[ryanx435]

why do i even bother with HN comments?

OP: "gives an anecdote about how the article is wrong or incomplete"

REPLY: "gives an anecdote about how the OP is wrong or incomplete"

REPLY-REPLY: "gives an anecdote about how the REPLY is wrong or incomplete"

repeat adnauseum on every comment chain for ever and ever.

[coldtea]

That's what's called a discussion. People make arguments, corrections to other's arguments, and counter-arguments.

[some_account]

I can absolutely understand why people don't like discussions.

Usually people don't have them to learn - they have them to teach.

If two people like that are having a discussion, it's truly an pointless activity.

[coldtea]

>Usually people don't have them to learn - they have them to teach.

Doesn't matter IMO.

Both sides are still getting something out of it. Even if they just try to "teach" and think they already know everything, they also get to hear the argument of the other side, and think counterarguments -- thus improving their argument too.

In other words, even if they stick to their a priori beliefs no matter what, they at least learn to defend and define them better, because of having to deal with the other side.

Besides, a discussion is not just something to "learn" from. It's also entertaining on its own, a way to express yourself, hone your thoughts and so on. Learning from the discussion is not required for those things.

Not everything has to have an end goal, or "improve" us.

[Bjartr]

> If two people like that are having a discussion, it's truly an pointless activity.

Some points I can see and am able to articulate:

1. Being exposed to opposing viewpoints is valuable even if your goals don't consciously include learning from them. Pointless to the individual because rationally they won't further their goal? Perhaps. Pointless to society as a whole? I would argue no.

2. Non-participants exposed to such a discussion can learn from all sides, even if the individuals actually doing the discussion gain absolutely nothing, and there are orders of magnitude more non-participants than participants. So even a small impact can be far-reaching.

[reificator]

I try to teach when I'm in a discussion, and I learn a lot from them. Both from trying to teach and from hearing other viewpoints. In fact I tend to actively try to seek out and befriend people who disagree with me, specifically to learn more. It's easy enough for me at least to make friends with a bunch of clones of myself, and while that's not a bad thing I think perspective is important. And you get that from discussing things with people who disagree.

I don't think that teaching vs learning is mutually exclusive, and while intent matters I don't believe you can have a (non-repeat) discussion without learning something.

It kind of frightens me how much emphasis has been put into creating social bubbles where no one disagrees. Especially online where it's so easy to do. (I want to emphasize that I am not criticizing having people around to support you.)

[agumonkey]

Am guilty of this quite often.

[CompelTechnic]

Nerds like to divide reality into finer and finer resolution.

[some_account]

Ego.

[reificator]

I think that the post you replied to was perfectly reasonable in its tone, and amazingly tame by HN standards. Could you clarify on what you took issue with?

[agumonkey]

well I'm sorry