Why every goddamn thing has to be exciting? Surely American organizational culture is becoming a parody of itself.
If anything, this reminds us that American non-profits are run just like corporations.
I'm sure in some cases the writer thinks they'll get in trouble with the boss if they aren't sufficiently unctuous but it's annoying to read again and again.
Perhaps there is an opportunity here to establish an "Announcement Excitement Scale" from 1 to 10 where 10 is - say - ChatGPT or the iPhone and 1 is a license change.
This can be printed with the announcement of being excited, then the reader can easily judge for themselves whether to peruse further.
Taking this out of context really puts the spotlight of the weirdness of this type of copy.
A better question is why everyone has to be so negative.
From my British view, without reference to a dictionary, awesome is when you hear fighter jets zoom overhead, or a metal band from in front of the stage, or Niagara Falls, or a mile-long freight train full of rocks shaking the ground as it passes. The target has strength, size and power.
An amazing thing is far beyond normal expectations in art, craft, or human behaviour. A detailed painting, where you step up closer and see it's even more detailed than you first thought. A carving from 3000 years ago with intricacy we didn't think possible at that time.
Something exciting causes strong, (mostly) positive emotions. A roller coaster ride, an impromptu water fight in the summer, stripping off clothes and running into the sea in a group, getting close to the end of a game with the realization that you might win.
Starting a job at Google and seeing 50 exabytes of data or a cluster of 10 million computers or whatever could be awesome.
Someone's clever and efficient algorithm that reduces runtime by 10× could be amazing.
Finishing the final university exam, expecting to pass the degree, could be exciting.
Changing from licence version 3 to licence version 4 is none of these. It might be satisfying, or perhaps rewarding for the people directly involved.
who are you to say how someone else should feel?
It’s like someone not familiar with coding saying why should software engineers feel excited for releasing something? It’s literally just text you typed. Wow, boring.
Your other examples are literally just your opinion, which is fine. Understand others do not feel the same way necessarily.
The British equivalents being "not too bad", "bloody" or "oh".
Local government officials, BBC Radio 4 presenters and the nobility often sell or donate their ration to youth workers and minor celebrities.
I saw a vulture outside yesterday. I thought that was pretty amazing! I’d never seen one before.
I was pretty excited yesterday to run after a rabbit in my yard like a five year old as my kids yelled “dad no don’t eat it!”
But even as an American with my strange irrational exuberance and positive language creep, I can agree with you that changing from version 3 to 4 of a license is none of these things.
To me all of these things sound very lame. I find the Wikipedia licensing change more interesting. I think the post did a good job explaining why this matters and what this changes for Wikipedia.
Roller coaster ride? That's not exciting; that's frightening! I can kind of understand 'getting close to the end of a game with the realization that you might win', but this is more frequently nerve-racking for me.
It's not exclusively an Americanism to be excited about law.
> nerve racking
I’m a Californian and I don’t think something is exciting unless it’s somewhat frightening. That is to say Adrenaline is involved in excitement. Otherwise it is just fun, interesting, or cool.
there are two aspects of American usage in play, just want to clarify. One is that Americans simply are more optimistic in the way that de Tocqueville noticed 200 years ago. Then layered on top of that are regional American differences where people in the northeast are optimistic but speak in a grumpier way ya fackin bastid, people in the middle are, okadiddlydokily, friendlier how they win friends and influence people, and people on the west coast really lay the positivity on thick, double rainbow all the way.
Dear Hacker News community,
I am thrilled to share some exciting news with all of you. After much delay, I proudly announce that I have taken the initiative to call not just one, but two separate repair services. One is to address the issue with my recently broken water heater, while the other is to finally fix the blinds that have been broken for over 18 months.
I'm sure many of you can relate to the frustration of dealing with household repairs that seem to linger indefinitely. Well, I have taken the proactive step of reaching out to professionals, and I am hopeful that these long-standing problems will soon be resolved.
Firstly, I have connected with a reputable repair service for the water heater. This essential home appliance will soon be restored to its full functionality, providing the comfort and convenience it once did.
Additionally, I have engaged with another repair service to tackle the issue with my broken blinds. These blinds, which have been a persistent eyesore for far too long, will finally be repaired, allowing me to control the amount of light entering my home and restoring a sense of privacy.
I wanted to share this news with the community because it signifies a small but meaningful personal achievement. It's a reminder that sometimes the smallest victories, like making those long-overdue repair calls, can bring a sense of satisfaction and relief.
Thank you for allowing me to share this update with you.
Best regards, MordisquitosAnd no, the better question is why everyone has to be pretentious?!
Completing the work is an everyday kind of thing by the way, not some sort of exceptional or rare achievement but common occurrence (if we are optimistic). : )
Me: Write a press release stating that Wikipedia is announcing the update to our license to Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
ChatGPT: […] Wikipedia, the world's largest online encyclopedia, is thrilled to announce a significant update to its licensing terms. Effective immediately, Wikipedia will adopt the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. This change represents Wikipedia's ongoing commitment to open knowledge and collaboration. […]
Just let people have fun with things.
(Yes, American company).
They are corporations.
Ergo, a very hum-drum announcment gets this.
But yeah, here, it is just a technical update that may be exciting only to specialized lawyers. But we are on a website where we get excited by some tool we never heard about before being rewritten in Rust, so...
They both provide little value to the communication and are mostly just a language quirk.