HN Explorer

Ask HN: What are your pet peeves?

13 points by koliber ↗ HN
The holidays have passed. It was great time for contemplation and gratefulness. New Year's is right around the corner, and that means hope and new beginnings. This is the time for all that’s in between reflection and positive future thinking. We have a few days before that though...

Let’s complain a bit together. What are your pet peeves. Share your professional annoyances. Share what gets under your skin personally.

12 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 43.9 ms ] thread
brodouevencode
Stupid internet tropes, particularly when used by so-called smart people (journalists, politicians). "Shoot your shot", "have the receipts", etc. They cycle through like the latest fashionable thoughts that show you're with the right tribe. It's all so tiring.
toddm
python package management
softwaredoug
People snarkily say LMGTF or RTFM to an otherwise reasonable question.

It’s been established in research that humans use different terminology to refer to things. This is known as the “vocabulary problem”[1]. Beginners in particular don’t use search like experts. They need help knowing what to Google. Documentation is written by experts, and writing towards beginners is a different and more challenging skill. Finally there’s way more beginners than experts. Often it’s the experts that need a dose of humility learning how hard it actually is to teach someone.

Don’t be a jerk, offer to help, learn to improve your teaching abilities to new people.

1 - https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/32206.32212

applecrazy
Asking to ask[1]. This appears a lot in the communities I’m in (mainly university student groups) and it’s probably the most annoying thing to see in my opinion.

[1]: https://dontasktoask.com/

dolni
Socially: the never ending euphemism treadmill. A loud, annoying minority taking offense at literally everything to get attention. And also the people claiming to be "empathetic" who fall for their nonsense (note: these people are more suckers than empaths).

Technically: Python package management is a great one previously mentioned. How can it still be so bad?

Additionally, the tech industry's obsession with chasing new, shiny technologies and adding needless complexity. We bolt new thing after new thing onto an existing project and then wonder why it is slow, buggy, and a pain in the ass to maintain.

pinewurst
Robotically quoting Amazon principles (“Customer Obsession!”) as though it is wisdom. This is even more annoying if one isn’t actually in the hellmouth itself, and not obliged to do it.
mikeortman
Very specific one: the use of Gartner Magic Quadrants in marketing materials or presentations.
pinewurst
Ditto - I'm part of the sausage making process for these things and anyone who takes them serious (who's not a vendor trying to earn points with their pointy headed management) is a fool.
badrabbit
Shadow moderation (my hn account is restricted now), elitist snobbery and intellectual dishonesty.
jonbronson
When people withhold answers to reasonable questions in order to probe for some hidden or more "real" intent of the asker. This is a ubiquitous problem polluting sites like Stack Overflow, but can also happen within an org. Always start with the simple answer first, and go from there.
maxerickson
People following close on the highway. Especially when there isn't much traffic.
bitsavers
Web sites that use a font where you can't tell the difference between I and l

Al is not an AI