<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: flatt</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=flatt</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2026 18:28:28 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=flatt" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by flatt in "Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Heh, okay, there's a lot to unpack there. It's a lot of facts but lacking in wisdom.<p>The fact that you equate a person warning you about the dangers of toxic people with barely being better than one themselves means you personally need this knowledge more than anyone. You are very much at risk and certainly not from me, I can assure you. Calling out your naivete on the matter is not aggression. Far, far from. I suppose I'm guilty as charged in not having much empathy left for the Cluster B individuals of the world. Virtually everyone who has had their lives ruined, their (often overflowing) empathy weaponized against them, and their belief that people are fundamentally good destroyed, tend to end up that way. And that's one of the hardest things in recovery: most people simply can't understand it until they've had it happen to themselves personally. After all, perhaps the psychopath is the real victim here. They certainly play the part very well. Believe whatever you want about me, an internet stranger, but this is coming from a genuine place of empathy and (hard) love. So, lets try something a little different.<p>There's a certain catharsis in some Cluster B abuse recovery circles in passing around stories of the well-meaning idiots that go to dog rescues centers to adopt trained fighting pitbulls. They believe all the dogs need is a good, loving home and all will be well. Often, this is actually the case... right up until the moment that it isn't. Suddenly, somehow, the owner's face is inside of the pitbull's stomach, their tracea is in the neighbor's yard, or their child is lifeless on the floor in a pool of blood with the dog "smiling" at them. Everyone is shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you. How could this have happened?<p>Your empathy is not going to fix psychopaths. Not at a personal level or a societal level. No amount of love is going to give them a functioning conscience. Whatever happened to create them (no matter how awful) never justifies what they do to others. Personally, I don't give a damn about Reiser and wouldn't trust a single word that comes out of his mouth about anything. I used his filesystem once back in ~2004 and that's the most positive thing I have to say about him.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 19 Jan 2024 04:21:27 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39051525</link><dc:creator>flatt</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39051525</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39051525</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by flatt in "Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>No, you don't understand. I don't really care about your politics, I care about the ridiculously extreme risk your toxic optimism causes society without there being an ounce of data to support your position.<p>You are asserting that people without a conscience and a proven violent criminal past belong back in general society after some hypothetical rehabilitation program. Further, you are asserting that it is the US prison system (and by extension, the US itself), that is somehow failing these supposedly misunderstood people. The reality is that there is no fixing a lack of conscience and giving these people social skills training only gives them more tools to exploit people by. Literally every mental health professional will tell you that. Those that deviate from this position have a strong tendency to end up strangled in a ditch somewhere with their underwear around their ankles. That is why I tell you to shelve your virtue signaling until you actually understand what you're advocating.<p>You want these people out of prison and moved right next door to me and my family. I merely want you, since you've made it personal, to try dealing with them first... ideally firsthand. Barring that, maybe look into the reality of the situation first. The good news is that if you do manage to fix them, there's a Nobel prize waiting for you and you will be remembered as the greatest psychological mind in history.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 18 Jan 2024 21:55:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39048364</link><dc:creator>flatt</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39048364</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39048364</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by flatt in "Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's not even the murder so much as it's the premeditation. Even the most non-psychopathic mentally ill individuals with the most awful intrusive thoughts will still have an active conscience telling them not to do the things their minds are telling them to do. This is a big part of the torture schizophrenics are going through. Psychopaths do not have a conscience and psychopathy is not a diagnosis. The diagnosis given to psychopaths is typically Antisocial Personality Disorder, of which I have no idea if Reiser personally qualifies. But yes, premeditated murder is going to rank quite high in the scoring criteria. Hans believes/believed that he had the right to kill his wife. Even if he legitimately feels sorry (and I would be highly skeptical), the question becomes whether he actually feels sorry for the murder or the fact that it has landed him in prison (and that he only really feels sorry for himself).</p>
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<p>I mean nothing personal by it but all I see when I see posts like yours (and many others in this thread), is that the average person understands nothing about psychopathy.
What he did was premeditated. His brain is wired in such a way that killing his wife was always an option. No amount of neuroplasticity will override this baked-in reality of who this man is. Teaching psychopaths social skills will not provide them with the idealized "personal growth" you imagine.
I highly recommend, "The Psychopath Test" by Jon Ronson (of "The Mean That Stare at Goats" fame) as an amusing but on-point introduction.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 18 Jan 2024 19:13:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39046228</link><dc:creator>flatt</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39046228</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39046228</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by flatt in "Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I think the point is that people on the poverty line eventually have to start making decisions that will break them out of the cycle. There are plenty of programs out there that will do just that. A 50lb bag of rice might very well be too much upfront but it might mean hitting the local food pantry while building up a pantry full of staples from EBT. 
I don't pretend this is an easy process but continuing to do that same and getting the same results shouldn't be surprising to anyone.
Additionally, it can't be stated enough how important it is to build up credit for these people.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 23 Nov 2021 21:40:24 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29323915</link><dc:creator>flatt</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29323915</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29323915</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by flatt in "Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>"You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."
-Some guy from some political party</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 09 Jan 2021 01:16:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25694375</link><dc:creator>flatt</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25694375</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25694375</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by flatt in "Want to build a side business? buy a great domain name"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Does it though? There's little doubt in my mind that this site would have far greater reach (the actual desirability of that aside) if it were located at hackernews.com. I have no idea what the current owner would want for it but I'm sure it's substantial and rightfully so.</p>
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