1,300 karma · joined September 25, 2013
i prefer to create my own multireddits for content technical content i'm interested in discussing. one for languages, open source, web, mobile, or computer science theory. these would be impossible to find on HN but on reddit they often attract more serious comments (not perfect).
also, did you ask this same question on reddit? i'm wary of the implicit selection bias in asking for a comparison from HN users and not reddit. the users on HN who take the time to read and respond to something like this are more than likely to prefer HN to reddit.
> Some of the slave-owners, like Jefferson, appreciated the moral turpitude on which the economy relied. But he feared the liberation of slaves, who have “ten thousand recollections” of the crimes to which they were subjected. Fears that the victims might rise up and take revenge are deeply rooted in American culture, with reverberations to the present.
i really like his point equating reading online to listening in conversation and its clichéd at this point that listening is more valuable than speaking. i find long-form articles/blogs much more informative because, oftentimes, they deal with more sophisticated ideas (complex ideas tend to take longer to explain). that said, i will be the first to admit that i am guilty of reading the first couple paragraphs of something before bailing or making a comment to one of my friends about it. sometimes i read the rest and find my foot in my mouth but a lot of times i don't.
either way, i am disappointed that this piece isn't more prevalent so we can have a meaningful discussion about the quality of discourse on sites like this. maybe time on page isn't an accurate representation, but i think the easter egg methodology could have some legs. there likely isn't a "cheat-proof" system, but at least those who read the whole piece will be able to differentiate comments from those who didn't.
http://fedoraos.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/gnu-icecat-browser-...
http://fedoraos.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/gnu-icecat-browser-...
A sense of cultural righteousness often leads to oversimplification (http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2013/10/11/you-wont-b...) of complex issues, for example, as noted by PhD student David Banks in a blog post about feel-good clickbait phenomenon Upworthy. Sharing Upworthy videos to show your peers how compassionate you are can help the spread of false information. Many gloss over inequality, or present complex socio-political issues in a simplistic light, says Banks. “Ignorance goes viral,” he quips.
Also, The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. How does one find meaning in life in a meaningless world?
www.goodreads.com has a lot of great reviews/suggestions as well