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Comment by ubittibu | Hacker News Reader

For real, I can’t stand this kind of longform. They take three simple facts and write an article that is more a short essay. And when the write starts with an accurate description of weather, place or person, “It was a foggy winter day in …”, “we reached a hidden part of the shore”, “is a tall woman with bright expressive eyes" you know you’ll be stuck in a fifteen minutes reading without learning anything.

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Do you actually keep reading? If the first sentence is that way, I immediately close the tab.

From the articles about occurrences and domains I have personal knowledge of I learnt not to trust in the factual correctness of media articles. If they on top of that start with a story, I'm off.

That's Nautilus for you. Pages of fluff for a few lines of facts...

Once upon a time their articles had more substance.

I might be wrong but this longform is called "feature article". It's not meant to be for quick consumption. I'm not sure what is happening with our brains, but I find it increasingly difficult to concentrate and appreciate longer writings. Nowadays everything is about getting info in small chunks. No time for meandering flow of thoughts.

Not all writing is utilitarian.

People in tech, on average, prefer the utilitarian. They also, as a whole, on average, are considered to have below average social skills and below average art skills. Their coincidence is not a coincidence.

> To make it even more frustrating to me the article teases different but-wiping techniques used today without telling me which ones. Thanks for that...

For an introduction to South Asian "toilet technology", both very accurate and very humorous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKkryfdtMNQ

[EDIT: also quite humorous is how this is getting down-voted into the toilet. Is it defensiveness? Angry denial?]

So, the article about the stuff ancient Romans used instead of toilet paper is an art piece? Well, fine, why not.

It's just posted to a wrong forum then. Hence the readers being nonplussed.

most people don't click on something titled "What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper" to read an anecdote about a stranger's vacation to denver or the history of toilet paper, hn audience aside

> most people

or, perhaps, most tech people. Not all tech people, of course, as is evident from other comments on this page.

The article was on Nautilus, not The New York Times or Scientific America or Linux Journal.

Why do you wonder about "down votes" on a comment that basically insults people in tech on a forum primarily visited by people in tech.

Why would tech people, who pride themselves on objectivity, find it insulting?

Do tech people deny that they, AS A WHOLE, ON AVERAGE, have below average social skills and below average art skills?

A lot of men in tech also deny that current tech culture is sexist, often misogynist. That's male objectivity for you. Perhaps a similar "biased objectivity" is at play here.

It's all a bit ironic given that the two comments to which I replied are essentially insulting the author of the article and anyone who appreciates things beyond the utilitarian. They are essentially saying, "It's garbage. It's worthless."

My social skills are just fine. You don't waste my time, and I won't waste yours.

If you ain't got nothing to say, don't waste my time.

Sir, this is a Denny's.

Would you please not take HN threads further into the weeds like this?

I apologize (sort of) dang. I believe social and cultural change is far more important than the technological. Even SV is belatedly starting to realize this in the Trump era. Gaining a broader perspective, and more honest self-perspective, are critical to our progress as a society, as a species.

You might tell me that even if true, it's not what Hacker News is for. But people in technology are having an outsized impact on our culture, and many people question whether this impact is ultimately good. Where else should people in tech be exposed to thoughts outside the SV bubble?

Note that when I made the comments above, the ones I was responding to where at the top of the page. I felt compelled to counter.

I'm not arguing with you. I barely post on HN anymore, since it is clear such discourse isn't really welcome.

I'm not disputing your point about social and cultural change. The issue is that the comments you posted were too low-quality (generic, venty, and off topic) to be good contributions to a Hacker News thread—a thread about the Romans and toilet paper, of all things. If you get from there to Trump, you've gone on a generic tangent, which is exactly the sort of low-quality, all-the-same discussion we're trying to avoid here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I understand. I only responded because they were the top comments, and I'm a believer in calling things out (the narrow-minded i-don't-have-time-for-humanity dismissiveness common in tech), even the little things, as that is how change happens, from the grassroots. In the same way sexist culture will if sexism is called out most every time it happens.

But I will refrain, here on HN.

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