You're absolutely right!

Maybe we will know, but meanwhile thousands of developers are a long down way the rabbit-hole signposted "the psychology of prior investment".

Not just Charlie Brown. The entire cast of the comic.

* Charlie Brown will never talk to the Red Haired Girl. His kites will always be eaten by a tree. He'll never win a baseball game. He'll never kick the football. He has abominably low self-esteem.

* Lucy's infatuation with Schroder is clearly one-sided; likewise Peppermint Patty / Charlie Brown; also Sally/Linus.

* Snoopy will never get the Red Baron, nor enjoy publishing success

* Linus will never stop believing in The Great Pumpkin and is disappointed every year.

Probably loads more. The comic is about losers, and losing.

He did eventually win a baseball game. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/march-30-1993-after...

> Most if not all of those kids who were called names and isolated in some way found ways to break out of their pigeon hole:

Social exclusion is psychologically damaging, and often is directed at people who are ND, LGBTQI+, introverted, different culture/skin colour, etc.

I find it troubling that you say "most if not all ... were heroes ... and they thrived". No. You describe abuse, plain and simple. Abuse is not the forge of character development or great art. What you excuse as sounding "overly idealistic" is actually incredibly toxic.

And I know people who are deeply, profoundly psychologically broken as a result of this amazing process you describe that causes "most, if not all" of these people to "thrive".

> I normally don't contribute to HN comments these days

I see why.

For clarification, "Kingdom Hall" is "Jehovah's Witnesses".

You know, the people who knock on your door and you pretend you're not home, because having a conversation with one of these people is about as fun as colonoscopy prep.

There's a loophole. All dog owners are allowed to strike up conversations with other dog owners about their dogs.

That's only if you like dogs, I guess.

It's called "Love Bombing" and it's almost always a precursor to abuse and/or exploitation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_bombing

Love Bombing can be a real thing. Being kind and welcoming to others is not it.

We don't need to pathologize completely normal, and healthy, behaviours.

National Service means largely:

* Giving people guns and teaching them to kill

* Teaching people to blindly follow orders barked at them by an authority figure

* Enormous potential for mental health problems, including bullying, abuse and suicide

* Wasting 4 productive years of someones life

I'm pretty certain national service is a Bad Idea™

Yeah there's countries who have faced actual existential threat (South Korea, Finland, Israel, etc) and national service is still extremely unpopular.

Maybe it's a bad idea, but it is an idea. "People should get out more" is _not even wrong_

Really digging this!

Nice use of XML/XSL in the browser.

You know, that thing that they are trying to kill.