All the lonely people

[nalbyuites]

For me, the internet feels like connecting to a larger consciousness. In a crowded city you can be lonely, even with family, friends and your significant other - a special kind of intellectual(?) loneliness that goes away in your virtual community.

HN feels like home. I lurk here, without commenting or participating, without coding or doing a startup. I bask in the warmth of human insight and intelligence, witness our triumphs and tragedies. It feels good to see people struggle to succeed against odds and their dedication to their craft. Feel-good high!

[pjscott]

Ebert has a follow-up article here, and it's a good one:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/11/i_had_no_idea_for.ht...

[robg]

Can you pls post this as a link?

[hermanthegerman]

There should be a community for lonely people without the possibility to contact, friend or connect to other people.

[adambyrtek]

Looks like you'd have to invent another name for that, because it wouldn't be a community anymore.

[VMG]

isolatr.com?

[Supermighty]

Now I see that all relationships are virtual,

This is such a great line.

[sliverstorm]

Perhaps I wasn't lonely before because I didn't have it, so it couldn't be gone.

This, too. It's absolutely true, at least for me.

[boloroso]

This is a very "Serial Experiments Lain" article

[wallflower]

As a software developer who has the ability to create things people want, that alone makes me happier than some of my non-programmer friends in their jobs.

> Of all the purposes of education, I think the most useful is this: It prepares you to keep yourself entertained. It gives you a better chance of an interesting job. Those who stare at the TV for hours might as well be sitting on a stone under a tree in a primeval village; indeed, that might offer more interest and variety. I can't remember the last time I felt bored. I can't eat, drink or talk, and yet I have so many other resources to keep myself entertained. I think I must be a case study.

[VMG]

Serious question: how did this get to #1 on a site titled hacker news? Are we really that cliche?

[robg]

What to Submit

On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

In Comments

Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did.

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[minsight]

He's talking about people communicating in communities on the internet. Do you not see a link between that and Hacker News? Sometimes the medium can be the message.

[nollidge]

Serious question: did you read the whole thing? It started with a cliche idea, but wanders rather deeply into it.

[joezydeco]

Let's file it under "Understanding your Customer".

[jashmenn]

It's the weekend

[RtodaAV]

Great Read.

[bobx11]

What is this doing on hackernews?