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Comment by knodi | Hacker News Reader

I really hate this style of writing.

Whaat?? That writing steez totally rules. It sounds totally natural to me, like the same as I would talk to my boys, chilling at the park. You must be totally lame.

Totally should be tots, "This writing steez tots rules"

Odd...i thought spelling of that was "totes". Tots makes me think of taters (which are delicious...so that's ok).

Damnit

Same. It als really rubs me the wrong way how he claimed the baller ass Russian dude's AirBnB listing was $600, only to later annotate "It was actually closer to $300 / night, but $600 sounds better". Everything sounds better when you exaggerate.

It is not just you. I was constantly distracted by the writing style. How can a "saucy" sub taste like cardboard? Why bread-y and not sauce-y?

I do not know if this overly affected style of communication is prominent in the valley or if it is done in the service of pump priming for newsgenius annotations. I am still curious what a "hella-beta conversation" is.

"Hella-beta"

I'm assuming they are speaking of beta in the kind of male-dominance sense it holds in the animal kingdom.

So being "hella-beta" is kind of backing down and giving up the power to someone else who is the alpha of the group.

I had no idea that the animal kingdom was male dominated. I am not familiar with a lot of animal group dynamics, with wolves it is the alpha male and the alpha female; aka the breeding pair. Moreover asking for any amount of money from someone seems "hella-beta."

I think it's a typo of "betta" for "better."

Initially I thought the same thing but after rereading the sentence/paragraph it seems that the situation is not "better."

If something sufficiently awful happens to you, everything you eat can and will taste like cardboard.

So it should have been "sauce-y"?

  Saucy (adj): 
    1. impudent, flippant
    2. bold and lively 
    3. sexualy suggestive

In this case "beta" (weak, subordinate) is being contrasted with "alpha" (confident, in charge).

By asking for money you are already in a position of subservience. The whole thing about being alpha is that there is no person/animal above you in the hierarchy and therefore no person to ask.

I think this style of communication is specific to rap genius. It's just their particular way of merging tech/VC and hip-hop vernacular. I agree it can come off as disingenuous, and sometimes confusing. Like some other posters, I was wondering if "beta" was a typo of "betta."

Also, although they were part of YC, they're based in NYC, not the valley.

I have only met two legitimate baller gangsters in my life and they did not talk like this. Moreover I think I would have gotten my ass kicked if I talked like this to them.

Most people would have not idea what we're talking about in most threads here. Lingo, context and style.

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