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How Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignorance

(www.engadget.com)
39 points pmcpinto | 2 comments | 20 Sep 17 08:49 UTC | HN request time: 0.462s | source
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kmonad ◴[20 Sep 17 11:25 UTC] No.15292517[source]▶
Not many people here seem to have read the article, or read so quickly to misinterpret it. This is not a rant about 'appropriation' or naming choices - that's only one of the facets of ignorance by the founders discussed in the piece. More importantly, the author makes their case that some ideas, in particular that of a vending machine, are so disconnected from the daily lives of what the author might call 'normal people' that it's offensive to dump significant money into them (or wasted on them, I suppose). That latter part is, I believe, the real offending bit.
replies(1): >>15296411 #
1. imartin2k ◴[20 Sep 17 17:46 UTC] No.15296411[source]▶
One could argue then that the author failed to get the point across, even if the point might have merit.

It's any author's task to make their cases in a way so that people pay attention. In this case, this maybe failed. As I mentioned in my other comment: Using terms such as "offensive" when trying to make a serious point to fact- and argument-oriented people (which one typically finds on HN) might not work very well.

It's better to be critical of the author's approach to making the case than to assume that the problem are the readers.

replies(1): >>15308638 #
2. kmonad ◴[22 Sep 17 01:02 UTC] No.15308638[source]▶
hm, that is a fair point. yet, don't you also think that it is a little endemic on hn, and knee-jerk reaction, to jump on certain phrases? like...a trigger :P?

would you think this is a universal response (and therefore problem) or perhaps only among a certain readership? would an author not have to take into account the average response to their phrasing (or that of the audience they address)? if this is not the hn readership, then I would think a word like 'offensive' is comprising a lot of meaning in a concentrated way (ofc you can still disagree with the judgment, that the scenario is truly offensive).