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Comment by paganel | Hacker News Reader

> not having to interact with anyone is pretty great.

Bleak.

And then questions get asked of how techies have become so despised by part of the general population and why they feel so out of touch in comparison to said general population. We’ve become averse to even holding the proverbial chat with the proverbial taxi driver.

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It's the exact same benefit as having your own car. It's a common reason people have to avoid shared transit.

The main benefit of having a car is that it's right there the moment you need it, you can take it as far as you need to and you can load it up with whatever you need - none of this applies to waymo or a taxi without getting too expensive.

And saying taxis are like public transportation, because another person is driving you, is going in favor of OPs point out people here being out of touch.

Yes, the benefit of a car is it's there when you need it. But, in cities it comes with the challenge of having to find parking.

So, if you have to wait 5mins for Waymo (as they scale up) vs 10 mins circling around to find a parking spot, which is better?

There is still a slight difference between having to take a packed subway between A’ and B’ (while you’re trying to do A->B) and doing A->B in a car of your own with a driver you don’t know.

I'm not sure that reason is all that common. People like cars primarily for the flexibility I think.

> not having to interact with anyone is pretty great.

Anecdotally, most of my female friends here in LA prefer Waymo over Uber for this reason (safety), especially when leaving bars late at night.

> how techies have become so despised by part of the general population

Mostly because a bunch of stereotypical socially maladjusted nerds is an easy target to manufacture and then blame for social issues adjacent to tech products, despite the fact that almost all the evil is not in tech per se, but in business models around it, despite the fact that it's all commissioned and funded and driven by the much more gregarious business types.

I guess this is America: business sharks are the lambs that do no wrong, even if they eat their customers, competition and environment alive. Let's blame literally anyone else than those directly responsible.

"I was just following orders."

Oh don't give me Nuremberg defense bullshit. In WW2, superiors were also blamed and charged. They weren't instead praised for their military acumen, like the business class is.

Oh, I'm perfectly happy to agree that a lot of the bullshit starts with the "gregarious business types", but I'll never say that it automatically allows everyone else responsible for whatever bullshit to be completely absolved of their sins just because, "Boss said so".

Life's grey areas and nuances tend to be like that.

Edit to respond to your own edit: If you think the business class is without criticism these days, then I'm a bit shocked and very curious to know where you're getting your news. I see it everywhere, even here on HN.

> And then questions get asked of how techies have become so despised by part of the general population and why they feel so out of touch in comparison to said general population. We’ve become averse to even holding the proverbial chat with the proverbial taxi driver.

Ever consider that maybe some of those "techies" were maybe mistreated and abused by so-called "normal" folks purely for their interest in technology and science topics? Bullied, hated, insulted, phyiscally attacked even? Not for any valid reasons, nor even because they were "out of touch", but became out of touch and averse to interacting with others due to all the ongoing abuse over their interest in a topic that dirtbag bully types consider "nerdy"? Reading bad! Learning bad! Trying to better one's self BAD! Absuing others GOOD! Maybe after many years of that kinda treatment, some of us are more comfortable with machines than we are with humans because so many humans are just literal monsters, and not worth trying to interact with.

Bro, I beg, go outside and touch some grass

So now being an introvert is something to be despised? Sounds a bit unempathetic.

Not wanting to engage in the same small talk with different random people isn't bleak.

Get off your incredibly high horse.

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