There's danger in speaking your mind on the internet when it's tied to your name. I dont want my employer and whoever to know my opinions on everything. I don't see why anyone would want that.

I'm not worried about HN, it's who else finds my HN account. It may be possible to identify you through your writing soon enough. And there's not so many software engineers in the US. Not worth the risk.

I don't see why making wild predictions is a problem?

I don't have any static social media accounts besides placeholders I use for work related stuff. Every 3 months or so I clear my history and start fresh. Paranoid? Probably. But I don't like the idea of leaving a digital record of so much of my life

The risk of getting cancelled is too high, so it’s best to always use a throwaway.

What's an example of a person being "canceled" by leaving a good faith Hacker News comment?

Social media searches are common on candidate screening nowadays. Say you left a conservative-sounding comment (like noting that the fast vaccine deployment is due in part to Trump's Warp Speed program) here on HN.

This would be a huge red flag against you when seeking a job at Silicon Valley companies - which are notoriously liberal leaning. "Cultural fit" is what they are looking for, not diversity (of opinions).

Canceling can be something that hasn't happened yet. All that we write online is forever.

Exactly

Sorry, but you piqued my interest. What does “getting canceled” mean here? You made some projections which may or may not be correct... but do you think people would remember who you are and hold it against you in the future if you made that comment with your main account? I apologize if that isn’t what you meant, I’m just trying to understand your thinking.

I'm guessing they mean in general. HN crowd doesn't cancel people, but HN is also a public board with a somewhat peculiar fan following on Twitter...

Care to elaborate? I haven't encountered cancel culture at HN nor do I understand which risk you see should it occur.

If they're like me it's more a long-term risk of having all your social media accounts tied together into some creepy profile. By somebody buying ISP DNS data (already happens), marketing data (same), or ML writing analysis.

Until there's privacy laws preventing such things it's better to be anonymous

The issue is not cancel culture on HN itself, but out in the real world, where saying anything that can be interpreted as "wrong" under your real name can have real consequences.

I've seen junior programmers advised on Twitter by seniors to take care what (and whose) tweets they "heart", or those tweets could weigh heavily against them at future job interviews.

Don't see why that wouldn't hold here on HN as well.

Expressing political opinions these days is a dangerous game. And more and more things are becoming politicized. Remember Coinbase? They were crucified for declaring that they just want to work.

Really? Who is doing this kind of research into candidates? When I interview people I don't have time to check out their entire social media history. There are also plenty of people that complain that their interviewers don't take the time to check out relevant things like github so I don't think I'm alone in this. If your interviewer has the time to waste checking out your entire Twitter feed then that sounds like a possible sign of a dysfunctional workplace.

There's automated platforms to find candidates social media profiles. It's pretty standard these days.

Finding social media profiles is easy. Reading the content takes time. I'd guess places that go through your social media are probably just doing quick searches for terms like the company name or the n word. I also doubt its standard practice at most companies I'd be interested in working for to go through social media for roles that aren't public facing.