90% of Everything Is Crap

154 点作者 mcrittenden超过 4 年前

33 条评论

Eh. I like the phrase but I disagree with the premise you apply to it. If I were defining a few things about myself I would say "I like Anime" and "I hate EDM". I keep ratings for every anime I've ever watched, the average score is about 7.48/10. Objectively, a lot of it was crap that I would never recommend to anyone, but it's crap I enjoy. On the other hand, there are EDM songs I like that are on my playlist on Spotify. Even though I'll happily listen to them, they don't make me think "Wow, I really need to test my view that I don't like EDM". I already know I don't like it. The fact there are exceptions doesn't make it not a useful rule for me to follow when choosing music.IMO the healthier attitude, rather than seeking out things you don't like, is to leave yourself open to things you don't like, particularly in a group setting. It's very annoying lately, my group of friends wants to play video games after work, but everybody has some kind of game type they don't like that makes it hard to reach consensus. Rather than being in constant pursuit of optimized personal pleasure, it's important that I sometimes just play the games I don't like so in the future they'll play the games they don't like with me. And then maybe by chance one of us actually will end up liking it despite ourselves.There's another layer here as well as to the scale of things. "I don't like EDM" is a very differently scaled statement than "I don't like Music". When confronting your own preferences, I think it's important to compartmentalize them appropriately. I identify myself as someone that likes anime, but I will never watch another shonen sports anime again willingly.

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bravura超过 4 年前

I'm a firm believer in this, having lived through "NYC used to be so cool" or "Burning Man used to be so cool." If you focus on the essential 10%, you learn what that thing really is about.NOW. Here's where it gets personal and interesting.I went with a friend to a shitty diner and ordered eggs benedict. I love eggs benedict. And he was like: "Why did you do that?" "I love eggs benedict!" "I love eggs benedict too, but I don't like lame eggs benedict."That struck me as so inconceivable.Then I remembered a friend who would constantly order shitty burgers by delivery. And I gave them such grief: "burgers are only meant to be enjoyed when they are amazing, why order a mediocre burger??"In retrospect, I realized that there are certain things that you will like even if they aren't great, once you appreciate them. And certain things you will only like if they are done the excellence. I like any egg benedict, even if it's lame. I am a snob when it comes to burgers. Switch this for your world-view.The important point is that you must learn to appreciate something, before you sort it into "I enjoy it" vs. "not good enough". You can't simply dismiss an entire genre based upon some theoretical a priori motive. But after you have tasted it, and I mean truly tasted it, you can decide whether you can be an elitist about it.

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bgun超过 4 年前

> Maybe you haven’t discovered the good 10% yet. Keep looking.Keep in mind that 90% of your own opinions are crap, too - so you aren't likely to know the good from the bad even once you're exposed to it.To put it another way, you can't really know whether you like something or not until you've a) gotten over the fear of it, and b) learned how to do or recognize it competently.

adamc超过 4 年前

90% of hacker news is crap, too.

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comfrey超过 4 年前

There is a corollary to Sturgeon’s law which states:This remains true for the remaining 10%

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grenoire超过 4 年前

This seems like... a bunch of very loosely connected ideas in a blog post.

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rightbyte超过 4 年前

These unfounded aphorisms are quite tiring. I went to the store today and bought tomatoes. 100% was red and fine.

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khalilravanna超过 4 年前

Two thoughts:1) I think the view that “90% of people are crap” is incredibly misanthropic, cynical, and a view that would likely make the world a worse place if widely adopted.2) I think enjoying the 90% of crap is maybe more important than enjoying the 10% of not crap.Being able to enjoy bad movies, bad music, bad art, bad everything is great. Who wouldn’t want to increase the amount of things they could enjoy by 2x or 3x or 9x? I watched Battlefield Earth recently and it was a blast! One of my favorite shows is How I Met Your Mother (which is "crap" if you define "crap" as "less than the 90th percentile in that medium"...it's prolly a 70 or 80th percentile show).Why be an elite who turns their nose up at things when you can enjoy both the things the elites like AND the things they sneer at? Sign me up for the trash!

mywittyname超过 4 年前

>Think you hate poetry? Roller coasters? Banjo music? Thai food? Maybe you haven’t discovered the good 10% yet. Keep looking.Maybe liking something means appreciating the average.I like steaks. I mean, I really like dry aged t-bones, but I also like a simply seasoned sirloin. I wouldn't even turn down an well done hockey puck if it came with a baked potato.I don't like movies. You would never find me indulging in the latest Sharknado nonsense. But I can enjoying myself while watching a critically-acclaimed film.

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rabuse超过 4 年前

Doesn't this also relate to the Pareto principle?

xupybd超过 4 年前

>Then there’s relationships. Think there’s no one out there who can make you happy? Maybe you haven’t climbed out of your 90% of crappy relationships yet. Keep lookingThere is no one that can make you happy. That's up to you. There are people that you can work well with and build a good relationship. That good relationship can help with the happiness but your attitude matters more.

Taylor_OD超过 4 年前

Sure. Recently I tried an Indian dish that quickly made Indian food go from being my 10th favorite option to my 1st. Turns out I just hadnt found the Indian food I loved until that night.Now it makes me wonder if there is an Italian dish I would love that much.

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erik_landerholm超过 4 年前

I didn't know this was a "law", but i've been triangulating on this same feeling for a long time now. I would say it's 1%-10% of anything is actually good. You can basically apply this to almost any category, but for most things it doesn't really matter. I would guess while no two people would agree if asked to pick their top 5% of any one thing, if you tallied up all the votes and had enough participation, you could probably put together a list that would generally include the best of whatever that category is.

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dang超过 4 年前

Related from 2016: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11395845" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11395845</a>

maerF0x0超过 4 年前

Plus one on accurately quoting/applying strong opinions, loosely held. Anecdotally, most of the time I see this applied people just want someone to be easy to convince. Easy to convince should be a function of the data/reasoning that lead to the currently held choice. Until an exceeding choice is found, why relinquish the currently held one for one with _less_ data/rationale?

insickness超过 4 年前

I think it would be more accurate to say, 90% of everything will be crap to you. I listen to a lot of music and it is true that 90% of what I hear I consider crap. However, tastes very widely. I could find an amazing song and show it to all my friends--who like the same genre of music--and only a fraction of them will love the song also.

Der_Einzige超过 4 年前

Combined with the further "Strong Opinions, Loosely Held" this is very real advice.Broad statements like this tend to be very inline with our intuitions for many things - even if we must admit that they have very little "real" evidence. It doesn't mean that such common aphorisms don't have value or utility in our lives...

themodelplumber超过 4 年前

> Keep your identity small. “I’m not the kind of person who does things like that” is not an explanation, it’s a trap. It prevents nerds from working out and men from dancing.Good one! Subjective identity is merely one's perspective on one's own past experience...why turn the future into the ultimate risk.

ChrisMarshallNY超过 4 年前

Boy, this entry took a very fast nosedive to page 2. Does that mean that HN thinks it's in the 90%?

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HenryKissinger超过 4 年前

I enjoy discovering new music a lot. I'm also extremely selective in picking the songs that go into my personal music library. Maybe 5% of the songs I listen to, _within the subgenres I already prefer_, make it.I don't disagree with the author, based on my narrow personal experience.

hartator超过 4 年前

> Remember: strong opinions, loosely heldI am actually thinking the reverse now: Loose opinions, strongly held. It's better to a vague - loose opinion like "do not harm" but held it strongly than something precise like "never kill someone" but held it loosely.

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Lio超过 4 年前

<pre><code> > If you think you hate something, hold that opinion loosely by putting it to the test. Try to prove it false. </code></pre> Not just that but put it to the test again at some later date. Tastes can change over time and it’s fine to update your opinions.

mdrzn超过 4 年前

I don't understand blog articles like this with few lines of text and 7 backlinks to other articles from the same blog. Feels like promotion more than a conversation starter.

dvfjsdhgfv超过 4 年前

I'd go as far as 98%, but the problem is it's getting worse! Everybody's optimizing everything, creating ever crappier crap. To quote Jay Pritchett, "Crap. Crappacino. Charlie Craplin."

noncoml超过 4 年前

> 90% of Everything Is CrapI guess this applies to this blog entry as well.And my reply here I guess.

danschumann超过 4 年前

Then work on plumbing systems 90% of the time!

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avrionov超过 4 年前

Not a good piece. Total waste of time.

darepublic超过 4 年前

I look myself in the mirror.. and I ain't got nothing to say

thedracle超过 4 年前

I can decidedly say that more than 90% of literal crap is crap.

dredmorbius超过 4 年前

90% of Sturgeon's Law observations are crap.

goatcode超过 4 年前

Neat.

busterarm超过 4 年前

Yes.

YarickR2超过 4 年前

90% of people are crap too ? That's mean

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