“Old news” comments

Comments like “old news” or “this surprises you?” are a big red flag. This species of troll not only thinks a social media or blog post is borrrr-ing … because they think they already know, but they succumb to the self-important need to insinuate that everyone is bored, because everyone already knows that.

And then they invariably demonstrate that they do not in fact already know it. 🙄

Which, ironically, is not surprising, considering their attitude toward learning.

People who like learning are happy to explore new perspectives on “old news,” don’t mind review and reminders. Reminders only hurt the proud. The humble appreciate that anything they truly do already know will be consolidated by reminders, and is also probably useful for someone else. As my friend Daniel Loxton put it:

“Every single generation has to learn every single thing all over again! We don’t ever get to just be done with old topics — they’re all perpetually new.”

Exactly. And if you’re one of that species … you’re in the right place. I think/hope nearly all of my regular readers and subscribers have that healthy attitude towards learning.