Sometimes I wonder — is it the internet, or did people overall became much too concerned about minor things in life?
In the comments, I see a thread about hating captchas and closing an AirBnB account for it. I see people bashing Signal for being a walled garden, when they are free not to use it. Some are extrapolating political statements from a choice of a company to offer a centralized service, even if the centralized approach is simply enough for their goals. Another commenter says they'll be moving their family off of Signal because of the blog article.
The author of the text piece connects white cis privilege to a problem caused by an unusual phone, and talks how a centralized service makes them feel hopeless — a very strong emotion! And HN leans into the conversation even though many people on HN probably have some understanding of how edge case support is de-prioritized in products, and that it's just that.
The problems raised by the article and a lot of discussions here feel concerningly neurotic. Have people run out of big problems to address or lost focus? Is it just the internet, or have people in general become more tunnel-visioned on micro-problems and unaware of the broader context? Does this mean that we expect so much comfort in life now that we're becoming deeply affected by such inconsequential inconveniences?
I'd wager it's because moderate/pragmatic viewpoints don't really make for interesting discussions.
There wouldn't be much interest in "signal doesn't run on my very niche phone but it runs okay on another phone" but "signal developers are the worst because they don't support every possible niche device" attracts attention.
Imagine how much calmer our lives would be, and how much head space we'd have to focus on real, big problems, if we weren't so neurotically outraged by these small issues.
In the comments, I see a thread about hating captchas and closing an AirBnB account for it. I see people bashing Signal for being a walled garden, when they are free not to use it. Some are extrapolating political statements from a choice of a company to offer a centralized service, even if the centralized approach is simply enough for their goals. Another commenter says they'll be moving their family off of Signal because of the blog article.
The author of the text piece connects white cis privilege to a problem caused by an unusual phone, and talks how a centralized service makes them feel hopeless — a very strong emotion! And HN leans into the conversation even though many people on HN probably have some understanding of how edge case support is de-prioritized in products, and that it's just that.
The problems raised by the article and a lot of discussions here feel concerningly neurotic. Have people run out of big problems to address or lost focus? Is it just the internet, or have people in general become more tunnel-visioned on micro-problems and unaware of the broader context? Does this mean that we expect so much comfort in life now that we're becoming deeply affected by such inconsequential inconveniences?