Olympics is an extremely atypical competition. Cooperative culture amongst humans is why we are where we are technologically. Without the spirit of collaboration, we have no MRIs and modern medicine, no transistors and semiconductors, no airplanes and bridges.
I wish HN wasn’t so damn depressing. Reading some of cynical stuff here is sometimes harmful for my own mental health.
I sometimes browse local shops websites to buy products, but if the page loads too slowly or there are some hiccups, I tend to quickly search on Amazon to see if I can buy with a single click.
The total amount of time spent shopping at local website may be only a tiny bit more than if I browsed Amazon, but the improved experience at Amazon is enough to tilt my spending away from local websites.
Amazon probably spends multi millions to shave off fractions of seconds off their page loads, and the rewards pay off handsomely.
Which works until Amazon becomes flooded with second rate product sources from Alibaba boosted by fake reviews, and a "job" means back-breaking work in a warehouse, or a precarious delivery gig with no security.
This society only operates because a lot of people don't care to understand how it really works. You get your trinkets more quickly, but the negative externalities for others are huge and damaging.
And there's a good chance that sooner or later those negatives will affect you too.
Meanwhile the lift from increased efficiency is often temporary anyway.
FWIW, I'm not sure cynicism per se is the problem, or the only problem. It's a certain belief system and acceptance of certain assumptions as true because those justify certain outcomes.
The target essay could have stopped in the first couple of paragraphs and there would still be plenty of societal problems to discuss.
I wish HN wasn’t so damn depressing. Reading some of cynical stuff here is sometimes harmful for my own mental health.