Top all-time · #219
Meaningness
Personal blog · meaningness.com/metablogphilosophyculture
Meaningness is a personal blog at meaningness.com about philosophy and culture. Since 2015, 215 different Hacker News readers have linked it 373 times, most often “Geeks, MOPs, and sociopaths in subculture evolution (2015)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-24, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 8 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link David Chapman's Meaningness for the 'Geeks, MOPs, and Sociopaths' essay on how subcultures evolve, and for writing on meaning, metarationality, and light and sleep. Several commenters call it an interesting read.
- Recommended for · 8 comments
- One commenter calls the Geeks, MOPs, and Sociopaths essay a really good piece and an interesting article to read. Another calls Chapman's work a great guide and
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Better ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—around problems of meaning and meaninglessness; self and society; ethics, purpose, and value.
Most-linked posts?
- Geeks, MOPs, and sociopaths in subculture evolution (2015)84 people · 104 mentions · first linked 2017-04-01
- You Need More Lumens15 people · 15 mentions · first linked 2021-01-24
- Meaningness13 people · 15 mentions · first linked 2016-09-13
- Geeks, MOPs, and sociopaths in subculture evolution8 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2016-10-07
- How should we evaluate progress in AI?7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2018-07-02
- How to Think Real Good (2013)5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2016-12-09
- Nebulosity5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2019-12-27
- /5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2019-04-13
- A first lesson in meta-rationality4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2016-12-04
- Post-apocalyptic life in American health care4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2017-12-11
What Hacker News says?
Seems like a variant of the cycle of geeks, mops, and sociopaths: https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths . Since more of our culture is in online, advertising-dominated spaces -- the forces of capital have a lot of incentive to ensure smooth growth straight to the sociopath phase. Maybe the key is just accepting the cycle of it all and ensuring there's always cool new places for creative/enthusiastic people t…
Comment linking /geeks-mops-sociopaths
on “But what if I want a faster horse?”Submitted You Need More Lumens as a story · 226 points
HN discussionThis is the kind of thing David Chapman described with his post Geeks, MOPs, and sociopaths in subculture evolution [1] [1] https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths
Comment linking /geeks-mops-sociopaths
on “But what if I want a faster horse?”Submitted Meaningness as a story · 189 points
HN discussionEvery cool thing from the underground ends up mainstream in a predictable pattern. Article: https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths
Comment linking /geeks-mops-sociopaths
on “Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life”Submitted Post-apocalyptic life in American health care as a story · 164 points
HN discussionGeeks, MOPs, and sociopaths in subculture evolution: https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths
Comment linking /geeks-mops-sociopaths
on “92 of top 500 subreddits controlled by same 5 people”Submitted The uncanny absence of nihilism as a story · 142 points
HN discussionI posted a list of them a while ago. For several years I was interested in alternative worldviews -- grand sweeping theories of reality. Here's my list: http://ribbonfarm.com https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Sequences http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.uk/ http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.co.uk/ http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ https://meaningness.com/ http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/ Enjoy :)
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite internet rabbit hole?”Submitted How to Think Real Good (2013) as a story · 131 points
HN discussionhttps://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths Interesting article I suggest reading. I agree with TheCoelacanth that an increase in users will lead to a decrease in quality.
Comment linking /geeks-mops-sociopaths
on “Please stop asking me to use the app”Submitted How should we evaluate progress in AI? as a story · 119 points
HN discussionDavid Chapman wrote an interesting set of posts about fragmentation from the perspective of culture, counterculture, and subcultures. http://meaningness.com/meaningness-history That's the intro for a series of posts listed at the bottom. Here's a "gigantic chart that explains everything": http://meaningness.com/modes-chart Here's "systems of meaning all in flames": http://meaningness.com/systems-crisis-breakdown
Comment linking /systems-crisis-breakdown
on “The Refragmentation”Submitted Geeks, MOPs, and sociopaths in subculture evolution (2015) as a story · 99 points
HN discussionNot stopping after the first right answer is one metacognitive strategy[1] among many. Metacognition is an area of active research. I first heard of metacognition as a distinct discipline in connection with the treatment of insecure attachment.[2] Metarationality[3] is an aspect or extension of metacognition. [1] https://helpfulprofessor.com/metacognitive-strategies/ [2] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-r…
Comment linking /eggplant/introduction
on “How to Understand Things”Submitted Depends upon what the meaning of the word “is” is as a story · 85 points
HN discussionThe Geeks, MOPs, and Sociopaths article strikes again. In this telling, Person A is a geek (creator), Person B is a sociopath, and "regular customer at the bakery" is a MOP. https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths
Comment linking /geeks-mops-sociopaths
on “Face it: you're a crazy person”Submitted Geeks, MOPs, and sociopaths in subculture evolution as a story · 72 points
HN discussion1. Eternal September. 2. https://meaningness.com/metablog/geeks-mops-sociopaths
Comment linking /metablog/geeks-mops-sociopaths
on “A Pre-History of Slashdot”Submitted Nutrition offers its resignation, and the reply as a story · 70 points
HN discussionWhen David Chapman's "You need more lumens" article came out (which is referenced in the original post), I was on the verge of building a similar setup but at some point read similar concerns on light therapy. Not necessarily effects on circadian rhythm, but retinal damage from staring close to the amount of light. From https://meaningness.com/metablog/sad-light-lumens : "The clinical studies were done with 10,000 l…
Comment linking /metablog/sad-light-lumens
on “Rooms can be as bright as the outdoors”Submitted Geeks, MOPs, and sociopaths in subculture evolution as a story · 67 points
HN discussionI mean, what's MORE worth talking about than human rights, the environment, history, etc.? Those are indeed important. Fundamentally so. This is also why sociopaths and scoundrels will try to wrap themselves in those flags to further their own ends. https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths Also, many of the taboo topics are very efficient in calling forth human group instincts and group-think behaviors. This ma…
Comment linking /geeks-mops-sociopaths
on “Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore”Submitted Aspects of Reasonableness as a story · 45 points
HN discussionIt's just the reversion-to-the-mean effect described elsewhere[0]. It seems bothersome that on a startup news website run by an incubator, the view is that startups aren't a good idea. However, that's only because HN is now what /r/programming+technology+apple+google was, not what HN was. It's not really a startup news website. So I wouldn't worry too much. The people in startups are probably in real-world groups, a…
Comment linking /geeks-mops-sociopaths
on “Downsides to working at a tech giant”Submitted “Nihilism is OK” is not OK as a story · 32 points
HN discussionFor general education about subculture takeover please refer to https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths
Comment linking /geeks-mops-sociopaths
on “YouTube was launched as a dating site”Submitted Upgrade your cargo cult for the win (2017) as a story · 30 points
HN discussionThis Chapman, I assume? https://meaningness.wordpress.com/about-david-chapman/ I'm something of a fan. This article is great, about his history at MIT's artificial intelligence lab, Ken Wilber, Heidegger, and Buddhism. http://meaningness.com/metablog/ken-wilber-boomeritis-artifi...
Comment linking /metablog/ken-wilber-boomeritis-artificial-intelligence
on “Show HN: Parinfer – a simpler way to write Lisp”Submitted Wonder as a story · 28 points
HN discussion
