People who build stuff tend to think a lot about the flaws before they do anything. If you pitch them your wonderful, shiny, new idea you'll immediately see the gears inside their head spinning away trying to figure out how to break it, why it's a bad idea or, worst of all, who has done it better before.
This might be bad for your ego, but it can also be tremendously useful.
Why post anything to hackernews? Do you want a bunch of ego-validating fawning?
"WOW!!! That's the greatest idea ever!"
"Brilliant!"
"I could never come up with something so ingenious!"
"This is going to sell like hot-cakes and you are going to be rich!"
These are all great comments to hear, but utterly useless. If you only receive opinions like these you might spend your precious blood, sweat, and money making something that nobody wants. Slightly more useful comments can let you zero in on why your idea is good, so that no matter what else doesn't make the final cut, the good stuff will.
"Good idea. I particularly like how it..."
The negative comments that make it sound like your idea is trash? Well, sometimes they're right and sometimes they're wrong. You'll probably find yourself wanting to grab the authors of these comments by their short-hairs so you can shout into their face why they're wrong. If you can't think of anything past the physical violence, they just might have a point.
Some things that pop up here spark less than useful conversations as a side-effect of how HN people approach things. Take Apple's new fingerprint scanners. They are being sold as highly secure when all they really are is highly convenient. This hits that "easy to break" nerve builders have and is then reinforced by the contrarian urge to bash the big guy. It might be annoying to read if you're an Apple fan, but it's a natural result of the kind of thinking that goes on in HN. It might even be useful if you're considering using biometrics of some sort yourself!
In short, HN gets it right more often than not. People should keep bashing brilliant and stupid ideas alike because that's how everybody learns. If your ego gets hurt, take a break.
I find there's a corollary in going for user reviews of (whatever). The positive reviews are rarely helpful, but skimming the negative reviews is usually pretty informative. If the negs are mostly trollish trash, it's likely to be decent. But if the negs are showing a common thread of criticism, it can highlight issues that aren't showing up elsewhere.
Of course all user reviews need to be appropriately grain-of-salted, but the negs are far more informative to me than the pros.
Hi, thanks for the comment. I'm not trying to say people shouldn't critique other people's ideas. Constructive criticism is great, and HN is an absolutely incredible source for it.
I suppose I wanted to distinguish between an overwhelmingly negative, weakness-focussed attitude, and a more generous, restrained approach. Taking the time to restrain yourself and evaluate your initial reaction isn't always easy, especially in the fast-paced snap-response mindset that I think internet reading tends to put you in.
Comments
People who build stuff tend to think a lot about the flaws before they do anything. If you pitch them your wonderful, shiny, new idea you'll immediately see the gears inside their head spinning away trying to figure out how to break it, why it's a bad idea or, worst of all, who has done it better before.
This might be bad for your ego, but it can also be tremendously useful.
Why post anything to hackernews? Do you want a bunch of ego-validating fawning?
"WOW!!! That's the greatest idea ever!" "Brilliant!" "I could never come up with something so ingenious!" "This is going to sell like hot-cakes and you are going to be rich!"
These are all great comments to hear, but utterly useless. If you only receive opinions like these you might spend your precious blood, sweat, and money making something that nobody wants. Slightly more useful comments can let you zero in on why your idea is good, so that no matter what else doesn't make the final cut, the good stuff will.
"Good idea. I particularly like how it..."
The negative comments that make it sound like your idea is trash? Well, sometimes they're right and sometimes they're wrong. You'll probably find yourself wanting to grab the authors of these comments by their short-hairs so you can shout into their face why they're wrong. If you can't think of anything past the physical violence, they just might have a point.
Some things that pop up here spark less than useful conversations as a side-effect of how HN people approach things. Take Apple's new fingerprint scanners. They are being sold as highly secure when all they really are is highly convenient. This hits that "easy to break" nerve builders have and is then reinforced by the contrarian urge to bash the big guy. It might be annoying to read if you're an Apple fan, but it's a natural result of the kind of thinking that goes on in HN. It might even be useful if you're considering using biometrics of some sort yourself!
In short, HN gets it right more often than not. People should keep bashing brilliant and stupid ideas alike because that's how everybody learns. If your ego gets hurt, take a break.
I find there's a corollary in going for user reviews of (whatever). The positive reviews are rarely helpful, but skimming the negative reviews is usually pretty informative. If the negs are mostly trollish trash, it's likely to be decent. But if the negs are showing a common thread of criticism, it can highlight issues that aren't showing up elsewhere.
Of course all user reviews need to be appropriately grain-of-salted, but the negs are far more informative to me than the pros.
Hi, thanks for the comment. I'm not trying to say people shouldn't critique other people's ideas. Constructive criticism is great, and HN is an absolutely incredible source for it.
I suppose I wanted to distinguish between an overwhelmingly negative, weakness-focussed attitude, and a more generous, restrained approach. Taking the time to restrain yourself and evaluate your initial reaction isn't always easy, especially in the fast-paced snap-response mindset that I think internet reading tends to put you in.
Don't show HN your project if you're easily offended, but definitely show HN if you want constructive valuable criticism.
Reddit is a much better place if you want your ego stroked.