HN Explorer

Ask HN: What Does “Trivial” Mean?

3 points by hahnchen ↗ HN
Hackers tend to throw around "trivial" in open source discussions, articles and even here on hackernews.

What does it mean? does it mean the problem is so easy you don't even have to think about?

6 comments

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db48x
Depends on context.
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drakonka
When I've encountered it, it has usually meant something requiring very low effort or resources. Example:

* Mental resources ("Adding another auth provider to the ones we already support is 'trivial'/straightforward")

* Time ("Re-implementing this with the proposed approach before release should be 'trivial'/not require much time")

* Machine resources ("Doing this additional operation in the iteration is 'trivial'/won't have enough of a performance impact to worry about in this case")

muzani
Mental = I can do it while sleep deprived

Time = It won't change the schedule

Resources = The costs would be rounded down to zero

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qsort
It means easy, not involving any obstacle or difficult steps. It's directly lifted from mathematical jargon ("the proof of this statement is trivial", "it is trivial to see that A -> B", etc.).