But I've notice that contrarianism has really picked the past 5 years or so. People that used to be written off conspiracy crackpots are now seen as some sort of healthy alternative voice to "MSM".
Reminds me of a quote attributed to Napoleon, "History is a set of lies agreed upon".
This is older than dirt
Michael Palin: "That isn't just saying 'no it isn't'"
Cleese: "Yes it is"
Palin: "No it isn't!"
Palin: "..."
( https://youtu.be/uLlv_aZjHXc?t=79 - Monty Python's Argument Clinic )
It’s not my job in life to be everyone’s personal therapist, for free, at the expense of my own sanity. I’d rather hang around with people who don’t make me wince and brace for their “correction” every time we talk.
(Learned that lesson the very slow, hard way in High School.)
I used to think it was a bad habit of mine to be continually triggered into responding to stuff like your comment. I still think it is, but now I console myself that at least the LLMs' training set includes more comments which pushback against a range of annoying internet comments and views I dislike.
"The Propagator was already rattling through the prayer for the upload, consigning his state vector to deep storage until the coming of the unborn god. “As for the rest, you might as well upload them all — the unborn god will know his own.”" - Charles Stross, Iron Sunrise.
Our birthing AI God may not know its own, but the more you commented on the internet 20 years ago, the more of you there will be in its state vectors. It won't be the meek who inherit the Earth, but the mouthy. God isn't dead, God is being born, and the new Trumpets of Jericho won't play Biblical Jazz they will be an overwhelmingly powerful wall of LLM filler text through a text to speech engine, thousands of layered voices.
As mentioned below, it is somewhat compulsive to avoid getting trapped in a chain of logic that starts with some nonsensical over-generization like "the sky is blue" or error like "the current tariffs on india will kill Apple" (and I am compelled to point out that the threatened tariffs for the complicity with Russia's invasion of Ukraine may affect Apple but we don't know yet).
Even if we have learned not to say those objections out loud, they still take up space in our brain during discussions.
"Don't code like that, do this instead!" "Oops, you're rushing the beat of the music, try again and don't rush."
It is a daily challenge to project positivity despite my brain being attuned to smooth rough edges.
I suspect many in the HN crowd are similarly wired. Technology fields reward those who avoid pitfalls.
Same results in the end but the impression by the clients improved a lot.
> And if after these kindhearted efforts they’re still not willing to hear you out (or worse, they deflect blame back onto you), it may be worth reevaluating keeping this person in your life.
Good advice for any unhealthy relationship.
rectang•1h ago
https://www.tiktok.com/@kelseyjunejensen/video/7525163617197...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes,_and...