Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by superconduct123 239 days ago
When I was younger I used to hate on popular things and be that guy who is like "how can anyone like this, this is objectively bad" (for example pop music)

But I started a habit of re-framing it instead like "well if you don't understand why people like something, that is your own failure to understand human behaviour and culture, if you were smarter you would understand why its popular"

That habit of re-framing stuff like that made me look at things a lot more like a neutral observer/anthropologist and not be such a hater

2 comments

To tack on to this, a thing my partner taught me: a shortcut to calling someone stupid is calling something they love stupid.

Trying to understand why they like that thing is a more connective and productive path. Maybe at the end of it you end up more informed and still don’t like the thing, but for me often times it turned a knee jerk “that thing is dumb” into a thing I love with people who also love that thing. What a great life hack.

Thanks for that one. Will try this too :-)