Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I am a parent, so I can answer your question with respect to children: raising your voice does not do anything except escalate the discussion into an emotional melt-down.

With respect to people you deem to be idiots and trolls, we have known the answer for a very long time. One of the more amusing bits of advice about the matter came from Mark twain:

"Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."



I agree that yelling at children doesn't help. But I'm wondering if you would debate with a child, or try to persuade him with good ideas, or would use some other sort of approach that isn't yelling or persuading?


Interesting question, but let's take it somewhere else: Are we describing programmers as children, idiots, and/or trolls? I hope not...


I didn't mean to be, although certainly a programmer could be any of those.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: