[bell-cot]

Partly, what you're noticing is a reaction to the vast quantity of baloney that the tech industry generates. (Which baloney might be interesting to taxonomize into techno-utopianism, marketing hype, DilbertCo PHBism, ...)

Partly, it's because HN's stereotypical user is an engineer. Engineers are supposed to tend critical / cynical / pessimistic - otherwise stuff just doesn't work, and Sales gets away with pre-selling "production starts next quarter" pedal-powered supersonic flying cars.

Partly, it's because folks here recognize that the world has huge problems (injustice, wars, climate change, etc.) which neither their stereotypical skills nor personal aspirations (write awesome code, engineer a cloud solution, scale a startup, take their unicorn public) do anything meaningful to address. And that if things really go to sh*t...then all their 1337 skillz, achievements, money, and possessions will be worth far less than some old Luddite geezer's bunker in Montana.

(I've noticed for a while that I have a pretty critical / cynical / pessimistic tone here on HN. For me, that's partly because many HNer's feels like they're a fraction of my age, with a rather narrow education and worldview - so they can need reminding that a whole lot of actually-relevant stuff happened before the web was a thing, and the world doesn't "just work" because of {optimistic generalities & hand-waves that a parent might use in explaining society & economics to a kid}):

[NoboruWataya]

I think these are broadly accurate and I would just add the obvious, namely that the economy is slowing down, with knock-on effects on the growth (and in some cases even the viability) of businesses and in particular tech companies.

[bell-cot]

Yes...though I'd suspect that a fair number of folks here feel that their situation - job- and budget-wise - is pretty good. But that does not keep them from feeling bad about "the 99%", many of whose economic situations are going from not-so-great to ungood.

[atoav]

As you said, being critical to a certain degree is what allows is to make things that work. And there is enough stuff happening to be mad about.

I wonder whether those who feel the place has become too critical are not actually in dire need to face that cricism instead of finding some exuse why they would rather not.

[bell-cot]

Some, probably yes. BUT - engineers are also humans, HN is not (99.9%) their job, and humans have social needs. If they are [stuck] trying to meet their human social needs on HN (& similar platforms)...then the oft-cynical/critical/pessimistic atmosphere here is really not gonna be good for their emotional health.

Back in the day, western society offered humans a far richer social life - neighborhoods, churches, formal & informal social & service clubs, etc. Now - those are, mostly, dying or gone, thanks to relentless capitalism and mass media. Families are far smaller and more fragmented. But the human needs which they met are still with us.

[alexvoda]

Care to expand on the taxonomization of tech industry baloney?

Would really like to read that.