In my experience old people welcome innovation because they saw a lot of great things happening in their life. When you say old, are you more in the 40s or the 80s?

40s.

I just approach “next big thing” with caution these days. It will either go nowhere or actually work but will have unforeseen fallout that we have to deal with / live with.

The internet is still an amazing piece of technology. You just got used to the benefits.

From another conversation: "I remember the web being hailed as the next big thing in the 90's, like it was going to change everything..." "It did."

(neither of those was me, for clarity)

you lose nothing being enthusiastic for new tech that doesn't pan out

you gain nothing bashing new tech that doesn't pan out

If it doesn't matter either way, why be pessimistic - especially if you're a tech enthusiast - as most people on HackerNews ought to be.

This is my philosophy too. It’s fun to be excited! Way more fun than being pessimistic. I think the naysayers just handle disappointment differently than I do.

It's stronger than that, I think. Cynicism has the cost that you don't get to spot where the truly valuable applications of a technology are. Yes, you don't waste time on applications that don't pan out, but you want to spend your brain cycles filtering those out quickly.

> you lose nothing being enthusiastic for new tech that doesn't pan out

I would be wasting attention on it. I kind of wish that the front page isn’t flooded with so much speculative news - when it reaches a certain level it becomes noise drowning out the signal. Tell me when you have definitive results.