Ask HN: What Are the Hacker News Mokitas?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11507494

by redsummer • 10 years ago

8 4 10 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Mokita is a word of the Trobriand Islands. It means "the truth we all know, but agree not to talk about."

What are the Mokitas of Hacker News?

angersock• 10 years ago

-> That advertising and mass surveillance go hand-in-hand.

-> That the slim, slim, slim chance of making out like a bandit in a startup as a non-founder is getting worse every year.

-> That most of the products we build don't affect more than 1% of the world, nor ever could.

-> That HN, while generally benevolent, does have active censorship (sometimes for the better).

-> That many folks in the Midwest are as good as any programmer on the coast.

redsummer• 10 years ago

(answering my own question)

- there is a glut of high-tech, mainly web, companies and employees.. when we would be better off having more traditional engineers.

- we are rushing to grab what’s left of this glut, before it falls apart.

- our work has no value. It's the spinning wheels of an exercise bike.

- technology is not progress, in the broader sense. quite often the reverse. but because of our jobs and interests, we fool ourselves that we are partaking in progress.

- technology is a man-made disaster. at best it is domesticating us. a moderate view would be that we are too dependant on it, and it’s getting too late to stop. it is oppressive and alienates us. at worst, it is enslaving us.

AnimalMuppet• 10 years ago

We don't always change our minds, even when presented with sufficient reasons why we should. We get locked in to our positions, and don't give a real hearing to opposing views. Truth and logic don't always win the day, even with us.

greenyoda• 10 years ago

"the truth we all know, but agree not to talk about."

The English metaphor for this is "the elephant in the room": "an obvious truth that is going unaddressed", or "an obvious problem or risk no one wants to discuss".[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_in_the_room

Ask HN: What Are the Hacker News Mokitas?

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