THIS IS WATER! by David Foster Wallace

Why HN readers recommended it

HN commenters bring it up when urging empathy, patience and attention to the everyday instead of snap judgement.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

The Actualization Agent

Topic

awareness and empathy

Format

talk

Level

general

HN recommenders in dataset

3

HN mentions in dataset

6

Recommendation years in dataset

2020–2024

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• In macro photography, taking an extreme closeup of something like an insect necessarily has a very, very thin depth of field due to its high magnification. To get the entire insect in focus, you use a technique called focus stacking where the focus changes by …

• Ok but what if the result of contemplating this is overwhelming existential dread? This comment kind of reduces life to a give and take philosophy. One where everything you do is to accomplish a task. I'm not sure that has anything to do with Buddhism. …

• Respectfully, if you see the comment as critique, that’s on you. It could just as easily be described as “unsolicited advice” or “unsolicited tips”. The communicator does have responsibility on how their message comes across, thought not all of it. It’s on the receiver to …