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Comment by redmen | Hacker News Reader

It's not true I don't think.

Anyone I watch older than 50 years old is constantly frustrated by google, they just don't know what's good, what's not. I think they use it because it's the "norm" and that is the only reason.

And as far as everyone else.. I have no idea to be quite honest. I have a fairly big handful of non-techie friends who think google sucks but is good enough so there is no real incentive to change.

With any habit people don't change it unless they have a huge reason to. No one stops eating double cheeseburgers until their doctor literally tells them they are going to die. I think that's what we're up against here.

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> Anyone I watch older than 50 years old

Hey, now wait a second there, you young whipper-snapper. I'm sitting here reading HN while I install Debian on an XCP-ng VM, and I hear I can't understand whether Google results are good or not? There are plenty of us over 50 that actually lived the early internet and watched it first-hand transform into what it is today.

I meant 60 ;)

Indeed, there was a time when Slashdot was as tech-heavy and full of learning as HN.

What happened to Slashdot? Around 2000, I was a regular reader. Then, I fell away, but I cannot remember why.

All the arguments were the same over and over. I remember reading the same comments that would come up all the time, the discussion got old.

Plus the topics were very Linux, DRM focused. Digg had newer more interesting tech topics

This is a great reply. Real question: Why hasn't the same happened to HN? To be fair, there are some arguments that play out over and over again: SF crime & homelessness, Bay Area housing, US taxes, central banks "printing money", office vs work-from-home, feeling forced to adopt liberal social views / stances at a tech company (Black Lives Matter, LGBTIQ+), etc.

And somehow, there is still enough good, new content to keep the conversations fresh. Some of the best are when someone shares a personal story, then there are tens or hundreds of follow-up posts -- generally supportive or inquisitive.

HN works because of the effort applied to downvote garbage replies and keep the tone sober ond collegial.

I've had a number of replies get hammered, unfairly in my view.

Yet the signal-to-noise ratio benefits overall if we eat a little Type I error now and then.

> Anyone I watch older than 50 years old is constantly frustrated by google, they just don't know what's good, what's not.

Yes, and now imagine these same people, most of whom never bothered with basic google search options (eg. excluding entire domains, mandatory keywords, ...) presented with a search engine with a plethora of knobs and levers to tune it to their liking.

How well will they work with that?

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