Yeah, I'm not sure what the author[0] means there either. I looked through the latest Census and I couldn't find any sufficient data on "hippies", as there was not a question for that[1]. If there is no data on it, how can one make the dubious claim that one is "full of"[2] them? I really wish this article was more well researched[3].

[0] by author I am referring to the author of the article which this thread is talking about

[1] https://data.census.gov/cedsci/

[2] by "full of" I assume a simple majority

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research

The part about hippies is just an example, think of it as an figure of speech. The point he is making has nothing to do with the weather or hippies, it's that peoples believes on what makes them happy are not in alignment to what actually makes them happy or they fail to take account for lots of variables changing, while they believe only one changes.

I think it might be a joke.

At first I thought that parent didn't understand the joke. Now I think I might have not understood the meta-joke.

Yes, I think the parent is a /metajoke/ as you call it :) However, there are 3 threads around that miss the original author is poking fun there. I'd like to stress the structure of these 3 paragraphs:

  The first is that, [serious things with a reference] they think of the weather and fail to take account of other things, such as the fact that California is full of tedious hippies.
  The second, [serious things with a reference] [after a breakup] we’ll decide we never liked the person anyway.
  The third [serious things with a reference]. In other words, last night’s party was never as good as you think it was.

Given my HN karma, I won't dare end this comment with an attempt at being humorous. It would be akin to a HN suicide.

I've lived in both places. I'd be open to going back to lots of places in the Midwest. I'd only move back to the Sierra Nevada foothills in California (where there are still tedious hippies, but they're more my kind of tedious hippies).

There are some widely agreed upon truths that need no citation :)

Can you point me towards those? I think you are referring to aphorisms[0], but I couldn't find any in the related Wikipedia article[1].

[0] a pithy observation that contains a general truth

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphorism

Can confirm.