Easily one of the stupidest things I've ever read. I've seen better logic on the back of cereal boxes. I seriously, sincerely believe that my dog Kaia who recently passed away (RIP) was smarter than the person who wrote this post.
I can't even read every random piece of stupidity I encounter. Neither this nor the one about New York was worth reading all the way through. I'm a writer, I need to avoid stupidity "for the same reason models avoid cheeseburgers."
I agreed that you were wrong about New York, and I took the effort to conceal my contempt for the post itself because I figured it was the low point and people would move on. Obviously the low point was yet to come!
In either case what's more important is the expression of dissent - people on the site are disagreeing with you. They're trying to launch arrows of criticism but the points are so pathetically blunt it's more a feeble attempt at a public stoning than anything else.
My hope was the dissent might provoke you to work harder. That nonsense about New York, you wouldn't have wasted anyone's time with that in the "Hackers & Painters" days. This site has completely ruined you as a writer, and you used to be pretty fucking good. You too need to avoid stupidity for the same reason models avoid cheeseburgers. I bet you read this ridiculous Eric Sink crap all the way through, every last word. Those braincells are dead now and nothing will bring them back.
You should kill Hacker News. Revenge for your slaughtered neurons. A favor to those of your readers who actually understand the things you write and don't just read them to kill time after lunch when they should be working. Any site of this nature is inherently, inevitably, built into its design, a magnet for the type of jackass who only reads blogs because if they played Warcraft in the office they wouldn't be able to fool themselves. This site is a diseased mutant doomed from birth. Give it some tranquilizer so it dies in peace, but the minute it loses consciousness, take it out back and CUT OFF ITS HEAD.
And before you build the next one, read "The Wisdom Of Crowds." Free votes for everyone is a recipe for groupthink factories.
Also, the thing about my dog? TOTALLY TRUE. My dog was absolutely smarter than this Eric Sink guy. Probably by orders of magnitude. Eric Sink has gills and lives on a diet of algae, pond scum, and moss.
And they're not "essays", dude. They're blog posts. It's a good intention to elevate the discourse, but it won't work, because what really elevates the discourse (or lowers it) is the economics of participation. You can call it anything you want but if it's cheap to publish, cheap to link, and everybody has one, then it'll display a very wide range in quality and maturity, and that's just life.
I don't know what the hell is wrong with people that this economics of participation thing is so obscure. Vote costs nothing but time? Vote becomes expensive for people with no time and cheap for people with nothing but. Supply and demand.
The same thing holds for comments, which is why I made it so personal. I'm going to remember writing it, so you're going to remember reading it. I don't have time for another one.
Kill this fucker. KILL IT.
This post is old. So what? Well, old posts that have merit ought to be reposted. But old posts of little value? Why are we upmodding this? So that we can all agree that Eric is wrong about hackers in a self-congratulatory fit of back slapping and strutting?
Either way, I agree that this is another sign that HN is changing character. I am not prepared to say it is changing in a bad way, or that the site has no value, or that there is going to be an exodus.
But I agree that there is a change going on.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7Ynw9RT9coU
All right let me dress up in a suit and monocle to accomodate the distinguished gentleman. I've gone into great detail as to why sites of this nature are all inherently doomed via a flaw in their paradigm.
http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2008/05/summon-monsters-ope...
If my learned colleague shalt consult the appended citation, he will see that my predicated futures have come to trespass, and verily this event doth match the anticipatification in profile.
I knew the article is old; however, i hang around just to read comments from specific users