All the lonely people

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/11/all_the_lonely_people.html#more

by robg • 16 years ago

125 33 16 years ago

blogs.suntimes.com

hermanthegerman• 16 years ago

There should be a community for lonely people without the possibility to contact, friend or connect to other people.

adambyrtek• 16 years ago

Looks like you'd have to invent another name for that, because it wouldn't be a community anymore.

xsltuser20103• 16 years ago

Why ? People live in big cities, don't have to worry about other people around them, and it's still a community.

VMG2• 16 years ago

isolatr.com?

RtodaAV• 16 years ago

Great Read.

Supermighty• 16 years ago

Now I see that all relationships are virtual,

This is such a great line.

sliverstorm• 16 years ago

Perhaps I wasn't lonely before because I didn't have it, so it couldn't be gone.

This, too. It's absolutely true, at least for me.

silentbicycle• 16 years ago

His writing feels so human. In particular, his post about rice cookers really spoke to me, but I'm a cooking geek.

Also: After years working in a public library, I know lonely people. They all have their stories, though many just want to be left alone.

boloroso• 16 years ago

This is a very "Serial Experiments Lain" article

VMG2• 16 years ago

Serious question: how did this get to #1 on a site titled hacker news? Are we really that cliche?

joezydeco• 16 years ago

Let's file it under "Understanding your Customer".

robg2• 16 years ago

What to Submit

On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

In Comments

Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did.

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

pyre• 16 years ago

This is an on-going battle, but I think that it is somewhat skewed. When enough people agree that "This story shouldn't be here" no one that complains gets quoted the rules. When few people agree that "this shouldn't be here" all of the people in disagreement trot out the rulebook.

It really seems like a 'selectively enforced' rule, even though there aren't any 'official' HN enforcers.

mathgladiator• 16 years ago

There is probably value in asking why it is appropriate as that will clue readers in to a different meaning due to the fact that writing is not exactly perfect way to convey meaning.

minsight• 16 years ago

He's talking about people communicating in communities on the internet. Do you not see a link between that and Hacker News? Sometimes the medium can be the message.

jashmenn• 16 years ago

It's the weekend

nollidge• 16 years ago

Serious question: did you read the whole thing? It started with a cliche idea, but wanders rather deeply into it.

bobx11• 16 years ago

What is this doing on hackernews?

nalbyuites• 16 years ago

For me, the internet feels like connecting to a larger consciousness. In a crowded city you can be lonely, even with family, friends and your significant other - a special kind of intellectual(?) loneliness that goes away in your virtual community.

HN feels like home. I lurk here, without commenting or participating, without coding or doing a startup. I bask in the warmth of human insight and intelligence, witness our triumphs and tragedies. It feels good to see people struggle to succeed against odds and their dedication to their craft. Feel-good high!

wallflower• 16 years ago

As a software developer who has the ability to create things people want, that alone makes me happier than some of my non-programmer friends in their jobs.

> Of all the purposes of education, I think the most useful is this: It prepares you to keep yourself entertained. It gives you a better chance of an interesting job. Those who stare at the TV for hours might as well be sitting on a stone under a tree in a primeval village; indeed, that might offer more interest and variety. I can't remember the last time I felt bored. I can't eat, drink or talk, and yet I have so many other resources to keep myself entertained. I think I must be a case study.

pjscott• 16 years ago

Ebert has a follow-up article here, and it's a good one:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/11/i_had_no_idea_for.ht...

robg2• 16 years ago

Can you pls post this as a link?

All the lonely people

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