Hacker News Reader

Comment by rexreed | Hacker News Reader

I find it really curious that all these stories about "how I screwed up" are all of a sudden popping up all over the place. Is there some sort of meme or zeitgeist going around where it's now in vogue to post about how you messed up some big deal or lost some big thing?

View on HN

I think it could be just Frequency Illusion for your case. I think stories about "how I screwed up" has been always popular on the internet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion

I don’t know but it’s very interesting and useful. The “how I won” stories are often less useful as the writer has a blind spot of some element of their success (talent/luck/connections etc.)

Opposite of survivor bias? There are going to be many more stories of missteps, and the misstep stories most worth telling are those where someone learned a valuable lesson.

But I'm finding these stories to instead show how naive, childish, or outlandish the founder is. These stories might have lessons learned for others, but it sure doesn't paint the founder in a good light. Are we in anti-truth world now where talking about how bad you are / were is a good thing?

Listening to privileged successful and wealthy people has gotten boring. Everyone feels like they're a "creator" these days, and there are far more non-sophisticated and average people out there than the typical successful Silicon Valley characters.

You're definitely right in that the universe of unsuccessful people far outnumbers those who are successful. I guess we'll be seeing a stream about lost opportunities and lost deals for some time. It's like those Country music ballads where the singer loses it all, but they still have their faith. Sing on.

Lmao no there arent. There are going to be many more missteps made but its much easier to publish a success than a failure.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com