Always Angry, Never Happy

There has been Quite A Lot of Discourse on Bluesky in the last 48h and while it's too much to talk about here and arguably outside the scope of this blog, I wanted to talk about a component of it.

There's this sect of people that I've seen called the Always Angry and Never Happy crowd. The terminology is definitely apt, because the defining characteristic of this crowd is even if you give them what they're asking for, or start to move in the direction they want you to move, instead of acknowledging this in any capacity they'll instead move the goalposts and act like they got nothing for their efforts.

Maybe I'm wired differently, but if I were on the receiving end of this type of criticism my response would be to go back to doing what I was doing previously, because it's clear that even if I make an effort to do what is being demanded of me, nothing I do will ever be good enough. Why bother?

That said, don't misconstrue this as me saying that if a company or individual starts moving in a direction you like that you suddenly have to shower them in praise and act like they're suddenly the best ever. What I am saying is that you have to acknowledge their efforts. Praise them doing the right thing. Ease up on the gas a little. But continue pushing them. Don't act as if they gave you absolutely nothing and continue being just as angry at them as you were prior.

This is one of those things I'll agree with Louis Rossmann on, because he said the same thing throughout many of his Apple videos. He'll rightfully criticize them, but also praise them for when they move in the right direction on right to repair. I do this, even. I will be relentlessly critical of them over their handling of AI, but one of the things I will gladly give them is--well, at least for a bit--that AI was entirely an opt-in affair. They didn't force it on you like everyone else is. (But now, sadly, they are. You can still shut it off after the fact, though, and it's unfortunate to admit that this is still better than Apple's contemporaries.)

Point is, if you're not willing to stop and at least show someone some appreciation that they're taking steps to do the thing you want them to do, do not be surprised if they just stop listening to you entirely and/or go somewhere where their efforts will get some level of praise.