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Comment by tbrake | Hacker News Reader

What's with the indignation over this on HN? I didn't see them suggesting anyone/everyone would be able to do it, or that it was practical.

It was just a funny set of cirucmstances that allowed for an attention catching headline and a mildly amusing tale. Yeeeesh.

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I think some people on here default to a highly comparative/competitive mindset. When they see titles like the one here, they assume there's a subline reading And because I found this hack and executed on it, I'm more resourceful, capable, and smarter than you, and if you can't keep up with me its your fault if you don't succeed

Not saying everyone here thinks it but the emotional reaction to these kinds of things makes it seem this is how it feels to some people.

I agree with part of your assumption, but, for me, the second half is more “and here’s how I can learn from it, internalize, and improve my processes to be better.”

So it’s not so much competitive to exceed others but competitive to improve methods to improve self.

Yeah. The title is a misdirect. The unspoken promise of the article that this is about a more cost-effective/practical/efficient process of commuting.

I guess predictable HN click bait leads to predictable HN criticism leads to predictable HN meta-comment leads to predictable HN meta-rebuttal.

It's the circle of life :-)

It's a cool story, but the headline is bullshit since they didn't include the value of 576k frequent flier miles. That more than doubles the cost.

While you’re at it, why don’t you throw in the real cost of living “rent free”, which is a huge reason why it works.

agreed the true hacker spirit is to sometimes do something completely overzealous and over the top just in the spirit of what if or I can. This person was essentially load balancing their life to play with time and finance variables a true hacker spirit.

Exactly, what's with the critical and defensive reactionary response here? This story is hilarious! And the amount of effort it took to execute and maintain it. And to keep full track of commute time and expenses on a spreadsheet no less? Bravo.

It's also a grand waste of resources, not to mention quite a tasteless flaunt of the enjoyment of a level of privilege that very few have access to.

If you saw an article about how Bezos bragged openly on the internet about how much he spent a day on gourmet food flown in on private jets from faraway countries, do you think you'd respond any differently? Why or why not?

Yes, the elite, priviledged lifestyle of waking up at 3:30 three days a week, to spend 8-10 hours on a plane and public transport, because you can’t afford housing on campus.

Just rich kid things!

Clearly they could have afforded housing on campus if they just saved all the money they had spent on that credit card.

The luxury of affording your credit card bill every month as a college student, and living a lush life on all the things that money affords, then attending a prestigious school with a near guarantee of stable high income in perpetuity, is not a chance many get. By definition, privilege is the enjoyment of things that many others cannot enjoy.

Do you have a point to make or is this just a kneejerk reaction from a "temporarily embarrassed millionaire"?

> Do you have a point to make

Yes. It's ridiculous to accuse somehow who put themselves through this insane, sleep-depriving, patience-punishing, tarmac-sitting schedule, of flaunting their privilege. He has more money than many, but (evidently) not enough to live in the same city as his classmates.

Just enjoy a crazy-hilarious story, man.

That's exactly it. He put himself through it. It was completely unnecessary and it was his choice to do it this way. That doesn't justify any of what he did, if anything, it points out the absurdity of your response. If someone had no choice but to do this your defense would make more sense, but this dude just planned his life poorly and used capital to make up for his mistakes. Rent is free, that means he has parents who own a home and let him live there after reaching adulthood. He has a good credit card, that means he had parents who helped him with financial literacy and likely paid his bills for the first few years to help him build his credit score. Exploiting the people and resources (especially carbon emissions) around you for such cockamammie plans is dumb and antisocial and this person deserves to be ridiculed.

Remarkable, the sycophancy on this site. In what world is wasting a massive amount of other people's resources to save a couple thousand dollars in your pocket anywhere related to the "hacker spirit"?

What do you mean "very few have". They are a Berkeley student, that's 45,000 students who can afford to live in Berkeley which is more expensive than what this guy did.

Seems the opposite of "privilege few have".

Get off your high horse.

You are aware, of course, that the human population is larger than 90k people, right?

You are aware that Berkeley isn’t the only college in the US right?

Saying a 20-something college student is among the “very few” is just silly.

It's a "critical" response for sure, but "defensive"? What makes it defensive (or "emotional" or "indignant", as others have characterized the response)?

I enjoyed the article, and I applaud the author for comitting to the bit. But on the other hand, I completely agree with the parent: the headline is somewhat misleading, and it's an absurdly impractical way to commute to school. Sure it might do the parent some good to lighten up a bit, but it's completely understandable that a person would have this reaction when reading the article. And for me, reading peoples' 100%-justifiably-negative reactions only ehances the absurdity and comedy of it all.

It’s just not very remarkable. The same day change part is clever but otherwise was just “here’s how I spent a bunch of money” and not very interesting or useful to me.

So as equally amusing as “my parents paid for my gap years where I visited many cool locations using routine and typical methods.”

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