So our range is somewhere around:

- They were OK

- They treated me like a human being

- They were rude

There's no room for "We had an interesting conversation" or "They gave me some good advice" or "I think I made a new friend"? Not even "They seemed like a good person"?

The maximum is "They treated me like a human being" which is somehow above "They were OK"?

I can't speak for the Parent commenter, but I get the feeling you are taking what he said a little too literally. Those were simply examples of what could be said during the process. Their reply was not intended to be an exhaustive list of all the responses.

My previous comment, perhaps.

My original point, however, was to highlight the fact that "They treated me like a human being" was given as the example of a positive interaction.

Which is absolutely absurd. And I don't think I'm taking that too literally.

Again, can't speak for OP, but I doubt it was intended as an example of a positive interaction - rather it's meant to be an indication that there was NOT a negative interaction. Again, those words are just examples of what could be said. They weren't saying "This is absolutely the words we used and built an entire decision of someone off of" or even anything close to "This is the range we specifically had".

I get the impression everything was relatively informal in the process they described. In forums like these, it's about looking at the spirit of what they were trying to say and get across.

You must be fun in taxis.

I was thinking the same. I get the whole Hacker News "being a contrarian just to be a contrarian" thing, but this specific thread has gone much further than I thought it would.

To be fair, defending 'being a n asshole' is hard to do.

Wait I'm an asshole? For being upset that treating taxi drivers "as a human being" is considered a positive interaction instead of the absolute bare minimum of a respectful member of society?

1. Neither I nor anyone else in this thread has accused you of being an asshole.

2. Have you interacted with many human beings?

We'd all love it if being treated as a human being were the bare minimum, but quite a few people didn't get the memo and fall quite a bit below it. You really do want to filter out those folks in your hiring process. Unfortunately, here on HN, some commenters view any sort of hiring filter, much less one like "don't be an asshole", as a personal attack.

1. Apologies, the posts you replied to were shitting on me so I misinterpreted your comment as agreeing with them. ("you must be fun ~~at parties~~ in taxis" is a common dismissal + insult online)

2. Yeah... You're not wrong.