I disapprove of that sentiment for I could publish an article titled "You are not supposed to stick metal objects in electrical plugs". Point being, titles seldom matter.
Agreed. It's a pity that posts like this are any more interesting or notable than a posts explaining why it's important to maintain basic hygiene and eat well. This should be something that'd only be news to e.g. second graders. Ideally a (minimum) half-semester survey of the problem(s) of and major thoughts on "the good life" would find its way into most people's formal education.
I thought so. I have spent way more on my coffee budget in the last 2 weeks then on the gear I spend 8-10 hours a day using to make my living. That's a little crazy, don't you think? I say buy good gear that makes your life better.
Supposedly respected names like Jeff Atwood and Scott Hanselman say the same thing (not the brand necessarily, but the idea that you should buy a good keyboard ... I say this as I type on a $170 Das Keyboard ....)
Atwood cares so much about this that he even has his own keyboard: codekeyboards.com (edit: corrected domain) (which I have at office)
The amazon links did not have 'tag=' which is what the referral program uses. They just had 'ref=' which is what amazon uses to track how you got around the site.
Regardless, the author has since removed the links.
There's nothing wrong with authors submitting their own articles to HN. On the contrary, authors honor HN by sharing their work here and engaging with the community about it.
As for the Amazon links, if it's actually true that they were just links, not referrals, then you owe him an apology for more than just being rude.
I find it to be garbage self promotion when an article with little and/or poor content is submitted by the author and immediately gets 10+ upvotes without any comments, sending it straight to the front page.
In this case, straight to the front page despite many negative comments about the content.
If the article is not an Amazon link farm, it sure as hell reads exactly like one. So much so that my assumption is that the author intended to add in referral codes at a later date when reaching peak audience.
As author has since removed links, this should address your concern. Being wary of Amazon links is probably smart, but referring to something as "garbage" just makes you a jerk.
I've looked at the data and there is zero evidence that the author gamed HN.
You need to stop slinging accusations at people. Gaming HN is bad. We greatly appreciate your and other users' concern about that, and believe me we share it. But undermining civility on HN is also bad, and that's the bad thing that actually is happening here. Please don't do it anymore, regardless of how weak you think an article is.
Yes, and it's ok. (I'm a moderator here, btw, so it really is ok.)
The 'gaming' in question was about getting people to upvote one's stuff. That's against the rules, but we saw no evidence you did it. This is why I chided the user who made that accusation. It's corrosive of the civility we strive for here when people make accusations without real grounds for them.
I have a great idea, since my content is so terrible, lets see what content you can produce and see what the feedback is on it. I bet there will be plenty of people who will say your content is 'terrible'.
The amazon links did not have 'tag=' which is what the referral program uses. They just had 'ref=' which is what amazon uses to track how you got around the site.
Regardless, the author has since removed the links.
There are an awful lot of referrer links in this article. That's not a bad thing by itself, but it always makes me ask the question - Did this person write the article they wanted to write and then add referrer links, or did they decide to put in a load of referrer links and then build an article around it?
The amazon links did not have 'tag=' which is what the referral program uses. They just had 'ref=' which is what amazon uses to track how you got around the site.
Regardless, the author has since removed the links.
Perhaps in several thousand years when humanity has been overtaken by bio-augmentations and genetic engineering, when consciousness can be uploaded and modified. "We" will look back at human beings as only the precursor to life. In this sense, you most certainly were born to write code and die.
And there are people with a bit of mental illness, like myself, who have to code all the time. I do exercise on a treadmill, but I have a keyboard/monitor on the treadmill so I can keep working.
But I like writing code, a lot. I like biking and trains and taking pictures and fashion and working out, but why does it always feel like those are given more social credence as a use of time?
TBH I'd really like to write a lot of code and then die, that seems so much more satisfying than a ton of other jobs I've done...
What a bunch of asshats you guys are being, they were never referral links, he was including them to be useful... you guys that were complaining are quite honestly horrible people for doing so...
Those tips seem to be to enable to code more and die a little later. The key to getting more satisfaction from coding is to work on projects with clear value to people.
Find what you love and let it kill you. Sure you weren't born to just write code and die, but you weren't really born for any purpose, so you have to decide what it is yourself. And then you'll die. And what came before will have to have been enough.
To some people this idea is fundamentally liberating, personally I find it tragic. But my point is that it's a sad situation no matter what. You can exercise if you want, you can buy cool gear. it's coming nevertheless.
Did anyone notice that the "previous" link at the end of the article was to an entry named "Live and die by the keyboard: How to be more productive!"?
Good article -- though I feel like it might be common sense to most adults... Do stuff you like while balancing the rest of your life and responsibilities.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 115 ms ] threadAtwood cares so much about this that he even has his own keyboard: codekeyboards.com (edit: corrected domain) (which I have at office)
EDIT: I stand corrected. It had high link density to Amazon, but did not have associates tags.
Regardless, the author has since removed the links.
Garbage self promotion submitted by the author himself.
As for the Amazon links, if it's actually true that they were just links, not referrals, then you owe him an apology for more than just being rude.
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11014139 and marked it off-topic.
In this case, straight to the front page despite many negative comments about the content.
If the article is not an Amazon link farm, it sure as hell reads exactly like one. So much so that my assumption is that the author intended to add in referral codes at a later date when reaching peak audience.
You need to stop slinging accusations at people. Gaming HN is bad. We greatly appreciate your and other users' concern about that, and believe me we share it. But undermining civility on HN is also bad, and that's the bad thing that actually is happening here. Please don't do it anymore, regardless of how weak you think an article is.
The 'gaming' in question was about getting people to upvote one's stuff. That's against the rules, but we saw no evidence you did it. This is why I chided the user who made that accusation. It's corrosive of the civility we strive for here when people make accusations without real grounds for them.
Regardless, the author has since removed the links.
Regardless, the author has since removed the links.
http://www.amazon.com/Dropping-Acid-Reflux-Diet-Cookbook/dp/...
Which has some traces of how you navigated through amazon to get to the page (the ref= and such). That's according to reddit anyway: https://www.reddit.com/r/amazon/comments/qim88/referral_code... . An associate referral would apparently be tag=.
I guess if you want to put the links back in, links like:
http://www.amazon.com/Dropping-Acid-Reflux-Diet-Cookbook/dp/...
will incite less whinging.
TBH I'd really like to write a lot of code and then die, that seems so much more satisfying than a ton of other jobs I've done...
etc etc
To some people this idea is fundamentally liberating, personally I find it tragic. But my point is that it's a sad situation no matter what. You can exercise if you want, you can buy cool gear. it's coming nevertheless.
Good article -- though I feel like it might be common sense to most adults... Do stuff you like while balancing the rest of your life and responsibilities.