Comment by andruby

5 hours ago

1/ You're on HN, the audience isn't "everyday average people"

2/ This is like complaining that climate activists were harping too much 30 years ago, and that's why nobody listened

1. And yet we have someone on HN reminding everyone to even have a backup in the first place so let's not assume everyone on HN can't also make "average people mistakes".

2. You mean the climate activists who used to risk their lives back in the 80s on open oceans instead of gluing themselves to streets? Yeah, the times have changed.

> 2/ This is like complaining that climate activists were harping too much 30 years ago, and that's why nobody listened

this is a serious issue though.

if you harp too much about something, it becomes background noise. people get desensitized.

if you harp about too many things, it fatigues people as well (ever heard of "alert fatigue"?).

so yeah, harping too much, too loudly about too many things is a serious and the society should really start looking into this

(edit: i am aware of the irony of harping about harping)

  • What would have been the right amount of harping about the environment though? Or is it always going to be a pointless exercise trying to convince/alert people?

    Or is the only way to do that successfully, doing it subconsciously/covertly like the state actors are swaying public opinion? :-/

    • Unfortunately I think the sweet spot is to say it once or twice, go away, and then come back later with "I told you so"

      No pain no gain also goes the other way, many times people don't learn until they get slapped in the face.