from Hacker News

Ask HN: Is everyone on Hacker News super charismatic?

by ZhangSWEFAANG on 11/5/22, 9:30 AM with 71 comments

• by MrVandemar on 11/5/22, 9:47 AM

  Well, I think there's a higher barrier to participation than, say, reddit, and clear rules discouraging flippant or other low-value contributions, so you're shaving off the bottom 10-20% (guestimate) of worthless posts with that alone. Meaning the average is higher.

  And then I speculate there is a high percentage of people here of at least minnium tertiary education (or equivalent), and furthermore people who are engaged and relentlessly self-educate. That's a literate bunch of people with strong skills in generating and critiquing ideas and philosophies in an arena where there is more "signal" and less "noise".

  It'd be interesting to see the demographic breakdown of HN actually.

• by andrewstuart on 11/5/22, 10:30 AM

  Everyone is sitting in the tracksuit pants at their computer with the lunch dishes still on the table. Or at least I am anyway and I assume everyone else is too. Maybe you're right, maybe everyone else on HN is clever and charismatic and looking stylish and also suave and sophisticated in person. And well dressed.

  Nah they're all in their tracksuit pants.

• by magic_hamster on 11/5/22, 11:01 AM

  Programmers have low IQ? That's a first. The common stigma as I see it is that programmers (or "computer people") are socially awkward.

  And in that regard, I think there's a lot to be said for the medium here. There are certainly clever and highly technical people lurking around, but the ability to articulate your thoughts before posting anything is extremely helpful in conveying a clear, well put message. You have the time to really think about what you're saying.

  However, this does not immediately translate to interpersonal abilities - charisma included. Talking in meetings, arguing in real time, and most of all being in a leadership position, those are totally different skills. If you're already there, though, it is easier to sound confident, and lots of people around here are at least somewhat experienced in the tech world.

• by synu on 11/5/22, 10:36 AM

  And quite handsome as well.

  On a more serious note I think people on HN tend to be way more pedantic than anyone I would want to spend time with in real life.

• by jstx1 on 11/5/22, 9:42 AM

  Wait what? :D

  Written comments are very different from verbal communication which is different from charisma. So no, they definitely aren't all charismatic, far from it probably.

  Also, "trope of programmers being low IQ"?

• by recuter on 11/5/22, 10:42 AM

  Most of the web is angsty teenagers, shills, bots (rare footage of one in the wild: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5dauIYZTs4) - normative people, especially charismatic ones have better things to do with their time than post online.

  Since outrage drives clicks websites are incentivized to turn into the jerry springer show. HN is not ad supported and the focus is mostly on technical subjects, too boring for the riff raf with underdeveloped emotional control.

  Relative to this sad state of affairs we shine, I suppose. You could do a lot better just maybe not on the internet. If you want to see how this community is not immune to turning into a zoo look at any thread where anything remotely political crops up.

  Compare and contrast with old timey talk shows:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_PUUHLknDI

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz7tiBZdGvE

  Deeming the awkward nerds here as 'super charismatic' really just shows how far we have fallen as a society. People used to be a lot more civil and eloquent. Some still are just not in any public sphere.

• by emptyparadise on 11/5/22, 11:14 AM

  This orange website is okay. I think the quality of links shared is very nice.

  I don't particularly enjoy discussing certain topics that bring out some of the worst comments. This is usually contentious topics in the US like labour unions, mental health, LGBT rights.

  Sometimes you get really nice replies, sometimes it will be absolutely insufferable braindead asshole takes. Sometimes the comments get soft-raided by people who only rarely actually post but are conspicuously invested in defending something (I noticed this happen a lot with posts discussing one website in particular that I'll leave unnamed). At least moderators eventually clean up the last kind.

• by magicalhippo on 11/5/22, 10:33 AM

  It's quite a lot easier to write something nice and coherent when you have 5-10-15 minutes to do so, rather than having to answer on the spot...

• by togaen on 11/5/22, 10:25 AM

  That’s the impression you get?? I read HN and more often than not think, “man, these people sound like insufferable pseudo-intellectual know-it-alls.”

• by Semaphor on 11/5/22, 10:28 AM

  The more moderation, the more sensible the community seems. On Reddit, check /r/askhistorians.

  For lower quality HN discussions check threads about cryptocurrency or many about Europe. Oh and enable showdead to see even deeper depths.

• by howscrewedami on 11/5/22, 10:34 AM

  I'd argue there's some selection bias going on. You're more likely to participate in a technical discussion if you're familiar with the topic. Or else you risk getting downvoted.

• by mkl95 on 11/5/22, 10:26 AM

  There is a big overlap between charismatic people and self-censors. Some topics that are regularly discussed on HN can get you fired if you bring them up at work and they rub someone the wrong way. Generally, the industry does not provide a healthy framework for non technical conversation.

• by davidkuennen on 11/5/22, 10:36 AM

  I often find HN rather detached from the "real world". ;-)

  But there's certainly lots of smart people here.

• by Barrin92 on 11/5/22, 10:33 AM

  Personally I think I can articulate myself clearly but it isn't the result of IQ or EQ but rather because I've almost my entire adult live worked at foreign companies speaking English which is my second language. It makes you conscious about how you express yourself and how others hear you.

  I think the observation is right though that people who can express themselves well are often perceived as charismatic. It's not necessarily a good thing though. Plenty of people stutter or are a little bit disorganized but still have important things to say. Just because someone has difficulty communicating doesn't mean they're not smart, emotionally or otherwise.

• by overlisted on 11/5/22, 10:22 AM

  It's easier to phrase your speech in a charismatic way when it's written. Plus, you're probably not reading a lot of downvoted/ignored comments, which actually represent most HN readers.

• by jzellis on 11/5/22, 11:08 AM

  Oh, man, thank you. God, I needed that laugh this morning. Brightened my day right up. Good looking out, homie.

• by low_tech_love on 11/5/22, 10:25 AM

  ITT: lots of people clearly explaining, with perfectly timed, concrete, and objective arguments, why they are not really very good at clearly explaining things with great arguments!

• by anshumankmr on 11/5/22, 9:36 AM

  > everyone on here is probably a great conversationalist and insanely emotionally smart

  Definitely not me.

• by ok_dad on 11/5/22, 10:42 AM

  In person I’m extremely uncharismatic, and have a poor grasp of the English language, my mother tongue. I write better than I speak most of the time, though.

• by throwaway0asd on 11/5/22, 10:11 AM

  Sometime comment replies scream unintentionally I can’t read. In that case it’s energy in search of attention and social validation, which is the opposite of smart. This is why I abandoned my HN account using my name and only post anonymously now. For some strange reason the same comments from anonymous accounts deflect a lot of trolling.

• by jbreckmckye on 11/5/22, 9:44 AM

  Remember that social media is built by definition to show you other people at their most interesting, most entertaining, most articulate, most impressive. Otherwise it would be boring.

• by xdfgh1112 on 11/5/22, 10:34 AM

  Using big words and quoting Godwin's Law != intelligence :P

• by soVeryTired on 11/5/22, 11:00 AM

  If there was a similar forum for doctors, lawyers or other professionals you'd probably see the same level of discourse.

  As others have pointed out, the voting system means you only see the best of the comments. And even then when HN strays "off topic" (i.e. away from science and tech) the commentary is far less on point.

  And don't get me started on the "middle-brow dismissal"...

• by v3ss0n on 11/5/22, 10:09 AM

  When in the world Trope of programmer being Low IQ?? Do you mean Low EQ ?

  Regarding charismatic , i am quite blunt in verbal communication , ok at written.

• by unpopularopp on 11/5/22, 10:53 AM

  I mean when you are rich [0] easy to be like that. HN is most detached from real world crowd that I saw. Just read the comments in every thread about homelessness or social services, public health etc.

  0, This is another topic for sure but a lot of people make here top 5% money (nationwide and probably even higher global) which doesn't make you middle class

• by bradknowles on 11/6/22, 2:32 AM

  Oh, hell no. I am the least charismatic person you will find, and yet I am here.

  And all it takes is finding one counter example.

• by xiphias2 on 11/5/22, 11:31 AM

  To give you an example of a charismatic person in real life, I remember how a lady in a group that I was part of talked for 20 minutes about how she once got drunk.

  For me it all was just plain boring, but I still appreciate the effect she had on the whole group (except me) listening to her so vividly.

• by oneoff786 on 11/5/22, 10:22 AM

  I would wager there’s a negative correlation between one’s charisma and the complexity of their arguments

• by jareklupinski on 11/5/22, 6:05 PM

  it's easier to find common ground and speak freely here "among friends" than most other social boards, since we all use roughly the same language: maths / logic

  every other place on the internet (and IRL), I have to 'translate' my thoughts from purely logical to something that speaks to the greater audience, which is usually less technical and more specialized in... well their own specializations. a translation could never capture the nuance of the original statement, and people writing for tech audiences probably feel a similar handicap.

  i bet a politico would find most/all of our raw content insufferable :)

• by rado on 11/5/22, 3:31 PM

  No, just me. Seriously though, every time I try to make a joke, I get downvoted, is it generally unacceptable or my sense of humour sucks?

• by DueDilligence on 11/5/22, 11:18 AM

  .. well thanks for noticing. we have a secret - we don't let anyone toxic rent space in our head. ever.

• by senectus1 on 11/5/22, 12:55 PM

  definitely not. (speaking for myself that is)

  But I do appreciate the generally more "adult" tone to HN.

  Reddit is fun n all but sometimes I dont want to be made to laugh/scoff/get angry.

• by kidgorgeous on 11/5/22, 9:51 AM

  Welcome to the club bub

• by sirsinsalot on 11/5/22, 11:03 AM

  It is only one data point but I am exceptionally charismatic.

• by anuraaga on 11/6/22, 7:11 AM

  No

• by 0xbadc0de5 on 11/5/22, 11:52 AM

  Observation bias.

• by open-paren on 11/5/22, 3:05 PM

  No

• by ccbccccbbcccbb on 11/5/22, 10:24 AM

  Super charismatic, no.

  Agenda-supportive, virtue-signalling, hype-bandwagoning, karma-worshipping, high-horse-scornful, cowardly-downvoting, way too many.

  Snowflake-fragile, even more.