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Comment by donatj | Hacker News Reader

Honestly I think the loss of humans just talking to others is the primary cause of most of our modern problems.

What makes you think that there has been a recent loss of "humans just talking"? Seems like a fairly subjective position to take when I, as a younger person, feel incredibly connected to a lot of society via online communication.

I have also however, never had a good experience knocking on neighbors doors. If someone is being incredibly inconsiderate, like say blasting music at 1am, then why would they be more considerate if I knocked on their door?

A fully grown adult living in an apartment complex should be able to know that sound travels, they have already made the decision to be inconsiderate. Are they supposed to change their mind because I appeal to them face to face?

I can't help but wonder if a large part of this is the advice of "pick your battles, don't engage with others you disagree with, you're just wasting your energy" and similar being applied far too broadly.

In a marriage, picking your battles is probably good advice. But being too picky about battles, in general, seems like passivity that tends to lead to resentment and explosive drama.

There is picking your battles, and then there is avoiding all forms of conflict completely. The latter can just lead to battles down the road that could have been mildly uncomfortable situations at an earlier stage.

Probably from too much experience that they need to expect to be in a fight, so they adopt an aggressive posture from the start.

That's me. If I know that neighbor is doing something unreasonable, like leaving his garbage bags in the common hallway or listening music too loudly, I suspect he's just an antisocial asshole and the conversation will be rough at best.

Whenever I think that I remember that I've been the recipient of snarky notes about this or that and while it's possible I'm an irredeemable reprobate, I'd prefer rather to think that like most people I'm sometimes not as considerate as I might be and open to polite feedback.

It's not. Most of our problems are caused by wealth inequality, racism, and amoral politicians.

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