HN Explorer

Ask HN: What is the lowest hill you're willing to die on?

14 points by BerislavLopac ↗ HN
I remember this question being asked on Twitter a few years back, so though it might be interesting to see what's HN's take on it.

By "lowest" I mean the one least relevant and consequential in the real world. As an example, this is mine:

I can't stand the acronym FAANG for a number of reasons:

    - Netflix is not really on the same level as the other companies any more, if it ever was; it's there only to provide a pronounceable (and non-offensive) acronym.
    - Facebook is now Meta, and the company seems to be doing everything they can do distance themselves (as an entity) from the brand.
    - IMO, Meta itself is evil, and I don't think it should be grouped together with the others. But this is purely subjective, and others might have different valid opinions.
    - It doesn't include Microsoft, which is bigger and more powerful than at least three other companies listed.
I have been (unsuccessfully) trying to promote a different acronym: GAMA, for "Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple"; or GAMMA, if it absolutely has to include Meta.

What's yours? :)

46 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 42.6 ms ] thread
Comevius
RGB lighting for PC components is dumb. It's a computer, not an art project, even if it were it's tacky art that distracts from the functionality of the computer.
constantlm
Nah my PC case has a glass window and a red glow inside and it’s awesome.
greenbit
My uncle has a wood stove like that. It's awesome, too.
speedgoose
Can the wood stove display things that make you horny?
hansvm
Depends how crispy you like your erotica?
dane-pgp
The move away from passwords (especially replacing them with biometrics) is basically an attempt to implement DRM for human identity, and should be resisted.

https://nitter.net/sleevi_/status/1392903827712512001

mamonster
Another one on passwords: Password entry fields that prevent copy paste are a fake security feature.
jjice
I never understood who decided that would be a good idea. It takes extra work to prevent a generally agreed upon good security practice.
raxxorraxor
> GAMA, for "Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple"

Wouldn't MAGA give Americans a warm and fuzzy feeling?

NiagaraThistle
I'm going to start using this when i run into MAGA folk. "Oh do you work for one of the MAGA companies?" Just to see their brains stop working even more while their brain works out (unsuccessfully) what I'm talking about.
mikewarot
Engineering[1] is a discipline, requiring professional licensure. I know of one actual Software Engineer, Margaret Hamilton.[2] We're programmers, NOT Software Engineers.

An actual Software Engineer would have an iron ring on their pinky to remind themselves of the lives placed in their hands, and the importance of their profession, the oath they swore to uphold.

We programmers don't profess anything. We have no code of ethics that we'd adhere to in spite of all pressure from management and others.

Mudge seems to have a code of ethics, perhaps he could help write that formal code once the Twitter nonsense is done.

[1] https://www.nspe.org/resources/pe-magazine/called-order

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hamilton_(software_en...

AnimalMuppet
Do US engineers get the iron ring? I thought that was Canada only.
gaws
All this to say programmers should call themselves software developers vs. software engineers.
jstx1
- travelling is overrated

- learning foreign languages is overrated unless you're learning English or the language of a country you want to live in

- stainless steel pans are better than cast iron pans

- machine learning is boring

- going too hard on FIRE is a mistake for most people

- software engineer is a cool job title and it's pointless to gatekeep it just because it contains the word engineer. Same with data scientist - don't get caught up on the word scientit, it's data scientist, the qualifier matters.

It's surprisingly difficult to come up with these.

giantg2
"going too hard on FIRE"

There's no such thing

jstx1
Sure there is, it’s possible to give up too much from the present in exchange for a future that either sucks or never comes at all.
giantg2
The present sucks too, so...
FeistySkink
I'm curious about the steel pans. Can you expand?
Comevius
Tourist traps are overrated, not traveling. Learning languages makes you wiser and more valuable. Cast iron lasts a long time, and it is better for searing meat because of it's heat retention. Machine learning has a lot of potential, including predicting climate change, changing the way we create everything from media to drugs, changing wars and so on, it's the opposite of boring. Software is just as much engineered as a bridge is, and software engineers should aspire to be responsible, especially because software tend to be used by more people than a bridge.
effingwewt
It's a very personal question, and thus there can be no wrong answer other than a lie. Even that would have to be taken at face value.

To OP those things are what they said- the fact you see them differently is fine, but irrelevant.

Do you have a lowest hill to die on?

I've been mulling it over, but can't come up with anything.

I'm quite sure I've got some pretty nonsensical ones.

MisterSandman
I don't get your point about Meta being evil. The acronym refers to big tech companies, not good big tech companies. It's like the Big 3/4 in consulting.
AnimalMuppet
Neither Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or LeBron James are the GOAT. Bill Russell is.

(Only if "willing to die on" is purely metaphorical...)

bath_
No dishwasher should be manufactured and sold without a heated dry cycle. [1]

[1] I just moved into a new place and the dishwasher has no heated dry cycle. You must use rinse aid.

StrictDabbler
Conversely, the heated dry cycle if used where I live just deposits hard spots of calcium on dishes and melts plastic, so I would prefer that dishwashers default to non-heated dry.

But I agree that it should be included.

cafard
- "Epicenter" should be returned to its geological sense, and not used as as if "epi" were an intensive.

- There is no such thing as a "mentee": Mentor is a character in Homer, not someone who ments. If there is such a thing as a mentee, then there should be a "stentee", the person who is shouted at by someone with a stentorian voice.

Though actually, unless eye-rolling is ultimately fatal, I'm not really out to die on either of these.

roflyear
HN is not as smart as people here think it is (myself doubly included in that).
mtberatwork
In the US, "right on red" should be abolished. It's abused way too much at this point.
rawgabbit
Tech is rapidly being consolidated. I have learned to accept, in the future, we will only have walled gardens like Apple. The wild wild West of yester year is being fenced in by regulatory pressure and the threat of ransomware/phishing/and the latest scams.
swah
Dishwashers are stupid (maybe) - I would trade mine for a double bowl sink, and I bet it would take less time, water and energy...
Jtsummers
Dishwashers are (mostly) stupid for single people and maybe couples. They're very useful for families or other shared kitchen arrangements and are actually pretty efficient for water and energy use. Timewise, depends on the dishwasher and the number of dishes involved. They can also be more hygienic thanks to getting to (and sustaining) higher temperatures and using stronger chemicals for cleaning (though that can also have downstream, literally, impacts too).
hansvm
Probably less time, and maybe less energy. I doubt you'll beat a modern dishwasher on water usage though.
he11ow
I would ban the phrase "going forward" for talking about the future. It's not like you have a time machine, where else would you go?
StrictDabbler
You asked for (a list of peccadilloes worth standing up for) and instead got (a list of opinions that commenters hold but believe are unpopular).

Here's my lowest hill... Process pronounced prawcess is a noun but prohcess is a verb.

I'll prohcess those files using our usual prawcess.

rthomas6
- OO programming is vastly overrated and introduces unnecessary complexity, internal state, and difficulty debugging to projects, in exchange for for composability that is almost never needed in the way that it is provided.

- 99% of the internet software ecosystem is just awful, and they don't realize it because of insufficient crossover with other programming disciplines. Everything is incredibly bloated and slow for marginal benefit.

- About half of machine learning projects could be replaced with a Kalman filter or other recursive Bayesian estimator.

karmakaze
Mine might be working for a 'good' company, as in "making the world a better place". This is exceptionally hard to find and hardly makes any day-to-day difference where other factors are probably more significant.

I use FAAMG, but now I guess it's MAAMG.

Am4TIfIsER0ppos
Literally die? Cashless society. It is an attempt to have government approve every transaction.
spearingthehead
Web design agencies and software body shops like WITCH are also tech companies.

They may not 100% own their own software work, foster a poor software development culture and probably build on spaghetti inherited from some offshore firm they paid no more than a few grand for. And I know many software developers that would advise against joining these companies. But still, these companies would not exist without computing or the internet. Therefore, they are tech companies.