30 minutes with a stranger

Here is a summary of the themes expressed in the Hacker News discussion:

Appreciation for Engaging Content

Many users expressed a positive reception to the content presented, finding it refreshing and well-executed. * "it's so refreshing to see this kind of content in HN :*)" said knuppar. * "Beautiful. I have certainly noticed that, at work, despite my desire to be efficient, without this sort of thing, it becomes unbearable no matter how interesting the actual work is." commented thenoblesunfish. * "Total banger!" exclaimed hackboyfly. * "This is the unicorn of fancy websites because for once, it actually makes sense to override browser's standard scrolling behavior." noted pavlov. * "The Pudding is such a cool publication. They have incredible research and dataviz, in particular on cultural topics but not only. It’s worth subscribing to their newsletter. Glad to see them there!" shared dataexec. * "Motbus3: This has been one of the best things I've read in a while. I hope it is real :)" * "A perfect blend of design, empathy, and data" said RataNova.

Debate Over Custom Scrolling and UI Design

A significant portion of the discussion revolved around the website's use of custom scrolling and animations, with strong opinions on both sides. Some found it innovative and enhancing the narrative, while others found it disorienting, unusable, or outright nauseating.

• "I wish it would be normal scrolling." stated mdavid626.
• "qwertox: I quit reading after a couple of minutes because of the scrolling."
• "paganel: It's not only the scrolling that isn't normal, I got dizzy when some image-like thingies starting flowing around the screen, had to close the browser tab at once. Maybe the page wanted to tell something, but whatever it is they could have done it via pure text form, that's what reading is all about."
• "theharshb: Wow the web design's amazing"
• "pavlov: Really great design. This is the unicorn of fancy websites because for once, it actually makes sense to override browser's standard scrolling behavior. The 30-minute timeline on the right provides an obvious context for what you're navigating with the scroll actions, and you wouldn't be able to do that with a regular scrollbar."
• "darkwater: I'm with you and I actually love these "special scrolling" websites. They are much closer to a work of art exactly because of the different design."
• "rkagerer: I don't mind designers overriding when they take meticulous care to craft a better tailored experience. But once I scrolled past the initial content I found the site a UI disaster."
• "deathlock: I feel the same. I don't particularly mind if a developer overrides the scrollbar, and I would actually argue that in this case it was a good way to present the story and overall I liked it, but you need to do it right. If the sites becomes all clunky, it stutters, and you get text popping up a while after you scrolled, then it's better to focus on the performance and leave aside the animations."
• "saberience: It's interesting but I hated this design * 1000. I would prefer a white page with purely black text than this horrible override of the scrolling behavior and images and text flying around, this sort of design makes me feel literally nauseous and I had to click away not even 5% through this page."
• "thfuran: Yeah, that website was horrid. I don’t know why someone would opt for a scrolljacking-based animation, let alone why they’d intersperse text boxes zooming around."
• "llm_nerd: Not so sure about this one, though. Like others, I was more annoyed with the constant scrolling to get tiny niblets of information and didn't even make it through. It makes it feel like work and the mechanisms completely overwhelms the message."
• "polotics: Yes I definitely was interested but the form-over-function of this presentation just got me to drop out and not finish reading."
• "palata: Would be nice if we could disable JavaScript and just get access to the text. I also dislike this style, plus it lags on my computer."
• "ndileas: Would be nice if you would stop expecting the whole web to have stopped developing at your preferred point in time."
• "frou_dh: Many HN users are always looking for an excuse to complain about the format or appearance of the linked sites. So much so that the following had to be added to the guidelines (but doesn't seem to be enforced that much): 'Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—e.g. article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button breakage. They're too common to be interesting.'"
• "saberience: Well, it literally makes me feel almost nauseous, i.e. I felt physically unwell from the images and text moving around the screen. Note: this doesnt happen from a regular video, or normal scrolling text behaviour. Just sites like this that combine overriding the scroll bar with moving text and images."
• "1970-01-01: It's art. They did it because they wanted it to be seen exactly this way. Accessibility was not the goal."

Difficulty Discovering Content and Lack of Clear Affordances

Several users struggled to understand how to interact with the page, indicating a lack of clear visual cues or guidance.

• "mcv: Nice project, although often the text falls off the screen of my phone."
• "tjoff: Took me a really long time to realize that I should scroll. Because why would I? There is absolutely no indication that there is anything to scroll to."
• "n2d4: Same here — once you get the scrolling part it's pretty great, but like you I was stuck at the top for a while. A downwards-pointing arrow on the hero would help a lot here."
• "arccy: If you use a sane browser, the page will have a scrollbar indicator on the right?"
• "tidbeck: I have (Firefox on macOS), still easy to miss."
• "federiconafria: I was going to say that somehow I knew I had to scroll the first time I entered. But I went back after reading your comment and I have no idea how did I find out the first time, there is no indication that there is content bellow."
• "tasuki: Same for me. It was immediately obvious I should scroll, but I don't know why."
• "sema4hacker: On a site designed like this where I tend to not notice the scroll bar, I usually just click on the things I see to try and make something happen. In this case, not much happens from clicks (because the site desperately needs a graphic to encourage you to scroll), so I quickly lose interest and bail."
• "np1810: UI Feedback - I was having trouble figuring out what to do with the website, possibly due to the lack of text. I was tapping everywhere just to find the interactive areas (invisible buttons: who invented flat UI without shadows to hide all the interactivity?), and it took me some time to realize the website was scrollable (invisible scroll bars: who thought hiding the scrollbars without any indication of scrollable content was a good idea?)."

The Value and Nature of Human Connection

The core theme of the presented content – the benefits of talking to strangers and the decline of "bridging social capital" – resonated with many, sparking broader discussions about human interaction, loneliness, and societal changes.

• "locallost: tl;dr the journey is the destination"
• "locallost: Not a fan of fancy websites, but this one really hits the nail on the head."
• "locallost: It's telling about society how much of these conversations revolve around work. It makes sense, since it's where we spend most of our time, but at the same time a lot of people are not happy at work. Recently I've been avoiding this type of smalltalk because it has this pattern that starts with 'and what do you do for a living'. I'm trying to make the world a better place is not usually the answer. I wish it gets normalized to ask 'what do you like to do in your life' as a first question."
• "cal Robert: I wonder if the participants were American? When I moved to Ireland I had to learn to stop asking that when I met people because it was a bit rude to start off like that."
• "m00dy: I remember the days using chatroulette :)"
• "tiniuclx: For us that spend a lot of time on the internet, it's easy to forget that most people are not that different from you. I believe comments online, on Hacker News on otherwise, tend to be made by people with fairly extreme views - you have to feel something very strongly to shout your opinion into the internet! But most people are, well, normal, including you. Step out of your bubble every now and then and you'd be surprised at what good may come out of it."
• "willemlaurentz: Following the book 'The Power of Strangers' I once did an experiment with talking to random strangers, it is amazing what you'll learn from random conversations: https://willem.com/en/2023-10-13_hello-stranger/"
• "hackboyfly: I would like to do that but I live in Sweden, talking to stranger is considered rude. Would be cool if there were a serious version of those random cam chats like omegle."
• "kruffalon: Talking to strangers in Sweden: The trick is to trick us into not realising we are interacting, then we are quite friendly and polite :)"
• "kccqzy: You need structure for this to be amazing. Talking to a random person at a train station and asking for their destination isn't a meaningful conversation, even if they divulge a bit more about their travel plans."
• "gwd: One of the problems with their 'better / worse' statistics: Bad interactions tend to outweigh good interactions. I think the rule of thumb is that 4:1 good/bad ratio in a relationship is 'breakeven' where the relationship will stay neutral; higher than that and things get better, lower than that and things go south. So if you could talk to a stranger, and there's only a 20% chance you'll feel worse, a lot of people would still not consider it worth the risk."
• "a5c11: Yes, we tend to remember negative experiences better than the good ones. Also, we all are so low on good emotions, we don't want to risk losing them to random strangers."
• "nakedneuron: This hits deep."
• "RataNova: Makes me think the real challenge isn't just encouraging people to talk to strangers, but designing situations where the expected value of those conversations skews heavily positive"
• "dpkirchner: I do most of my stranger-talking at niche events like board games down at the maker space or at cons. This definitely skews the results."
• "namuol: I think it depends on what you’re used to. If you’re in an abusive relationship or socially isolated, a single positive social interaction can feel like a breakthrough."
• "eggbrain: There's also the magnitude of a negative interaction as well to consider. If I have 99 great interactions with someone, but one REALLY bad interaction (they insult me deeply, or say something irredeemable), that can also sour the whole relationship."
• "alex-moon: I'm increasingly convinced that social isolation is the single great social ill of our time."
• "mihaic: It's not just loneliness, it's that by being isolated you can make sweeping generalizations about other people, and fall for the hatefull narative. When you actually and honestly communicate with people different than you, and are able yo understand them, you stop feeling that simplistic hate for them."
• "r_lee: This goes for other stuff as well, like if you're 'ungrounded' by not actually observing/communicating with the thing you're judging, you can kind of just make up the perfect villain in your head and hate that"
• "astura: 'When you actually and honestly communicate with people different than you, and are able yo understand them, you stop feeling that simplistic hate for them.' I find it to be exactly the opposite. It's much easier to believe someone is inherently good but just a bit misguided if you don't have to communicate with them and aren't personally affected by their 'misguided' behavior."
• "latexr: Who would’ve thought that hating entire groups of humans and blaming them for every imaginary problem would lead to isolation and loneliness!"
• "blueflow: I think this is a consequence of what the posted site explains in the last text block - social trust is gone."
• "chongli: Racism and tribalism were still present when we socialized more as a society...We were connected in a social web. Now we’re heavily fragmented."
• "Aardwolf: I just saw a class of kids on a train and they were interacting and yelling just like we did 30 years ago. I think there's hope, they're not all zombies staring at a phone yet"
• "999900000999: Had a chat about this with a friend yesterday. In richer societies you can afford to be alone. This isn't good for tribal beings, humans didn't evolve as lone wolves."
• "stavros: You can't afford to be alone in any society. Not in the monetary sense, but in the sense that it will make you depressed."
• "lordnacho: It's the internet. When you talk to people online, it often descends into pettiness. When you talk to people in the real world, that rarely happens. But it's much easier to talk online, so people get the wrong impression. You should talk to strangers. It's never gone wrong for me."
• "tnel77: I agree, but another aspect is what’s lost in text. Even when I don’t have negative intentions, my messages can come across as rude or brash."
• "ChrisMarshallNY: There's definitely an aspect of 'dehumanization,' when it comes to remote communication..."
• "pjc50: I think it's an exaggeration of the 'city effect': the denser an environment is, the more likely it is that people who see you out to talk to you are going to have a negative agenda..."
• "a022311: As someone who is generally shy, this sparked some hope in me. I have a really stressful time meeting new people, I just have absolutely no idea what to say, I panic and I leave."
• "a5c11: Same. However, I had a few encounters where I was scared initially that I won't know what to say, and the talk will be quiet and weird, but my freshly met partner was so into the chat that I had problems cutting into."
• "mentalgear: Great visualisation ! We need more of this 'social glue' since that's what keeps society together."
• "dvcoolarun: To me, talking to strangers is like not flexing that judgment muscle we keep on, while also gaining different perspectives and learning."
• "karmakurtisaani: 'I actually met a serial killer who did this' Would love to hear the story behind this one."
• "lordnacho: When I was an intern in a small town, I took a trip to London. On my way back, I caught a cab from the provincial station to my house. ... A few years later, I've graduated, I'm watching the news. A cab driver has been convicted of murdering multiple women, in the town I was in."
• "notahacker: A Russian backpacker once told me about a conversation with an Afghan cab driver on a trip to the US. Apparently it was quite friendly for a conversation that started 'I used to kill people like you'."
• "RataNova: Online, it feels like we're all half-performing for an invisible audience, so the incentives skew toward snark or point-scoring. In person, there's no scoreboard, just two humans trying to get through the moment together"

The Role and Perception of Advertising

A lengthy sub-thread discussed the utility, pervasiveness, and nature of advertising, with differing views on whether it's inherently beneficial information sharing or a manipulative tactic.

• "999900000999: ... The biggest crime of the modern era is the disposable human. You work for an anonymous corporation, that does some nonsense you can't even hope to understand, in exchange for currency, to support the basics of your existence. ... Tell me, fellow techy, working on serving ads. Who exactly would be disappointed if you failed in your duties today. Would anyone in your community be upset that they didn't get as many advertisements"
• "koliber: I agree with 99.9% of what you wrote. It’s presented very clearly. We are social animals even if we don’t like to admit it. A while ago I would say I agree 100%, but more recently I learned that ads have value. Therefore i can’t agree with the final sentence in this post. It’s not easy to recognize but I’d like to try to share how I see it now. Any time you think or say one of these things, it means that someone did not do a good job advertising:" followed by examples of missed opportunities due to lack of advertising.
• "qcnguy: This is a common problem with 'your job is bullshit' rhetoric. It says a lot more about the speaker than the people whose jobs they're criticizing."
• "myrmidon: The sole purpose of ads is to (probabilistically) shift the targets spending behavior in favor of the one buying the ads, nothing more, nothing less. While ads can have utility from the victims point of view (contain relevant information), this is entirely incidental."
• "koliber: I disagree that this is the sole purpose of ads. I can see how people arrive at that opinion, but I feel it is narrow and incomplete. With a little restrospection and introspection, anyone can see examples in their own life where marketing had another purpose. Marketing first and foremost informs."
• "wzdd: The original comment, and your initial response, talked about advertising. The examples you give, and this response in general, are marketing. They are very different, and marketing is much broader."
• "JackFr: That’s jesuitical hair-splitting."
• "myrmidon: I feel your own examples undermine your positions: Drinks specifically are one of the most clearcut negative examples to me, where there is zero product discovery/information/customer upside involved"
• "Ukv: I'd claim any extent to which ads inform the viewer is downstream of the ultimate goal of having people spend money on the product."
• "koliber: Companies exist to make money. They use marketing as part of that process. However, we can not forget that consumers derive value from the things that companies sell. If we only focus on the big bad companies, then it is not possible to see how marketing could also serve the consumer."
• "CalRobert: When I read ads in the old, old National geographic magazines at my grandparents what startles me is the entire paragraphs of text laying out the case for their product. I miss that even if it was BS."
• "BobbyTables2: Even TV ads used to be a bit closer to that. ... Nowadays advertisements aimed at adults are too different than ones for kids stuff. All vulgar (not sexual) fluff and eye candy."
• "narmiouh: The way ads are run these days is almost completely wrong! ... This is one area AI can be very helpful as it improves..."
• "koliber: A lot of marketing is done badly. These bad ways are the most glaring and people sometimes think that all marketing is like that. In reality, there is a lot of marketing that is completely unnoticeable. Some people would not even consider those things marketing. That is marketing done well (or at least better)."
• "rkomorn: One of the best examples of your second point is that tweet that went something like 'I bought a toilet seat and now I'm getting ads for toilet seats everywhere I go'. It's annoying and not even productive for the advertiser."
• "isoprophlex: Advertising is already rich people begging for your money. Not free exchange of information to allow value discovery. Don't conflate the two."
• "koliber: What about the ad for your kids' school fundraiser? Or the ad for a used car that your cousin would love? Or the poster for the concert at your local community hall."
• "wzdd: Except that you also learnt about 10 concerts you didn't want to go to, 10 sales you don't care about, etc."
• "barrkel: Ads are agents in a zero-sum war for your attention. ... Because they're in a zero sum competition, the dynamics are to escalate."
• "koliber: All of this is true for a large portion of web ads. Then there is the ad for your kids' school fundraiser. ... These ads also are 'trying to divert you from what you were doing, to pay attention to what they're pushing'. Yet these feel ads differently despite also being 'agents in a zero-sum war for your attention'."
• "randerson: If I wanted notices about fundraisers it should be because I signed up for them. If I want to know about concerts I would've subscribed to a feed."
• "dahart: Ads are vying for attention, true! ... When I'm not online, ads like posters or billboards rarely if ever block me in any way."
• "add-sub-mul-div: 'I would have gone to that concert but did not know about it' The best concert I ever saw was one that I only knew was coming to town because of a TV commercial. Ads are information."
• "bityard: You are perfectly describing another extremely common advertising tactic: fear of missing out (FOMO). The reality is that 3/4 of these are things you did not actually need or want, which is exactly why advertising exists."
• "steezeburger: It's demoralizing because people block you?! That's why you found it demoralizing?! Not for commodifying people's attention?"
• "jibal: No, it's very demoralizing to find that what you are doing for a living (that isn't what you expected to be doing) is so disgusting to other people that there are commercial tools devoted to blocking you."
• "koliber: I consistently see marketing and advertising where I learn about events, products, or services I did not know about before."
• "myrmidon: If you are a 'fellow techy, working on serving ads', it is a pretty safe assumption that producing 'Show HNs' is neither the main purpose of your job nor very representative."

Social Media's Impact on Connectivity

The discussion touched upon how digital platforms and social media have altered human interaction, with some arguing they contribute to isolation and a decline in genuine connection, while others see them as a necessary evolution of social interaction.

• "rkagerer: I wonder how much of this is due to social media sites and how the choice to interact that way (where the medium is geared to show off shallow facets of our achievements or amplify polarized opinions) is robbing us from traditional ways of spending time together."
• "heresie-dabord: 'is robbing us from traditional ways of spending time together.' The assumption that social-media applications are really social is robbing us of traditional ways of maintaining actual society."
• "a5c11: True. It's so hard nowadays to go out with a friend to grab a beer or a coffee. They don't feel the urge because they satisfy social interactions online, and they think it's enough. Well, it's undoubtedly simpler that way, but it's fake."
• "immibis: There used to be social networks. ... Then it was social media. ... Lastly it was just media. It was the same feed pushing stuff to you, but it isn't your friends any more."
• "api: The next step will be removing humans from the loop entirely, a feed of personalized AI generated slop engineered to keep you staring at it."
• "dustincoates: This predates social media. Bowling Alone was first written back in '95."
• "federiconafria: That's what I was thinking, if social media was not there, would we be more social? Or is it really the fact that our necessities can be covered without being social the real 'problem'?"
• "skeezyboy: id like to point out that youre on social media right now."
• "federiconafria: I think your ordering is wrong, we don't need to spend time together anymore so we fall back to social media. I wonder how things would look like if we had social media on top of a more social world."
• "mihaic: It's not just loneliness, it's that by being isolated you can make sweeping generalizations about people, and fall for the hatefull narrative."
• "energy123: ... In the modern world, that alienation is accelerated by social media and cost of living for those without assets..."
• "K0balt: ...I shudder at the thought of the new AI product that this data will inspire or train. It’s gotten to the point that I see any significant collection of data about humans as a low-key threat to humanity."
• "np1810: Regarding social media - it has created more gaps rather than making us more social. It's ultimate goal is to capture our attention for as long as possible rather than connecting us."
• "subscribed: No, I don't think it's anonymity. You can see absolutely rabid, hateful, unhinged things people post under their real names on Facebook, LinkedIn, nextdoor."
• "ChrisMarshallNY: I agree. I think that it's the removal of an emotional connection, and that happens naturally, after a certain pause..."
• "pjc50: ... If you meet a stranger at the North Pole, where you're the only two humans around, you're going to talk to them. ... If you meet a stranger on the street in New York, you're probably going to put your hand over your wallet. Adverse selection wins."
• "9rx: Dehumanization is a poor framing, really. It was never humanized in the first place. ... From the user perspective, it is a solitary activity."

Critiques of the Study Sample

One user raised a point about the demographic skew of the study's participants.

• "mrjay42: Just an observation, not a mean critique about the project or even the conclusions. ... I am NOT saying that the study is invalid ... However, I think it's fair to say that the sample is skewed towards people with conservative views, by a HUGE amount, not just 'a little bit'."
• "qcnguy: All three of those links are claiming right wing people are mentally ill. ... The most obvious and logical explanation for why right wing people exist is that they disagree with left wing politics..."