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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

This may be the dumbest piece of advice I've ever seen hit HN:

"Hi, my name's Sean, what's your name?"

"Get your punk-ass away from me, I don't want to know you."

Congratulations. You just got yourself in a fight. It wasn't going to happen anyways (and it didn't in the show). But now it will.

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In his analysis of the situation, the kid didn't actually want to fight, but was just trying to look cool in front of his friends - "no one would think any less of you for backing down from a 17 yo black teen than if you backed down from a grizzly bear." That said, the sentence could probably be phrased a little more politely.

Why is that dumb? What's wrong with a fight? IMHO a fight is better than waking up knowing you are a coward.

Jesus.

Someone comes up to you and you don't want to talk to them, how about start with "excuse me, I'm busy"?

What's wrong with getting in a fight with a minor? Jail's a good start.

Where I live that fight will include you, the kid, all his buddies, and his mates outside that you havn't notice. It probably ends when one of them jumps on your head or sticks a knife in you.

Here's where I decided to flag this stupid article.

totally off topic: I just saw the company you work for. I developed the mentality that I have while doing a 14 month bid. I did pretty much the same thing you do only I didn't have permission.

I blame the article for this conversation, not you.

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