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Comment by whitepaint | Hacker News Reader

HN crowd is, surprisingly, quite myopic about new technologies. Ethereum & VR headsets are great examples. Both of these are incredible and will definitely change the world in a very drastic way; yet, both are hated and ridiculed here.

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> Both of these are incredible and will definitely change the world in a very drastic way;

I'd easily take the other side of that bet.

More fundamentally, though, I take issue that "the HN crowd is myopic about new technologies". I'll just speak for myself, but I was easily excited about smartphones, the potential of SaaS businesses, I remember taking my first Uber thinking "I'm glad I'm not a taxi driver", etc. etc.

The fact that many on HN look at hucksterism and bullshit with a critical eye is something I think we should collectively be proud of.

The gripe HN has with these technologies is the hype and speculation and it’s the responsible thing to do to point those out.

You see yourself as a non myopic but if you look at it historically, technology always panned out differently and in unexpected ways. Why do you presume you’re going to not make the same mistakes?

Who on HN hates VR? That tech has been breathlessly praised here, at least years ago, but it’s just since fallen into the trough of disappointment for the time being. Eventually it’ll get to the plateau.

I have no idea why you're bucketing these two examples as if they were similar in any way whatsoever

Remember Google glass? Besides, I think new technologies are generally thought of conservatively by the majority and will only have a couple of supporters in the initial stages.

Both crypto and VR have been thoroughly debunked, many, many times, and yet people like you keep bringing them up as if you have not read any of the previous criticism. I'm not sure if there is anything that can be said to you that will help you see how deeply stupid these technologies are. Some of the critiques already posted to Hacker News have raised every valid point against these technologies. I can't think of anything more that can be said. At this point, we simply have to wait 20 years, and then you'll be able to see that these technologies never developed into anything much more than games.

> Ethereum & VR headsets (...) will definitely change the world in a very drastic way

Wanna put money down on that?

They probably did...

With any luck, both will bankrupt the carpet baggers who are pushing this nonsense. That will change the world for the better.

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