HN user
There are still people in America who live without running water. There are still people who work on fishing boats in Alaska. There are still people who hitchhike. This is literally just an anecdote trying to deflect from contemporary problems. I don't see any value in this sort of discourse.
Just because things may have been worse for specific individuals does *not* mean that current problems shouldn't be addressed.
I always wonder what people who say these things think about the fact that we have someone in the white house who was mentioned in the Epstein files more than Jesus was mentioned in the bible. Whatever it takes to get rid of those pesky aliens right?
Or worse, you wouldn't even know about it!
I have a personal belief that this is a result of the "can-do" attitude that pervades not only American society currently; but virtually all of American history.
A small group of colonies managed to win a war against what was considered at one point the globe's strongest empire. Throughout the history-narrative of America there is a prevailing sense that the underdog can always overcome their circumstances and win the day. That most Americans (myself included) have a semi-deluded sense they "can achieve anything they put their minds to" is a direct manifestation of that narrative-history. It's also why there is so much rampant anti-intellectualism here; think about it, if you can do and are capable of anything - why would you *ever* listen to an expert's opinion? It's also why libertarian-ism is so popular; why would you want the rest of society dragging you down when you yourself are capable of so much more?
I want to be clear as well, there *are* benefits to the can-do attitude, but at this point the cons outweigh the pros, and we are seeing that play out in American society. I'd also like to acknowledge that the current situation is the result of many different factors; but that this one is largely overlooked due to the assumption that it's positives outweigh it's negatives.
I have become so disillusioned by some of the Hacker News crowd on here.
I feel the exact same way, but it's due to comments like yours that seem to excuse anything in the name of innovation. The goosebumps people feel are them just projecting what they think the future may look like based on what the snake-oil salesmen are peddling. How long have we been "just 2 years away from fully-automated self-driving" again?
The good ol' invisible hand;
Literally an appeal to ignorance.
"What else could it be?"
I never claimed any techology is good or bad; you also seem to be in agreement with me that technology used in warfare _can_ have "good" applications (I mentioned that the benefits are secondary to their applications in war, that doesn't sound like me saying there are no benefits).
Lastly, the only point I was trying to make is that the argument that researchers do these things for "pro-social" causes is kind of a facade; the macro environment that incentivizes technological development *is* mostly due to government investment. Sure, the individuals working on it may all have different motivations, but they wouldn't be able to do so without large sums of money. The CIA [1] literally has a venture capital firm dedicated to the investing in the development of technology - do you really believe they are doing that to help people?
- [1]: https://fortune.com/2025/07/29/in-q-tel-cia-venture-capital-...
care more that their work is prosocial
These takes are always so funny to me. The whole reason we even have the internet is because the US government needed a way for parties to be able to communicate in the event of nuclear fallout. The benefits that a technology provides is almost always secondary to their applications in warfare. Researchers can claim to care that their work is pro-social, and they may genuinely believe it; but let's not kid ourselves that that is actually the case. The development of technology is simply due to the reality of nations being in a constant arms race against one another.
Even funnier is that researchers (people who are supposed to be really smart) either ignore or are blissfully unaware of this fact. When you take that into consideration, the pro-social argument falls on its face, and you're left with the reality that they do this to satiate their ego.
Are authoritarians good? That's basically what you are asking.
God has been used as a justification for a lot of human suffering.
My personal belief is that the closer to god you are; the more easily you can justify evil. How could you not? If my entire belief system is derived from faith, then there are *no* conclusions I could not come to, and therefore anything can be justified.
Mad respect to Sam
And people wonder how we got here.
but stop pretending this kind of thing matters one iota
This is blatantly false and intellectually dishonest. Of course it matters. Your edit is also wrong; you are advocating for nihilism with statments like these.
This is where we're at huh?
There is also the added stress of commuting, which its fair to assume has negative impacts on heart, cognitive, etc. health.
sits for hours playing a video game
if you are not moving, you are dead.
I understand the point you're trying to make, but there is some irony here.
Microsoft's past behavior _may_ explain *why* there is a lack of investment in Github Actions; so yes, TheFeelz are relevant.
They manage a lot of old, big mainframes for banks. At least that is one thing I know of.
I'm aware of that. That does not make the second quote any less relevant.
It's hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior
There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning.
Huh.
Is this satire?
I worked for an energy tech startup that did consulting for big utility companies. It absolutely does.
dependency inclusion _should not_ be a main criterion for evaluating how good a build system is
That's just like, your opinion, man.
How are you quantifying that 10% ?
We are talking about Netflix. You know, the 'N' in FAANG/MAANG or whatever.
What are these places? How is productivity being measured?
All this talk of data and I have yet to see _anything_.
Alright guy, I'll bite. Why do _you_ think that Boeing off-loaded manufacturing burden to 3rd party companies? Their executives have effectively gutted the company over the last 20 years. Now we're left with a bailed-out husk the government literally _cannot_ afford to let go out of business.
there is simply no evidence from before 24 February 2022 that Putin wanted to conquer Ukraine and incorporate it into Russia
Crimea, anyone?
What more does life have to offer then?
I have a little brother. And while I would say we are close, I always wonder how he feels about me. I was not nice to him growing up, and it created a lot of resentment. One day I apologized to him about it, and I remember him seeing tear up out of the corner of my eye.
The day that I think changed our relationship we went on a hike together. While we were driving there he had a bunch of anxiety about it, and wanted to back out. I managed to convince him to come with me and just let all his feelings out; he just yelled at me the entire drive there about a lot of different things. Including my treatment of him.
That hike to this day was the best I've ever been on. Everybody has a different relationship with their brother, but I genuinely do not and cannot imagine this existence without mine. He understands me in ways that nobody else does. He gets my jokes that nobody else does. Having a brother you are close with just _almost_ proves you don't die alone.
The expectation that the feature should be merged in.
Just because you created an amazing pull request that everyone wants merged in, doesn't mean the maintainer should or want to do so.