I played basketball as a teenager. One year, I was in the starting lineup. The coach believed in me and was vocal about it. He gave me clear feedback, both positive and negative. Overall, I played well and was improving quickly.
Next year, the coach got replaced. The new coach benched me and gave me no feedback. Though he didn’t say it, it was obvious he didn’t believe in me, for whatever reason, justified or not. I started playing worse, which only reinforced his view, and then my minutes went down, which gave me less opportunity to improve, which reinforced his view further, etc. I was still on the same team but I wasn’t the same player. I was but a shadow of the player from last year.
Whether the new coach was right about me or not, I will never know. Was I falling behind because others were improving faster or because I internalised his lack of trust? Maybe I wasn’t as promising as I had thought and he merely saw it or maybe he was unjust. Whatever the reason, he ended my basketball career that year (though it would take a few more years for me to realise it).
As a young basketball player, your window of opportunity to develop is small and, if you miss it, you’re basically done. As a young software engineer, you have more than enough opportunity to find a better team and, more importantly, a better coach.
Thank you for the honest feedback. I don't disagree. I see social media as a complex system that is based on a few simple rules that have allowed it to evolve quickly, but not necessarily the way we would like.
Since ancient times, two philosophers would often have a debate by exchanging letters. The goal was not publicity, though many of such correspondences eventually became public. The goal, as I see it, was simply searching for truth. I wonder if it's possible to build a platform for something similar today. Even if it never becomes as popular as social media, I hope it could at least create a clear distinction between entertainment and actual conversation.
Thanks! Debates are public and accessible to anyone with a link. Since the app hasn't really had any promotion until now, the first users are just signing up and there aren't really any noteworthy debates yet. If and when more debates are started, I'll find a way to make them discoverable.
Thank you for this feedback. To be honest, there aren't any noteworthy debates at the moment. One recent tweet and this comment on HN are literally the only promotion the app has had, so the first users have just started signing up. If and when debates appear, I will definitely think of a way to make them more accessible.
What you are (correctly) describing is the status quo. But that is precisely what motivated me to try something different, even if it does end up utopian.
Thank you for the positive feedback. That's pretty much where I'm coming from: "likes" have created an unhealthy dynamic in online conversations and I was wondering if there could be a hack around that.
I've registered this Twitter account: https://twitter.com/DebubbleMe. There is nothing on it for now, but if Debubble takes off in any shape or form, that's where I'll be posting the updates.
Thanks for the tip. If I end up keeping that feature, that seems to be a smart way to go about it. Due to time constraints, I was trying to keep it simple. Perhaps too simple.
The app lets users send tweets or DMs and I didn’t find an obvious way to narrow the required permissions down to just that. But a few people have now pointed this issue out and I think I will just remove that functionality and require only read permissions.
Next year, the coach got replaced. The new coach benched me and gave me no feedback. Though he didn’t say it, it was obvious he didn’t believe in me, for whatever reason, justified or not. I started playing worse, which only reinforced his view, and then my minutes went down, which gave me less opportunity to improve, which reinforced his view further, etc. I was still on the same team but I wasn’t the same player. I was but a shadow of the player from last year.
Whether the new coach was right about me or not, I will never know. Was I falling behind because others were improving faster or because I internalised his lack of trust? Maybe I wasn’t as promising as I had thought and he merely saw it or maybe he was unjust. Whatever the reason, he ended my basketball career that year (though it would take a few more years for me to realise it).
As a young basketball player, your window of opportunity to develop is small and, if you miss it, you’re basically done. As a young software engineer, you have more than enough opportunity to find a better team and, more importantly, a better coach.