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Comment by sanderjd | Hacker News Reader

This is a great example of not reading charitably. You're reading a bunch of stuff that just isn't in the text you're replying to. Who said anything about big data? Who is trying to write journal publication quality comments? You seem to have an axe to grind that has nothing to do with this thread.

My reading was just that the parent commenter was telling a story by relating an interesting anecdote. That's exactly what I come here for. People won't do that as much if the common response is weird aggression like your comments in this thread. That would be a shame.

You could have just written a little comment saying, "in my experience, you're incorrect about the speed of reading from /dev/zero". The difference in your remembered experiences and your conversation about it would have been interesting to me. Instead you picked a fight, which is not interesting.

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> in my experience, you're incorrect about the speed of reading from /dev/zero

> Instead you picked a fight

So I harshly pointed out that they're mistaken. Then it was pointed out to me that I wasn't being nice. So I responded by showing why I didn't feel the need to be nice and provided my reasoning for it.

Since it seems to be too much trouble, here is the post I'm getting the "imaginary" quotes you refer to from: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14544002

You can point out how people are wrong and people won't have a problem with your posts. Be a jerk about it and people will. Hacker News, for its (many) faults, doesn't ascribe to the "you can be a sneering asshole but if you're Right you're Right". It's very possible to be both right and a jerk. It's incumbent upon you to avoid being a jerk or to not whine when people don't like jerks. This is basic-functioning-person stuff.

I don't know who is right or wrong. I am a software developer and familiar with Unix/Linux. I actively try to be well informed about other topics related to this. When engineering I actively try to remain emotionally dispassionate. I understand what the argument is about and I see how in a technical sense either side could be "correct" here.

Despite all that, the level of vitriol and defensiveness you have demonstrated makes me want to agree with everyone else. I am curious what the opinions are of people less informed on this topic and more emotionally in touch. You damage your side of the argument, not with your content, but your portrayal of the content.

Some of the things you said have merit, but they are ignored and derided because they are attached to you and you are attached to vitriol and vitriol rightly gets ignored and derided. The best thing you can do for anything resembling your side of the argument is to just back down. If you don't say anything for a day or two it will all just blow over and you can try again later when people are more willing to listen. You can try approaching the conversation like an engineering problem and perhaps see that manners and politeness are to conversation as lubricant is to an engine (or perhaps high clocks speeds to software). You can have a conversation without manners, run an engine without oil or run software on low clocking parts, but it won't turn out as well as it could have.

So it's not what I said it's just how I said it.

Mostly...

But notice how you still post and the downvote brigade still obliterates your score.

You can't say anything and get upvotes because you have angered so many with how you said some things.

> But notice how you still post and the downvote brigade still obliterates your score.

And even posts with actual data are being downvoted :)

This only goes to show just how subjective and emotional this community has become, where everyone just wants to share "but in my opinion" or "but in my experience" without having to back up any of their arguments, or even have any of their arguments or claims challenged and questioned and called out.

This essentially turns concrete, testable claims into happy dreaming about technology. And that's really what this has become: everyone sharing their idea of what something should be and presenting it as fact.

I guess I've made a very good point today!

It has literally nothing to do with people saying "in my experience" or even you choosing to challenge an argument. It has to do with you being a jerk about it. The people you interact with through your keyboard are real and how you treat them matters.

The only point you've made today is that self-righteousness exists and exhibits itself as rudeness. And you know it's rude; you're actively trying to downplay it by calling how you've chosen to approach other people as "harsh". You should use this awareness to be better, not to continue to be unkind. Because, ultimately, this is a you problem.

> And even posts with actual data are being downvoted

Of course they are, its not your data that people don't like. They aren't downvoting the post, they are downvoting you. People don't like you, and anything you say will be downvoted at present. Remove yourself or mod might.

You have made no points today, unless you are trolling then you have angered many and that is your measure of success. I will not respond to you further.

> Of course they are, its not your data that people don't like. They aren't downvoting the post, they are downvoting you.

Exactly my point.

> You have made no points today

Sure I did. One of them is right in your comment :)

You are a troll and deserve all the downvotes.

I think "you don't know what you're talking about" is substantively different than "in my experience, you are wrong about this". Firstly, lots of people who do know what they're talking about are wrong about lots of things. Making it about the person instead of about the thing was (for me) the problem with your comment. Also, "in my experience" is not just polite fluff. I have come across diminishingly few things in computing that are not dependent on circumstances.

The interesting version of this conversation would have been you saying, "no that sounds wrong to me", followed by a discussion of (to the best of your memories) what kind of hardware, drivers, kernel and compiler versions, etc. you were each using. Maybe you would have convinced me that there is no combination of those things for which the original commenter's experience could possibly have been right. But your throwaway ad hominem comment didn't, and couldn't ever, accomplish that.

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