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Comment by kentm

9 hours ago

I recommended, not demanded.

While interests have a wide variety of norms, communication has a much smaller space of shared norms, and "strange" implies a negative value judgement in most of them. I'm comfortable with my comment.

I feel that the fact that people feel the need to pile on people who enjoy writing code is a problematic trend on HN, whereas telling them to maybe consider other peoples' priorities and preferences is not. The paradox of tolerance is apt here.

Perhaps "how queer" was the intended use. Or, think Sherlock saying, "Hmph. Strange--Strange indeed!"

> Strange implies a negative value judgement

It sounds like you've internalized some negativity around being "not-normal" -- how I would define "strange".

In a society of vice, greed, and perfidy, acting nice for no reason is "strange".

So, as many things that can be compared and have a "normal" can be strange.

Deviant implies negativity, but I would say pacifists are "deviants".

Any negativity with "strange" has to come with context.