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Comment by whitepaint | Hacker News Reader

Why is this post getting so many upvotes? "Age discrimination" - based on what?!

If I am a vegan and get constantly rejected by YC, should I create a post: "Done with YC: They hate vegans"?

I expect much better from HN. What the hell.

It's getting upvotes because indignation + sensationalism always gets the most upvotes (this is the weakness of the upvoting system [1]), plus the meta aspect is a force multiplier. Also age discrimination is a perennially hot topic here.

It's also getting a lot of flags, which is why the post is not on HN's front page. Just in case anyone is wondering, there's no moderation penalty on it. The tug of war between upvotes and flags is the cycle of life on HN [2]. It's quite normal for a sensational post to get a rapid sugar rush of upvotes, followed by other users flagging it once they see (and don't want to see) it on the front page.

[1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...

[2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

Pretty interesting that a YC person would come out and label this "indignation + sensationalism".

It is neither. It's someone (me) sharing an experience and a personal decision while --if you actually read my post-- praising YC for all the good they do.

My only intent is to perhaps shed some light on the plight of older engineers in the technology ecosystem.

Change the subject if you want. I could not care less. How about "Done with YC: A personal perspective".

Frankly, I find your comment insulting.

I certainly didn't mean anything personal by it! The title alone was enough to count as that. If you hadn't put "Done with YC" and "Age discrimination" in your title, I doubt it would have gotten nearly as much attention. That's the way these things work.

I appreciated the nuances in the body of the text, but those have much less influence, the internet being what it is.

Just a reminder. The title of your post is: "Done with YC: Age Discrimination"

And no part of that implies any emotion or sentiment at all. What you are reading into is is your own bias.

It almost like a title:subtitle structure. You read the content to understand it. The title simply says something like "I am no longer interested in YC. I want to discuss age discrimination". It does not say "Those f--ker at YC are biggoted blah, blah who discriminate against older engineers and because of that I've had enough and I am done with them". That's what you and dang seem to want to read into it. Well, you are both wrong. It's just a title. No emotion or implications being made other than those made in the mind of the reader.

Judging a book by the cover, are we?

The YC application requires you to list your age, it does not ask if you are vegan. I think it's completely legitimate to ask why age is explicitly included in the application process. I also think it's an interesting discussion whether it is okay that things like requiring relocation unintentionally bias against age (I think it is okay, but it's an interesting discussion nonetheless).

I'll grant you that the title is total click bait, and I don't think it's likely the OP specifically was rejected due to ageism. But I don't think that was his main point.

I absolutely agree with you, it's a nice conversation to be had. But this post wasn't about "why age is explicitly included in the application process".

The conversation in the thread is quite interesting and thoughtful I think. And it's relevant to everyone since we are all getting older.

I find it interesting. You can try your vegan post. Sounds a bit dull but go for it.

Of course it sounds dull for you, it's not relating to you. This post, of course is. You are afraid of getting old / being old, so these kind of posts makes you emotional. Makes you click that upvote button. Even though it has absolutely no evidence. Aren't we all so easily manipulated by our emotions?

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