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Comment by abalashov | Hacker News Reader

That's the very object of investigation. If they had said, "Yes, it runs good stuff", the next question would be what makes it good. :-)

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Yeah, you're basically just cheating your way around 'good' being undefined, and getting some kind of kick out of the fact that the other guy didn't see you palm the card. Presumably he hasn't spent a lot of time dealing with self-aggrandizing intellectual mountebanks - I, on the other hand, have, and 'pretentious' and 'tiresome' are words I scruple not in the slightest to employ in this connection.

That's the conclusion most folks are going to draw, yes. I'll take the heat for it. Very occasionally, it spawns interesting discussions whose contours look a lot like those of the article, and I think that's great.

The point is far more likely to be lost if I simply straight-up tell them the perceived problem in an "unpretentious" way. A lot of startup bros work quite simply; they may call you a pretentious prick, but they're more likely to respond to challenge to their egos by way of riddle—even if delivered in the dumpster fire form, i.e. a joke that their FOMO makes them anxious about not being in on—than sincere entreatments to ponder the uselessness of another multiplatform ad analytics play. I've given up on the latter.

That's all fine as far as it goes; I enjoy such discussions myself, as the opportunity presents. What I don't do, though, is act like a smartass for the sake of acting like a smartass. It's not funny and it's not clever; it's an annoying waste of time for all involved.

You can be the smartest person in the room, and if you're as smart as you think you are, everyone else in the room will love you for it. Acting like you're sure you're the smartest person in the room is a great way to make everyone else in the room hate you. Which do you think you're doing, when you act like you laid out above?

I dunno. Haven't thought about it that deeply. If they can think up Twitter Emoticons for Dogs without having to intellectually complete the puzzle of social purpose, I can stop short of thinking through all the issues on my side, too.

What I do know is that wisecracks seem to have more provocative potency in our day than commonsensical, plainspoken talk. The latter is easily deflected by hipster shields, as described more fully here:

https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/how-to-live...

TL;DR avoiding committal engagement with serious ideas and issues is pretty much table stakes among the Millennial version of MBA frat boys. That's not how you get to them.

I've talked more than one of them out of stupid business plans by making fun of them. That's closer to their language. It sometimes works.

I don't suppose I'd thought about it that way myself. Not really a problem I have - I tend to regard the hipster's self-enforced ironic detachment as its own punishment, and feel myself under no obligation to ameliorate the consequences thereof - but it might make for some interesting experiments at the bar.

> The point is far more likely to be lost if I simply straight-up tell

The prerequisite for the point being lost or you jumping straight to the point is you having a point in the first place and that doesn't seem to be the case from the comments you have posted so far.

Not one that can be distilled to a TED-worthy "actionable takeaway", no.

You seem to imply people care too much about TED yet the only one who keeps up bringing TED is you.

I also find it amusing you seem to have disdain and a feeling of superiority to startup bros and their emojis yet from a cursory glance, it doesn't look like you are doing anything out of ordinary or have achieved anything worthwhile yourself.

There are people who find "the alchemist" deep and life changing and there are people who find it trite and useless. You seem to be the first kind and I am latter. Nothing could come out of this conversation for you or me, so I will sign off now.

it doesn't look like you are doing anything out of ordinary or have achieved anything worthwhile yourself.

That is certainly true.

I mean, you can say the same about Socrates.

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