Ask HN: Why is everyone on HN obsessed with Rust? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Why is everyone on HN obsessed with Rust?

#11

Post by kelipso » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 12:35 PM UTC

lovelearning wrote: post #10

Not most. But I have the impression that Rust has a cultish fan club in general (with typical problems of cults, like downvoting critics of the language or the cultishness), and some of its thought leaders (cult leaders?) seem to be active here. Not unique to Rust. I agree with the other comment about similar cyclical fads.

I think this is the main reason. Dedicated group acting in coordination to comment, post, upvote, downvote is enough to build influence and some type of seeming consensus in a voting based forum like this.

Re: Ask HN: Why is everyone on HN obsessed with Rust?

#12

Post by imron » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 12:02 AM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #9

A cyclical fad. A few years ago, it was golang. No one around here seems to care much about golang now, but back in the day, God help anyone who said anything negative about Go on HN. It's too late for anything to replace C/C++ now. Programming is a robot's job, and the robot DGAF. One Turing-complete language is as good as another, all the better if there are a few trillion tokens' worth of it in-distribution.

The robot _does_ gaf.

Rust's biggest selling point is that it turns runtime problems in to compile time problems.

Compile time problems are significantly easier and cheaper for robots (and humans) to solve.

Re: Ask HN: Why is everyone on HN obsessed with Rust?

#13

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 8:19 PM UTC

imron wrote: post #12

CamperBob2 wrote: post #9

A cyclical fad. A few years ago, it was golang. No one around here seems to care much about golang now, but back in the day, God help anyone who said anything negative about Go on HN. It's too late for anything to replace C/C++ now. Programming is a robot's job, and the robot DGAF. One Turing-complete language is as good as another, all the better if there are a few trillion tokens' worth of it in-distribution.

The robot _does_ gaf. Rust's biggest selling point is that it turns runtime problems in to compile time problems. Compile time problems are significantly easier and cheaper for robots (and humans) to solve.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Why is everyone on HN obsessed with Rust?

#14

Post by baranul » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 12:03 AM UTC

whobre wrote: post #7

Not everyone or even most. Just a very loud minority…

Exactly. Part of that can also be about who and how a site is run. Backdoor deals, personal preferences by those in control, organizations that make dominating discussions and votes a priority, etc...