'm about to hit that limit. So, for my final post, I'd like to share some of my individual aspirations:

* Be honest. We shouldn't lie, manipulate, dark-pattern, etc. We should invest towards a society that can trust each other, and the first step is our own behavior.

* Be reliable. We should make things that work, follow through on promises, represent prospects in good faith, etc.

* Be helpful. We should help colleagues, random strangers, and society in general. Not maneuver to exploit them.

* Be smart. We're not as smart as we think we are, and we are often dumb. Especially when it comes to topics in which we actually have little experience. Also when we're overconfident about something we "know".

* Be humble. We can make mistakes about even the things we know best, and we should always be learning.

* Be constructive. Others make mistakes, too, and we should help them when they do, as we'd want them to help us or our friends&family, when we make mistakes.

* Be decent. No one person deserves a billion dollars of humanity's wealth. Few people agreed to the rules that enable that: it's not a game that we are winning; it's collusion against the masses, which some people hop onto. Also applies to some smaller sums.

* Be sane. If we find ourselves with way more money than our share, then we say, "oops, how embarrassing", and spread it back around, to everyone. We shouldn't be like the billionaire who instead decides all the poors or immigrants or feminists or trans people or artists or kindergarten teachers or whoever are somehow shortchanging billionaires.

* Be introspective. See sane, above.

That's it for now. See you around. I'll continue to be in the world and in tech industry, but it's time for me to take an HN break. If I come back, it might as well be a new account.

11 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 17.0 ms ] thread
mikewarot
I've never strongly agreed with the max karma thing, but I do know I stopped paying attention once I reached 10k, so I know it has subtle persistent nudging effects. I don't know what I would use as a handle if I tried to reset things, as my name seems to work well for remembering my ID. It's nice to have a fairly Internet Unique name... I've only found one other Mike Warot so far. (He works at the British Museum)

I'm retired, with long Covid, so personally, I'm going to be here until I age out, or get kicked out for banging on about data diodes one too many times.

Good luck with your future endeavors.

vunderba
> I'm retired, with long Covid

Sorry to hear that~ a family friend was basically patient zero in the state of Georgia here in the U.S. and permanently lost their sense of smell as a result so I have at least an inkling of how serious the long-term effects of covid can be.

> I've never strongly agreed with the max karma thing, but I do know I stopped paying attention once I reached 10k

Agree. I actually made a Tampermonkey (well ViolentMonkey script) a while back that deliberately hides my karma rating from all pages/menus on HN because I don't want it to even subtly influence how I express myself here.

vunderba
As a long-time HN user, sorry to see you go. It’s always hard to see people leave when they’re genuinely contributing and participating in the community.
skyberrys
May you find yourself in a future situation saying "opps, how embarrassing". So long!

Sidenote: would it help you out if we all go and down vote your comments/posts so you get more headroom to max karma? I know probably not what you intended but it would let you stay around longer.

didgetmaster
>If we find ourselves with way more money than our share, then we say, "oops, how embarrassing",

And just who gets to decide when someone has more than their 'share'? Is it just money that people are not allowed to have too much of, or do you have the same feeling about other things like intelligence, friends, talents, looks, etc.?

general_reveal
Read my comment. On HN and SV, there is no moral grounding that is rooted in GOD. The question you ask is roughly what I asked, which is, where is your foundation?

On money, Christ ultimately said sell everything. He also has thoughts on profiting and the poor in general.

But that’s the thing about this industry, it’s a group of godless men who give each other advice rooted in nothing but the “wisdom” of a group of men in a particular industry.

In other words, it’s failed men with no proper grounding. If you think this industry can teach you to be a proper human being, then …..

Theodon Greyjoy … you have already lost your way

didgetmaster
While I think there are many atheists on HN, I think there are many who have religious convictions, myself included.

The author says everyone who has too much money must feel ashamed and give it away. This is consistent with most of the 'tax the rich' crowd. Members of this crowd are almost always talking about other people and not themselves (e.g. Bernie Sanders).

I merely asked who gets to decide where the line is drawn between 'too much' and 'not too much'.

I also asked all those envious people who want to take money away from those who have it; if they also think some people are 'too intelligent', 'too talented', or 'too attractive'.

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
p0d
I don't read in the Bible that Jesus did say, sell everything, as a message to every person. It was a challenge to a particular wealthy individual whose wealth was a moral stumbling block. He did teach a lot about money, in particular the dangers of loving money, and the importance of sharing with others.

I do not believe our goal in life should be to seek wealth, or poverty. Having genuine peace, or being generous, is not related to your wealth. In my lifetime I have been given a child's money jar and a car from a well off friend when I was stuck. The money jar still gets me.

general_reveal
Um, man it’s so interesting the different paths we took. I have several accounts that add up to tens of thousands of karma. I personally couldn’t give a shit about that number.

I have also said goodbye to this place, but I stay because I need to evangelize. This is a sinful soulless place but SV has been pushing satanic way of life for a very long time. Has no respect for Christ’s teachings. Even your list of advice reeks of the blind-leading-blind advice given out in this industry with zero moral grounding. Tell me, do you know Christ? Then what good is this goodbye advice you’ve given? What epiphany could you possibly have, son?

Stick around, EVERYONE here is about to lose their jobs, get old, and die. Lots of reflecting to do as a group of humans that thoroughly contributed sin to the world while profiting from it. That means ALL in this industry will need to find Jesus and repent.

I can’t wait for the great Christian revival on HN.

You have no reason to leave this place because this place has yet to fully transform on a spiritual level, much more discussion to be had. But, I too, have left this place, spiritually. It’s no way to live.