Can we all agree to stop calling critics "haters"?
I'm slow to adopt new words, but I think "hater" is a useful addition to the language, and not simply a pejorative version of "critic." The difference is that a critic is what you're called as a byproduct of being critical in a particular instance, whereas being a hater is an ongoing state of mind. So for example it is reasonable to say "he was sometimes a critic of the administration's policy" but not to say "he was sometimes a hater of the administration's policy."
"Hater" is not a pejorative version of "critic" so much as a negative version of "fan." In fact the distinctive thing about a hater is how uncritical his responses are.
What I've seen in this thread is that people have reasons for disliking Dustin, some of which directly relate to Svbtle. To the extent that they don't directly relate, though, people are quite explicitly saying they evaluate Svbtle separate from Dustin.
And by far the most common reaction expressed is a lack of understanding any valid business model for the network, which in your op you say is quite understandable.
What I don't see in this thread is any willful misconstruing of the project. Which seems to be the requirement for a "hater".
The way you can tell something is amiss is the volume of commenters who seem worried about e.g. how Dustin is going to make money. If most startups issued such a bland funding announcement, it would sink beneath the surface of HN with barely a ripple of comment.
If this is some kind of genius nerd underdog sympathy marketing ploy, I've never seen it done better.
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Wake up early. Show up. Learn how to think. Be genuine, but appear nice. Use envy for motivation instead of destruction. Do what you say you’re going to do. Ensure balance in every area of your life. Confront repressed thoughts immediately. Surround yourself with people who are better than you (but remember the thing about envy). Work out every day. Be good at what you do. Make money doing what you love. Have good friends. Never settle.
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Now, as far as I can tell, every aspect of that post is good advice. It's evident that Dustin's advice was derived from experience, because some his points are counter-intuitive-but-true (which tend to only be learned as a byproduct of screwing up). The advice seems to match my own experience as well, so it seems possible it may be broadly true and (and therefore broadly useful).
I don't know what demon you see in him, but you're wrong.
Now, at this point, it seems only fair that we contrast Dustin's writing against someone else's writing. Let's use your writing, in fact.
So here's a piece you wrote, entitled "New Year - No Fun Allowed".
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My resolution is to blog every day. Whoops, already missed that one. Make it every week, I guess.
Also, to finally launch the enormous white whale of a ship that I’ve been working on in Kerbal Space Program (which is what has kept me from here for so long). It will set all sorts of records, visit all the planets… I just need to have the damn thing not explode. I’m getting closer now; got as far as 20km, and the most recent launch was spoiled by pure bad luck (a piece I’d blown off the top of my rocket fell down back onto it).
You might think stuff like buying a flat or finding a job should be higher on the list than achieving something in a computer game. And you’d be right. But damned if it doesn’t feel like the other way around.
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Eh... I was going to say some more stuff, but it appears you may be going through a rough period in your life.
This is something of a tangent, but: if you happen to want to talk with someone about what's on your mind nowadays, or if you just need someone to talk to, then please feel free to toss me an email. I'm happy to listen (if you want that) or to do whatever else I can.
Life can be rough, but don't let it break you, even if it seems hard not to.
That seems implausible given his age and job history. I don't see how he can possibly have tried e.g. settling enough to be able to assert one should never do it.
The whole tone is one of condescension, of the enlightened master speaking down to his acolytes. I'd accept it coming from e.g. that guy who built a windmill out of scrap metal, or Helen Keller, or even Mark Zuckerberg. Someone who's overcome adversity and/or achieved something useful - or perhaps even just someone old enough to have a bit of life experience. From a bay-area upper-class white male who has never had to struggle, who so far as I can tell has never done a day's real work in his life? No; I'd accept domain-specific advice on design or writing (which he seems to have a genuine talent for), but I refuse to believe he knows better than me how to live - and that's how he's phrased it, not as suggestions or things that worked for him, but as instructions and universal truths.
>Eh... I was going to say some more stuff, but it appears you may be going through a rough period in your life.
Hah, a reader. No, don't worry, I guess it sounded bad out of context. No Fun Allowed is the blog title, not because I don't have fun but because I spend most of the posts taking silly things way too seriously. My present employers have chosen a somewhat inconvenient time to make 2/3 of their developers redundant, which in the worst case might set my life plans back a few years, but life is good; thanks for the sympathy, but I'm doing ok, at least for the moment.
How could you possibly know a thing like that?
The things you've said in this thread are so much worse than anything you accuse Dustin of saying. I wonder the contrast doesn't strike you.
Is it that I think I'm better than Dustin? That's a tougher one; I'm hardly any less privileged; I think I'm less condescending. Being proud of one's humility is a trap, but that doesn't mean one should never call others out on their arrogance.
Is it the hate? I'd like to be more constructive, but I think there's still value in being honest. There is a risk of a negative impact here, but the worst obvious case is that I upset one person and have no other effect.
A world class designer with a funded, successful blog network or an unemployed LARPer. Not sure it's as tough as you think.
I worry that moderating this community has jaded you. (That's concern trolling.) It's a valid question, and one I'd ask of any blogazine that received funding; do you stick ads on it? Charge a subscription fee? Sell user data?
boggles
Svbtle is a strange puzzle.
So earlier, I posted how I would like to know more about their business plan, because well, it seems hard to understand how they plan to make money. Now I have to worry my comments will be seen as critical and I will be lumped in as a "hater".
Because that's the behavior at other sites. "Hater" allows and encourages polarization.
(Also, I am not sure if on the spectrum hater is related to fan so much as it is related to fanboy.)
edit: despite saying that, i am indeed a curious follower of dustin curtis, which i learned during recent discussions, he was fiercely and mostly wrongly criticized. (namely, i have personal positive impression in my limbic system for him).
I visit Hacker News because, while not perfect, it does the best job of any internet forum I know of minimizing that kind of cheap attack. It worries me to see the person who created that forum publicly setting a bad example like this. You're basically saying, “ur all just haters, forget u guyz!!1” even if, superficially, the words you use seem smarter and more reasonable. And beyond being an unconvincing argument, I don't think it reflects well on you to be stooping so low (and flat-out insulting so many people) to defend your investment.
I think a lot of people dislike Dustin Curtis not because they're jealous of his notoriety, but rather because of his attitude -- or at least the personality he projects on the internet.
" A person that simply cannot be happy for another person's success. So rather than be happy they make a point of exposing a flaw in that person.
Hating, the result of being a hater, is not exactly jealousy. The hater doesnt really want to be the person he or she hates, rather the hater wants to knock somelse down a notch."
It reminds me of pg's response to the Airbnb case.
- http://www.pehub.com/114113/what-not-to-do-in-a-crisis-%E2%8...
- http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/30/how-the-hell-is-this-my-fau...
While Dustin's brand own brand spills over into Svbtle's, I think the network's prospects can be sufficiently differentiated from Dustin's brand.
Seems to me that the network is becoming large enough where the "tech blog" echo chamber opinion (about one individual) is inconsequential to Svbtle's fate