News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Ask HN: Women who've applied to YC? by anigbrowl on Sunday October 24, 2010 @11:55PM (#1828447)
You don't meet each other's needs and you both know it. Deal with it now, or deal with it later: no blame, that's just how it goes sometimes. If you would cheat on him, then you want something he doesn't provide, but just lack confidence in your ability to find what he does provide somewhere else. This sub-thread exists only because it's an issue persistent enough in your life that you need to get it off your chest somehow. Face up to it.

After a bad first experience I put off marrying again for a long time. When I did marry again, it was we were past those kind of trust questions. It's neither perfect nor predictable, but nor does it feel like a trade-off.

Re:Ask HN: Women who've applied to YC? by philwelch on Monday October 25, 2010 @02:09AM (#1828765)
If you would cheat on him, then you want something he doesn't provide, but just lack confidence in your ability to find what he does provide somewhere else.

Please just knock off the amateur psychiatry. Human beings aren't naturally wired to be monogamous[1]; that's why cultures have to exert tons of social pressure on people to be monogamous. Wanting to have sex with people who aren't your partner doesn't mean something's wrong; it's the natural state of the human being. A lot of people repress this with tons of social pressure and denial, but it's still there for probably a lot of people.

If you're one of those people, I think acknowledging it and choosing to avoid temptation for the sake of accommodating a partner is, if anything, even more loving than living in denial.

[1] If you doubt me, you can start with all the literature about sperm competition in humans, or about the high incidence of adultery.

Re:Ask HN: Women who've applied to YC? by anigbrowl on Monday October 25, 2010 @04:53AM (#1829077)
Cheating is a breach of trust. Had I meant monogamy, I would have said so.
Re:Ask HN: Women who've applied to YC? by philwelch on Monday October 25, 2010 @08:10AM (#1829432)
You seem to be implicitly assuming that everyone can resist temptation through sheer force of will. Even if you're that way, a lot of people aren't; they have to carefully engineer temptation out of their lives. (There's a known cognitive bias for assuming everyone else is psychologically like yourself, but for the life of me I can't remember what it's called right now.)
Re:Ask HN: Women who've applied to YC? by anigbrowl on Monday October 25, 2010 @06:09PM (#1831848)
Why are you determined to identify a subtext in my remarks? First monogamy, now self-denial - you're disputing ideas which I don't hold. There are a good many people in open or group relationships who are happy, stable and committed to each other as they are, rather than on a conditional basis. People generally don't carefully engineer temptation out of their lives by signalling in such detail.

The belief that others' cognitive processes are essentially similar to one's own is called projection bias, BTW.

Re:Ask HN: Women who've applied to YC? by philwelch on Monday October 25, 2010 @08:10PM (#1832238)
Why are you determined to identify a subtext in my remarks?

I'm interpreting your comments as straightforwardly as I can.

In the general case, though, it's a dick move to criticize the merits of a complete stranger's marriage. The exact substance of your criticism is a comparatively minor issue.

Re:Ask HN: Women who've applied to YC? by anigbrowl on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @12:20AM (#1832956)
I see.