A Retrospective on HN

I was looking for some comment I think I made on Hacker News about how human sight develops in children. I thought I made that comment on a discussion of AI about an article titled Suddenly, a leopard print sofa appears.

The article no longer exists. The discussion does. It took me a few tries to find it because I was searching for couch.

I did leave a comment in that discussion but it's not what I was remembering. I remember at some point making the point that people learn to interpret what their eyes see based on years of interacting with the physical environment and there is no reason to assume that children watching "realistic" images on a screen will have a similar effect on brain development. 

We learn how to see. Seeing is a complex process developed over multiple years involving two eyes and the training of the wetware that interprets the data they collect.

There's a Val Kilmer movie called At First Sight inspired by the true story of someone who loses their sight at an early age and has it surgically restored as an adult before losing it again. Part of the movie is about the fact that restoring the function of his eyes isn't enough. He's missing years and years of brain training to learn to see.

So I finally find the discussion of how AI will decide a leopard print couch sofa is a leopard and that's not where I made the comment I'm wanting to find for trying to make notes for my parenting site. So I keep looking for comments by me about sight and somehow that lands me in this shit show of a discussion on Hacker News from more than nine years ago.

It's extremely ugly with people wildly twisting things I said all out of proportion. Lisper is on the leaderboard and so is DanBC and they are both being butts to me.

Let's start by saying this: 

The leaderboard is the 100 highest karma names of members on the site, so these people are kind of representative of the values of everyone there collectively. And I knew I was being taken seriously and viewed as some kind of threat to the group status quo when it became the norm that at least two people on the leaderboard felt compelled to close ranks on me and shut me down lest -- le gasp -- anyone take me seriously. 

This was not an isolated incident. That discussion is dated August 2016 and I joined July 2009.

There were several years where it was extremely normal for two members of the leaderboard to gang up on me and kick the shit out of me.

Reading between the lines, most likely my comment that the request for face pics of a female new hire sounded like sexism is the reason dang -- that's Dan G. AKA Dan Gackle, the moderator for Hacker News -- chose to ban the account and that is probably the real reason lisper is dragging me and suggesting I'm not actually a person of good character and DanBC is acting like I don't know what I'm talking about. 

Lisper is Christian and did a film about getting a homeless person off the street, something I actively promoted. He probably inherited wealth and probably was crushing on me and wanted to crap all over me publicly to make sure nothing happened between us.

Please see my recent post about what cheap-assed trashy HOs you people are deluding yourselves about how easy I am because your little willy got the feels. That's a big fat fucking NO from me, asshole, even before these extremely shitty remarks.

DanBC says:

> while the highest ranked men are all quite comfortable

After 2010 I spent some time homeless. Using some of the UK definition for poor I count as poor. I currently rank between 40 and 30 in https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders

Others on that list have their own experiences - I think Gwern might have some stuff to add.

You might want to stop making assumptions about people you've never met.

I didn't bother to reply to him at the time. I probably was well aware that I already won this one -- the person asking for face pics was banned by the moderator -- and letting jackasses provoke me would accomplish absolutely nothing. 

I was trying to walk away from the conversation which was a huge derail anyway and had nothing to do with welcoming Sharon, a new hire at YC. But for the record, I was not comparing myself to the top 100 people on the leaderboard. I was comparing myself to maybe the top ten or more likely the top five. 

At that time, Jack would have been one of the top three and I know he's a self-made millionaire and I know his participation on Hacker News is part of why he's a financially successful businessman and he attends meet ups with people in person met via Hacker News.

I'm the highest ranked woman on an overwhelmingly male forum. I'm in a league of my own. This was more than a year before I made the leaderboard but I'm the only woman to have ever made the leaderboard and I've done it twice under two different handles. 

Mr. Ranked between 30 and 40 is absolutely not anyone I compare myself to.

My primary point of comparison is that loser Patrick McKenzie, also a self-made millionaire, also spent time among the top three names and very obviously made his money largely via participation on Hacker News and after his attempts at doing a serious business failed, a YC company hired him.

He has money because he has boy bits and is popular on Hacker News and no one is helping me out like that. Instead, I got told constantly to quit my bitching, writing doesn't pay and never mind everyone is reposting Patrick's shit writing regularly and it pays his goddamned bills.

I made very reasonable points about my gender being a factor in my poverty. Lisper twists that into acting like I'm claiming it's the primary cause.

I talked constantly on Hacker News about having been molested, having a serious medical condition, etc. It's ridiculous to act like I have ever claimed my gender is the sole cause of anything and he's on the leaderboard, so he should have familiarity with my many, many comments. It's not reasonable to claim he really thought that's what I was saying. 

And some other jackass says:

> No one seems to even notice the glaring example that the highest ranked woman here is desperately poor and homeless while the highest ranked men are all quite comfortable and I am reasonably confident that at least two of them are self-made millionaires.

Getting upvotes from sheeple isn't a good proxy for economically valuable skills IMO.

The fact you spend so long adding free content to a network owned by a company is indicative of poor resource management. Something that self-made millionaires excel at (from my experience).

I didn't bother to reply. I've already covered the fact that I know for a fact there are at least two self-made millionaires high on the leaderboard at that time, like top 5 on the leaderboard, and their money comes partly from their participation there.

I no longer participate. The moderator, Dan Gackle, taking me seriously isn't enough to fix the problem. 

People are probably still reposting Patrick's shit writing and it helps line his pockets. No one posts my writing unless it's gossip about Hacker News or they are currently hoping to get into my panties. 

I posted a piece that's currently on Eclogiselle, on a different site of mine at that time, about unsheltered homeless and climate. It has 4 karma and 2 comments.

Exact same date, dredmorbius posts the exact same thing by me. He's been exchanging emails with me and pretending to network. 

I've never commented on it because I don't believe he was married or otherwise in a relationship. I'm not really interested in dragging a guy for trying to chat up a gal in his social circle but I'm absolutely certain the goal here was to score points with me.

I don't remember how or why that petered out and he stopped writing me. But I was quite clear this was doing nothing for me and never would and I likely encouraged him to leave me alone and stop introducing me to disrespectful creeps like he imagined getting me sexually harassed would further my career goals and impress me with what a great guy he was.

Dredmorbius is not Dred Morbius, cool comic book super villain. It's Dr. Ed Morbius, pseudo anonymous, semi fictional name. 

He's a real doctor of the PhD variety and Ed is his real name. Ed is a stupidly common name on Hacker News. He's one of at least three on the leaderboard. 

Morbius is not his real name. He never told me his real name because he's trying to get with me sexually and treat me like a piece of ass and knowing who the hell he is couldn't possibly be relevant to that goal.

So we start talking and he used to be Somebody but he has health issues. Trying to impress my loser self with his has-been status.

He's got health issues and that's why he's a has been. And I'm thinking "Ah, I see. He wants free miracle cures and free sex in the name of that dumb cunt LOVES me!"

Nope, he doesn't have that much respect for me. The man has a PhD. He's SMART. My dumb cunt self needs to accept that if he can't figure it out, it can’t be fixed.

Me: Buh, bye! 

Anyway, these two things -- money and promotion or lack of money and lack of promotion -- are not unrelated. Patrick HAS money because people promote him by posting his writing. I'm dirt poor and can't make money online because no one promotes my work, much less me. 

Everyone knows that's how that works. Acting like I'm making shit up is gaslighting.

No. Girls. Allowed. In. The. Old. Boys. Club.

I didn't bother to give specific examples because lisper knew someone was banned because of my comment. He objected to the banning and then proceeds to drag me, so asking for specific examples is demanding additional opportunities to drag me. It's not a good faith request.

Dan Gackle is unlikely to start banning members of the leaderboard. One man is unlikely to fix rampant sexist bullshit from 99 percent of the members.

He's not going to ban Patrick McKenzie who is a con artist and wealthy from conning Hacker News. And he's not going to ban Patrick's shit writing that gets posted and reposted over and over again.

Patrick McKenzie is an American who had a job in Japan where housing is affordable and everyone takes the train, so a single guy with no dependents doesn't need much money to live. He created an app or software using stolen IP from his employer. 

He used to openly admit he got data from his day job and developed his product on that. His blog, kalzumeus, used to openly say that.

He used to admit that and say "It's fine. It's not illegal." Then he sold it and removed that information. 

So he's working like maybe 5 hours a week on a side gig based on stolen IP and it's probably something like as much money as you make working part time at minimum wage at Burger King. But he's a single guy with no dependents living someplace with affordable housing where you can live without a car.

So part-time, minimum wage money is enough for him to tell his employer take this job and shove it. And now without thinking about the details, Hacker News sees him as a successful business founder.

Rest assured if a woman pulled that shit, twelve zillion people would harass her nonstop about how it's a side gig, not big money, don't go calling your little hobby with stolen IP "I'm a successful business person."

And then to enhance his income because his little side gig wasn't enough money, he became a consultant. That's a bullshit marketing word telling people absolutely nothing about what you actually do for a living.

So he's going to eat whether he has a consulting gig or not because his little side gig is enough for rent and groceries. So seeing exactly how much some fool will pay him is a fucking game to him.

So he's getting consulting gigs, probably entirely because of his participation on Hacker News, and every single time he gets a new one, he ups his price. The last guy paid him x, now he wants twice that or whatever. 

The highest amount he was paid was $30,000 for a week of his time and it's probably based entirely on the strength of "I'm at the top of the leaderboard of Hacker News!"

Do the math: $30k per week times 52 weeks a year would be $1.56 million annually. If he works every other week, it's like $750,000 a year.

I'm guessing he got $30k exactly once. The next time, he asks for $50k and gets turned down.

So probably before asking for $50k and being told shove off, he writes a blog post telling this story in a PC fashion leaving out the part where you idiots on Hacker News are the only reason I can pull this stunt. And he tells people "If you are a programmer and not making how much you want, just ask for more money. Boom! That's the entire recipe."

And real programmers with real programming jobs at big companies with deep pockets take his advice and ask for more money and get pay raises and they publicly report on Hacker News this shit works. He's a genius. Take his advice.

I have never heard some fool tried that and his boss laughed in his face or he got fired. And you won't hear anyone admitting to that because it doesn't enhance their career.

No one is going to publicly testify in the court of public opinion "I took the advice of Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius that you dupes adore so much and I got my chops busted." Because people will go "LOSER. His opinion doesn't count. Must not actually be good at his job."

Which isn't a stipulation Patrick made. He never said "Make sure you are worth more money before asking." He just said programmer.

No one has ever stopped and said "Um, wait. So a guy supporting himself with a side gig based on stolen IP is playing brinksmanship games with negotiating a consulting fee he can afford to walk away from and he is telling working stiffs to risk their job betting on his advice. And you people are eating this shit up?"

There's absolutely no checks and balances whatsoever here. Absolutely no one is asking "Did anyone try this and get fired?"

A few people tried it, got pay raises, testified publicly it works and that made Patrick. Everyone says nice things about how brilliant he is and reposts his shit writing over and over ad nauseum for years.

After he was told no, I'm not paying $50k, he stopped being a consultant entirely.  No one has ever gone "Hold up, do what???? Why not go back to charging $30k???? That's still good money."

The way to bet is whoever told him no also told him "You ever pull this shit again and I'm taking you down." So he stopped. 

But he's still having his shit writing and shit advice promoted constantly for fucking free all over the internet and lining his pockets as a consequence in spite of failing at creating a real business with Thomas, also high on the leaderboard. Top guy, in fact

Patrick couldn't cut it as a serious businessman and they continue to line his pockets. That still doesn't have anyone questioning this bullshit. 

I used to be a huge Cosby fan. Had his stand-up comedy vinyl albums.

He's got a skit I've heard a few dozen times about being terrible at math and making his high school math teacher nuts with how stupid he is and going back to his own high school to do his student teaching stint under that math teacher and the teacher is outraged. And drags him to the principal's office to object and decline to work with him.

Then balks because he's not willing to say "He's terrible at math. I know because I taught him."

So instead he says something else and puts up with Cosby. 

This is like that. New fools are reading Patrick's shit advice that brilliant, well-paid people vouch for and it gets promoted endlessly because people on Hacker News fell for his shit eons ago and won't admit "Whoops! We fucked up."

And then bust my chops like I'm delusional for imagining that if I were a guy, I could turn my participation on Hacker News into adequate income to pay my rent and get off the fucking street.

Patrick failed at putting on his big boy pants and founding a real business in spite of partnering with someone with past experience as a founder of a business that's not a side gig. And Hacker News got him a virtual job at a YC company afterwards. 

Don't tell me if you jackasses didn't see me as nothing but a piece of ass where at least five members of the leaderboard hoped to get with me I couldn't get enough resume work out of Hacker News to pay my goddamned bills.