Top all-time · #2485
Michael Suileabhain-Wilson
Personal blog · plausiblydeniable.comculturewriting
Michael Suileabhain-Wilson writes Plausibly Deniable, a personal blog at plausiblydeniable.com about culture and writing. Since 2009, 30 different Hacker News readers have linked it 39 times, most often “Geek Social Fallacies (2003)”. The last post was in 2022, but the archive is still widely read.
Most-linked posts?
- Geek Social Fallacies (2003)15 people · 18 mentions · first linked 2009-10-25
- Five Geek Social Fallacies (2003)14 people · 16 mentions · first linked 2021-02-24
- /opinion/fifteen.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-04-04
What Hacker News says?
It seems that you have fallen for Geek Social Fallacy #2: http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html
Comment linking /opinion/gsf.html
on “Basic Social Skills Guide (2012)”Submitted Geek Social Fallacies (2003) as a story · 145 points
HN discussionThe premise of the post I replied to is that the mailing list moderation is currently not great and that it allows people to be abusive. It suggest that we should crowdsource this moderation. I assume they think this will lower the burden. I myself do not think that this is the actual problem. I think the actual problem is that many FOSS communities have fostered an idea that cracking down on certain types of behavi…
Comment linking /five-geek-social-fallacies/
on “Timeline of the xz open source attack”Submitted Five Geek Social Fallacies (2003) as a story · 38 points
HN discussionI used to really believe this too, but I stumbled across the "Five Geek Social Fallacies" and it really helped me understand why I was so apprehensive to exclude others. Some people just don't mesh well, and trying to force it will just ruin the entire vibe. You don't have to throw all your volatile or otherwise abrasive friends to the side, but it's important to understand that some friends are better one-on-one as…
Comment linking /five-geek-social-fallacies/
on “Facts about throwing good parties”Submitted Five Geek Social Fallacies (2003) as a story · 35 points
HN discussion> The problem with a profile that spans unrelated services is that your persona on one shouldn't necessarily be tied to your persona on another; Google Accounts with different public-facing per-service personas are okay in a way that a single public-facing persona spanning all services isn't. G+ tried to solve this with Circles, but as far as I can tell, everything related to YouTube was assumed to be public on G+ b…
Comment linking /opinion/gsf.html
on “Using Google without a Google+ profile”Submitted Geek Social Fallacies as a story · 7 points
HN discussionHow are any of these activities improved by an abrasive culture? The only thing it creates, ultimately, is the endgame of the Geek Social Fallacies: a place where the only people left all have nasty personalities and no social connections to any other kinds of people. http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html If you haven't been in an environment where everybody is tolerated -- you're really missing out. I'v…
Comment linking /opinion/gsf.html
on “When Nerds Collide (2014)”Submitted Five Geek Social Fallacies as a story · 4 points
HN discussionReally? Back in my day, there were all sorts of nerd groups, which were often plagued with horrible social dysfunction.[0] People just muddled through. [0] https://plausiblydeniable.com/five-geek-social-fallacies/
Comment linking /five-geek-social-fallacies/
on “I'm starting a social club to solve the male loneliness epidemic”Submitted Geek Social Fallacies (2003) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionHonestly, do you want a BigCo job? Would it make you happy? The experience of being a tiny cog in an unthinkingly vast machine is more alienating than you might think, even if you like the money. I think lots of those who stay on long-term in that environment, say >3-4 years, effectively become institutionalised, condemned to spend the rest of their life philosophising about whether they can ever be L8 material. The…
Comment linking /five-geek-social-fallacies/
on “Ask HN: What to do about ‘Good at programming Bad at Leetcode’”Submitted Five Geek Social Fallacies as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIf all this is to be taken at face value, Kenneth Reitz should be publicly removed from any and all projects. The reported activity (of having secret groups to “work around” the troublesome person) is untenable. Projects should not be afraid to exclude people who are more trouble than they are worth; feeling that one cannot ever exclude people is also known as “Geek social fallacy #1”: http://www.plausiblydeniable.c…
Comment linking /opinion/gsf.html
on “I'm not collaborating with Kenneth Reitz”Submitted Five Geek Social Fallacies as a story · 1 points
HN discussionGeek Social Fallacy #1: Ostracizers Are Evil — https://plausiblydeniable.com/five-geek-social-fallacies/
Comment linking /five-geek-social-fallacies/
on “Ask HN: Is it true that any community that grows big enough, gets ruined?”Submitted Five Geek Social Fallacies as a story · 1 points
HN discussion> We need to be willing to explore the assumptions, known or unknown, that we carry with us when we create software. Hear, hear. I have two other longstanding favorite examinations-of-assumptions pieces: "Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names" [0], and "Five Geek Social Fallacies" [1] [0] https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-... [1] http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html
Comment linking /opinion/gsf.html
on “Programming Is Forgetting: Toward a New Hacker Ethic”Submitted Five Geek Social Fallacies (2003) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThat’s Geek Social Fallacy #1: Ostracizers Are Evil: http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html
Comment linking /opinion/gsf.html
on “Why It Doesn't Pay to Be a People Pleaser”Submitted Five Geek Social Fallacies as a story · 1 points
HN discussionHmm, well if you're looking for more comparative analysis type stuff, usually a good starting point is the classic Five Geek Social Fallacies: http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html Also, if you follow the rabbit hole of what geeks think about the term "creepy", you start to find all sorts of stuff. The Captain Awkward blog is a good resource for that.
Comment linking /opinion/gsf.html
on “Sexual Harassment at DefCon (and Other Hacker Cons)”Submitted Five Geek Social Fallacies (2003) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionhttp://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html "GSF1 is one of the most common fallacies, and one of the most deeply held. Many geeks have had horrible, humiliating, and formative experiences with ostracism, and the notion of being on the other side of the transaction is repugnant to them."
Comment linking /opinion/gsf.html
on “Sexual Harassment at DefCon (and Other Hacker Cons)”Submitted Five Geek Social Fallacies as a story · 1 points
HN discussionBy this, I mean: it's likely just a handful of people, max, being an immediate problem, but when the whole “looking past your friends' flaws” thing extends to when your friends are hurting other people , you're standing by while other people get hurt. Geek Social Fallacies[0] #2 and #3 don't combine well. It's not just an FSFE problem. It's also not intrinsic to hacker culture in any way; it just tags along, causing…
Comment linking /opinion/gsf.html
on “Why FSF Endorsing PureOS Matters”I've heard that this is somewhat common in nerdy communities, or at least common enough that someone felt moved to write about "geek social fallacies": http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html
Comment linking /opinion/gsf.html
on “Death of a Troll”Absolutely not. Freedom of association is no less important. You don't have a right to force others to put up with you. https://xkcd.com/1357/ People make and break friendships, or make any number of other associations, based on any factors they want, such as common interests and opinions, aligned goals and values, or just a common idea of fun and enjoyment. People have a right to decide who is welcome and who isn't…
Comment linking /opinion/gsf.html
on “Children as young as 9 locked up by Indian Police for speech violation”I suspect it looks cheap simply because culture has changed in the 16 years since this was published. Remember that in 2003, the only way you're going to be reading an essay online is if you're devoting the time to sit down at a desktop to do so. Do you feel your criticism would still apply with the same force if it was clear that the author was considered to be a geek by himself and others? *Edited to add a quote f…
Comment linking /opinion/fifteen.html
on “Geek Social Fallacies (2003)”
