from Hacker News

Ask HN: Why has the comment section become so pessimistic?

by pmohun on 10/31/22, 5:03 AM with 22 comments

• by bell-cot on 10/31/22, 6:34 AM

  Partly, what you're noticing is a reaction to the vast quantity of baloney that the tech industry generates. (Which baloney might be interesting to taxonomize into techno-utopianism, marketing hype, DilbertCo PHBism, ...)

  Partly, it's because HN's stereotypical user is an engineer. Engineers are supposed to tend critical / cynical / pessimistic - otherwise stuff just doesn't work, and Sales gets away with pre-selling "production starts next quarter" pedal-powered supersonic flying cars.

  Partly, it's because folks here recognize that the world has huge problems (injustice, wars, climate change, etc.) which neither their stereotypical skills nor personal aspirations (write awesome code, engineer a cloud solution, scale a startup, take their unicorn public) do anything meaningful to address. And that if things really go to sh*t...then all their 1337 skillz, achievements, money, and possessions will be worth far less than some old Luddite geezer's bunker in Montana.

  (I've noticed for a while that I have a pretty critical / cynical / pessimistic tone here on HN. For me, that's partly because many HNer's feels like they're a fraction of my age, with a rather narrow education and worldview - so they can need reminding that a whole lot of actually-relevant stuff happened before the web was a thing, and the world doesn't "just work" because of {optimistic generalities & hand-waves that a parent might use in explaining society & economics to a kid}):

• by errantmind on 10/31/22, 5:23 AM

  It is easier to criticise than actually do anything constructive.

• by nonasktell on 10/31/22, 9:14 AM

  We just went through a huge pandemic, a lot of people think we're on the brink of WW3, near a financial crisis, big inflation, huge mental and physical health problems.

  Everyone is on edge, not just HN lol.

• by cbeach on 11/3/22, 7:03 PM

  Society is polarising thanks to social media, with its self-reinforcing echo chambers.

  Like/dislike buttons promote groupthink and demote comments from critical thinkers whose thinking doesn’t conform to whatever is popular.

  This makes group-thinkers more tribal and protective of their ideas, while critical thinkers feel ostracised and more defensive about their ideas.

  Everyone becomes more combative and unhappy.

• by DeathArrow on 10/31/22, 8:43 AM

  Maybe it's because people had delusions and realized they believed in false gods and false religions whose promises never came true.

• by amadeuspagel on 10/31/22, 2:51 PM

  Maybe a selection effect. Maybe the more optimistic people are working rather then commenting.

• by dontbenebby on 10/31/22, 1:37 PM

  Depressive realism