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A Love Letter to People Who Believe in People

(www.swiss-miss.com)
377 points NaOH | 3 comments | 24 Apr 25 22:35 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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HanClinto ◴[25 Apr 25 14:08 UTC] No.43793725[source]▶
This is so needed. This was a very encouraging article.

"Being a fan is all about bringing the enthusiasm. It’s being a champion of possibility. It’s believing in someone. And it’s contagious. When you’re around someone who is super excited about something, it washes over you. It feels good. You can’t help but want to bring the enthusiasm, too."

Stands in contrast to the Hemingway quote: "Critics are men who watch a battle from a high place then come down and shoot the survivors."

It feels socially safe, easy, and destructive to be a critic.

I'd rather be a fan.

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vunderba ◴[25 Apr 25 15:10 UTC] No.43794376[source]▶
> It feels socially safe, easy, and destructive to be a critic. I'd rather be a fan.

Trotting out absolute statements does no one any good. I could just as easily spin this on its head and say that it feels socially safe to always show blind enthusiasm for the latest trend lest you be labelled a "hater".

It feels like we're just redefining critic to be synonymous with cynic. There's no reason that you can't simultaneously be both fan and a critic of X.

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lanyard-textile ◴[25 Apr 25 17:05 UTC] No.43796069[source]▶
The absolute irony of this comment :)
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roenxi ◴[25 Apr 25 23:48 UTC] No.43799561{3}[source]▶
The medium is hard to separate from the message; it is built in to threaded commenting by the voting system. People upvote the comments that best express ideas that they support and as a consequence it is usually hard to add to the most highly upvoted comment. But that is the most obvious comment to attach opposing views to. That leads to a predictable tick/tock thread structure where every 2nd post is thematically similar but every other post is contrary.

The irony here is present but better interpreted as the forum structure being biased towards criticism.

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1. lanyard-textile ◴[26 Apr 25 11:34 UTC] No.43802700{4}[source]▶
You have a very insightful comment here — one small caveat however: it’s the crowd that is biased towards criticism, not the forum structure.

And this just made me realize why I don’t like HN very much. We live in a bizarre state of mind here with a common interest of creation and furtherance, but simultaneously inside the belly of the beast, it is a forum of unconditional criticism.

It’s in good faith obviously. People see an idea and critique it to the edge of existence with the desire help or further an idea; but it becomes a tick/tock that pulls the original idea apart beyond recognition.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything productive come out of the comments on HN, ever. It’s just a slew of people who say you can always do better after taking a long look at your idea, assuming your intended goal is perfection.

The irony is present because of the poster. It is explained by the contents of the post, not by the thread order in which it resides.

:) This is nice closure for engaging less though, sincerely. I see I’ve fallen victim to this mindset with this very comment, in its own irony.

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2. dostick ◴[26 Apr 25 14:47 UTC] No.43804123[source]▶
I am curious, if HN discussion too critical then what is better out there? HN is less cynical and critical than other mediums, X, Substack, Medium. On HN at least it’s more of an intellectual people who see criticising out of spite as waste. Criticism is constructive comparing to other platforms where it is mostly to make critic feel smart or belonging to some side or group. On HN every commenter stand on their own intellectual merit, so to speak.
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3. lanyard-textile ◴[26 Apr 25 19:36 UTC] No.43806448[source]▶
It is miles better here for sure. If I were wanting to garner criticism from anywhere, this would be an intellectual and respectful crowd for it.

I like the tightly curated communities of discord, but that comes with its own obvious problems. I don’t have a great answer unfortunately.

Which is perhaps a hint that I ask for the impossible, lol.