Hacker News Reader

Comment by gsich | Hacker News Reader

Answer: no.

Seems like a classic rule of headlines: If the headline is a question, the answer is most likely "no". If the answer was "yes", the headline would be a click-baiting statement ("We Are Prisoners of Geography!").

It is: Betteridge’s Law of Headlines.

"Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headline...

There's also "No, we are not prisoners of geography".

That would sound a lot like:

    "No, the aliens have not enslaved the Earth"
    "No, the atmosphere is not on fire from nuclear testing"
    "No, 2 + 2 is still not 5"

I wonder if that would count as news. Paraphrasing Dr. House:

    I ask you what is two plus two, and you tell me "it's not 15"?

If converted into a question, the headline creates the tension, which is then released through the non-informative article. Equally not-news, but that way they at least get the clicks.

You can also rephrase anything to be a question. Or even a question that sounds silly, so that people say no.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com