Not terribly insightful, but this is definitely my favorite comment that I made:
> Yeah, TIL Mathematica knows what a goat is, and can recognize one on sight.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24489614
I had fun writing that. :)
Ask HN: What was your favorite comment in 2020?
11–20 of 42 posts
Re: Ask HN: What was your favorite comment in 2020?
#12Not from 2020 but I discovered it this year: from oraguy on making a change in the oracle source code:
> - Submit the changes to a test farm consisting of about 100 to 200 servers that would compile the code, build a new Oracle DB, and run the millions of tests in a distributed fashion.
> - Go home. Come the next day and work on something else. The tests can take 20 hours to 30 hours to complete.
> - Go home. Come the next day and check your farm test results. On a good day, there would be about 100 failing tests. On a bad day, there would be about 1000 failing tests. Pick some of these tests randomly and try to understand what went wrong with your assumptions. Maybe there are some 10 more flags to consider to truly understand the nature of the bug.
Re: Ask HN: What was your favorite comment in 2020?
#13From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045384 : > I sometimes find myself thinking, "why would you do that!?" and that's when I realize that what that really means is I'm the one who's not understanding something. I should be asking myself, "why would they do that?" This is my favorite because it’s simple, but so powerful. I’ve tried to stick to this advice since I saw that comment. And I think it has made me ki…
As a corollary to that person's insight, I've noticed that the reflex to judge and criticize is very strong. Avoiding unnecessary criticism and judgment and focusing on your own life takes constant conscious effort, even though it's probably one of the most logical choices you can make. This is particularly true when the people whom you criticize are manifestly doing quite well in general compared to you.
Commenting online can be an exception of course. Let's not rid ourselves of every sin...
Re: Ask HN: What was your favorite comment in 2020?
#14I got a really good laugh out of this one, and if you stretch the definition a bit you might be able to call it insightful:
> By the way, I decided to also quick summarize the usual HN threads that have the trigger word iPhone in it...
Re: Ask HN: What was your favorite comment in 2020?
#15From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045384 : > I sometimes find myself thinking, "why would you do that!?" and that's when I realize that what that really means is I'm the one who's not understanding something. I should be asking myself, "why would they do that?" This is my favorite because it’s simple, but so powerful. I’ve tried to stick to this advice since I saw that comment. And I think it has made me ki…
Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1170/
Re: Ask HN: What was your favorite comment in 2020?
#16Can't find the thread, but there was a big thread about being a poor developer where one commenter had claimed they left software for networking because "it involved more systems-thinking than logic-thinking" and that that made it better suited to him. It put in words and helped me describe the same about myself as well helped me understand why I wasn't good at certain things. I'm just not willing to take the pay / potential pay-cut like they did.
Re: Ask HN: What was your favorite comment in 2020?
#17>Neural nets share as much with biological brains as decision trees do with forests: nothing at all.
Re: Ask HN: What was your favorite comment in 2020?
#18From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045384 : > I sometimes find myself thinking, "why would you do that!?" and that's when I realize that what that really means is I'm the one who's not understanding something. I should be asking myself, "why would they do that?" This is my favorite because it’s simple, but so powerful. I’ve tried to stick to this advice since I saw that comment. And I think it has made me ki…
That question doesn't get asked enough. I'm tired of getting downvoted with no comments. I'm tired of people not understanding the subtleties of my positions and arguing against me just based on a communication issue.
Re: Ask HN: What was your favorite comment in 2020?
#19“I don’t work for you”.
Source?
Re: Ask HN: What was your favorite comment in 2020?
#20> Nobody ever looks at a person driving a ferrari and thinks, "wow, they must have washed a lot of dishes to afford that car," and yet we still think "if I just wash these dishes hard enough I'll drive a ferrari one day."