My guess is one or more of the billionaires that Elon pissed off started funding a persistent anti-elon narrative, and that has shown up as bot farms especially on reddit. Then people who don't think for themselves started propagating it wherever they go... Because of how fun it is to argue on the internet and all of that.
It started as an anti Tesla narrative which was obviously paid for by the Tesla shorts, but this new supercharged anti Elon narrative ramped up when it started to become clear he was actually going to buy Twitter. So my guess is it's related to the interests of whoever was benefiting from the old regime at Twitter.
My startup failed in 2017. Leading up to that I had several panic attacks. Lots of things stressed me out: work, the news, money, etc...
I spent a lot of time after that reflecting on what went wrong and part of it was a dismantling of my ego, and a lot of meditating and reading philosophy.
The subtle art of not giving a fuck... And lots of stoicism, Marcus Aurelius, Aristotle...
Love fate
The only things in our control are our perception and our choices.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference
I don't really consider myself religious, but I learned to value the useful and still relevant parts of several religions.
Then I practiced... Lots of deliberate practice. Meditation, exercise and practiced deliberate choices and perception.
I only joined HN a couple years ago (I've been working in tech for 12 years). I also find HN to be a bit depressing and pessimistic.
It's like there is some sort of "I tried that and it didn't work, so no one should ever try it again and if you do I'll warn you and then ridicule you for wasting your time" attitude that permeates all of some people's contributions to the discussion. This attitude isn't just at the individual level but also at the team, company, societal levels.
This doesn't feel like a hacker mindset to me at all. It feels increasing defeatist.
While I can't point to HN glory days (I wasn't here), I imagine that HN is devolving from hacker news to defeatist expert news.
But maybe it's society as a whole? I don't know...
What I can say is that the real hackers (eg builders, not speculators) in the web3 communities seem to be more optimistic than the average interaction I see here.
Every action one takes that isn't in alignment with the truth acts as a debt against the truth. Eventually that debt has to be paid. As the debt grows, one finds themselves increasingly in hell.
I don't think we should continue this debate here, its not appropriate for HN as evidenced by our comments getting flagged.
The last thing I will say is that I am still very confused why and how you can say he isn't controversial. I am starting to wonder if we are using the same definition of controversial...
I think you are twisting the truth and slandering someone who has dedicated their life to trying to help others improve their own lives. I think what you are saying here is basically evil. I can't tell if its based in fear or hate, but I am pretty certain it is wrong to its core. I find it extremely disturbing.
I hope you can become more curious and less whatever this is. For your own sake and for the sake of the people in your life you care about.
It would probably help if you reduced dopamine spikes and made them more intermittent (less regular).
If you stack multiple pleasures together it could be making it harder to focus. (Like drinking + watching something you enjoy + snacks, or smoking weed + playing video games).
Make your dopamine spikes more random and intermittent and try to reduce the peak on them by sometimes enjoying your pleasures separately instead of stacking them all at the same time.
Contrary to popular belief, the highest chance of success, and largest entrepreneurial successes, come from founders who are 47 years old when they start their companies.
You are still 10 years away from the statistical "peak" to start your startup.
Yes you will recover.
This experience may be exactly what you need to become great. It's your choice to either hide from it and whither away in regret or face it head on and extract all the value it has to offer. Growth comes from painful reflection on our mistakes.
Studying Stoicism and this lecture series really helped me get through the failure of my startup (Which I spent 7 years building and then had to sell for $1).
Note the lecturer is controversial politically now... but this series genuinely helped me put myself back together after my ego was shattered - I am way better off now (and more resilient) and years later building another company which is doing great so far.