Hacker News Reader

This is an interesting comment, because I get both respect and unhappiness for Stockdale from it.

Are you saying - he should have played the game more, but you respect that he didn't? or are you saying he should have known the game that he was playing and thus played it better?

View on HN

You are thrown off because I tried to make positive statement and everything is interpreted as normative in the internet.

positive vs. normative statements.

positive: opinion about what is, the state of the world.

normative: what ought to be. a value judgment.

Fair enough, it was an interesting comment the way I read it though; makes me think about all the things I complain about where I am complaining about “the rules of the game” - like in a job or something.

I picked to play that game, if the rules are whatever playing that game are using, then if I am frustrated by the rules, am I not the one who should look in the mirror and say “hmm, maybe I shouldn’t play this specific game”

Reply on news.ycombinator.com