alt Hacker NewsWhen you see a group of people being critical, you can either see it as a “bummer”, or you can see it as people critically thinking about a thing.
Is it really more useful to have everyone expressing how much they like something instead of identifying problems?
Is seeing people talking about the things they don’t like something that makes you unhappy? Why?
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The problem is that everything is negative, all the time. Nothing good is allowed to be acknowledged. Everything someone or some company does must not be acknowledged to have any redeeming value- it’s all just negative
Which is sad, because so much amazing stuff is happening on the world right now, and seems to be only accelerating. For everybody.
It may not be critical thinking though, but simply being contrarian, which is one of the easiest ways to sound smart without necessarily providing much of value or substance. And strangely, seeing as it’s relatively rare IRL, seemingly the default on the internet. Blindly praising isn’t worth much either, but I doubt that’s what jonluca is encouraging. It’s possible to “yes, and” without resorting to either sycophancy or relentless negatively.
> Is seeing people talking about the things they don’t like something that makes you unhappy? Why?
Probably (I'm just assuming) because that person observes negative/cautious/"I don't like this because X and Y and also Z"/etc sentiment too much and feels like people are only quick to notice issues while forgetting about good sides.
It's only an assumption, though.
I think the HN rule for "curmudgeonly" applies.
> Don't be curmudgeonly. Thoughtful criticism is fine, but please don't be rigidly or generically negative.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
I think HN should be a place where I am excited to see what others have to add. When I see a post I am excited to see what takes and spins others have on it. I do want real criticism and a lively debate about important things, but there has to be a balance.
I want to see other comments that seem like they genuinely want to help steer something or build people up. Sometimes I get the impression that's not happening on HN.