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Most tech content is bullshit

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Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#31

Post by acemarke »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #16

I disliked a lot of this article, as "there is bullshit everywhere " seems like something that should just be an axiom at this point. However, I will expand on a specific pattern of bullshit that is common in the tech world: over-complication for the sake of some sort of "theoretical purity". I think Redux is a good example of this. I think Redux can be used well, but it became the "recommended way to do global state…

Ironically, Dan and I have spent more time trying to convince people to _not_ use Redux all the time than we have trying to actually market it :( [0] [1]

We specifically have info in our docs on when it actually makes sense to use Redux [2] [3], but that doesn't change the flood of Medium blog posts out there.

I created the Redux Style Guide docs page [4] to try to give some clarification on our actual current recommended patterns and usage practices, and our Redux Toolkit package to simplify common Redux use cases [5]. Unfortunately, there's only so much we can do - a lot of people never even look at the actual docs.

[0] https://medium.com/@dan_abramov/you-might-not-need-redux-be4...

[1] https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2017/05/idiomatic-redux-ta...

[2] https://redux.js.org/introduction/getting-started#should-you...

[3] https://redux.js.org/faq/general#when-should-i-use-redux

[4] https://redux.js.org/style-guide/style-guide

[5] https://redux-toolkit.js.org

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#32

Post by drewcoo »

_bxg1 wrote: post #13

From personal experience, including reading a lot of HN, I think programmers as a species are especially biased towards putting forth opinions in the hopes of being validated for our experience or intelligence, even when we know we don't know much about the subject. The fact that IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer) [but...] is a common enough statement in these circles to deserve its own acronym is telling. We often throw out…

It's not just programmers. It's social activity on the web today. And to stand out, you need to say something edgier or something contrary to popular opinion.

We're also all driven to correct the things we see that aren't quite right.

This comment has been a little of column A and a little of column B.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#33

Post by tuyguntn »

anthony_romeo wrote: post #22
tuyguntn wrote: post #4

I believe part of problem is Google SEO. Tech content maybe bullshit, but marketing content is even more bullshit. I remember times when we had slow internet and/or only subset of blogs we read from time to time. Most of development was done by reading books, specification of devices for writing drivers and so on. Now, literally everyone is trying to do SEO and use lots of words in articles, kind of creating content,…

Or those fake how-to tutorial pages. Often when I’m looking up, say, error codes in Windows, I need to wade through pages of “Step 1: Download the MyNewFreeComputerCleaner.biz app”

after working at couple of startups, I also noticed worrying trend.

* 21 years old marketer writing about life crisis in 40s

* fashion blogger explaining is Teflon harmful or not (come on, fashion and chemistry?)

* 18 years old student who never immigrated to another country or studied abroad writing about how difficult is immigrant life and what to look for in different country and many more similar content.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#34

Post by leetrout »

I’ve said this for a long time:

The people actually doing the work don’t have time to talk about it and the people spending all their time talking about it aren’t doing the work.

Of course there are exceptions but I’m extremely skeptical of a lot of stuff I read.

Also that the HN bubble will always make readers feel behind when in reality 90% of the industry hasn’t even begun to catch-up. I felt behind with K8S in 2016, for example, not realizing we were just seeing the wave form when I felt like it was cresting.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#35

Post by exolymph »

_bxg1 wrote: post #13

From personal experience, including reading a lot of HN, I think programmers as a species are especially biased towards putting forth opinions in the hopes of being validated for our experience or intelligence, even when we know we don't know much about the subject. The fact that IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer) [but...] is a common enough statement in these circles to deserve its own acronym is telling. We often throw out…

To be fair, IANAL is common across the entire know-it-all internet, which is basically everyone who can read at a college level and plenty who can't.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#36

Post by aledalgrande »

tuyguntn wrote: post #4

I believe part of problem is Google SEO. Tech content maybe bullshit, but marketing content is even more bullshit. I remember times when we had slow internet and/or only subset of blogs we read from time to time. Most of development was done by reading books, specification of devices for writing drivers and so on. Now, literally everyone is trying to do SEO and use lots of words in articles, kind of creating content,…

It is an even bigger problem when searching for advanced/niche concepts: try searching for Redis and Cloudwatch (not Elasticache, plain Redis) and you will get generic AWS docs and "How to get started with Redis" posts.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#37

Post by laurentdc »

Brozilean wrote: post #21

I basically realized this when I was at an internship talking to a buddy about a compilers course I could be taking and his language he was making for fun. He was talking about a couple topics I'd probably go over in the course. Then a more senior coworker came over to join the convo and mentioned a few similar words that were clearly jargon related to compilers etc. He spoke with such confidence that I didn't want t…

I've noticed that "I have no idea" as an answer is one of the boldest statements you can make in the workplace.

Most people are playing fake it till you make it most of the time (until shit hits the fan, then incompetence becomes dangerous and you get to see who's been swimming naked)

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#38

Post by ActsJuvenile »

Software libraries, APIs, tools, dependencies have exploded exponentially since the early days of C language and a handful of Berkley/Bell libraries. I often use a dozen different things for my projects and the next project invariable needs a different roster.

Thus I want to voice my contrary opinion that it is okay to "consume" and not "create" for non-core parts of your project. Need to do dump an arcane data structure to a remote logging tool? Go ahead and copy paste that StackExchange snippet kings!

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#39

Post by Koshkin »

layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #19
tuyguntn wrote: post #4

I believe part of problem is Google SEO. Tech content maybe bullshit, but marketing content is even more bullshit. I remember times when we had slow internet and/or only subset of blogs we read from time to time. Most of development was done by reading books, specification of devices for writing drivers and so on. Now, literally everyone is trying to do SEO and use lots of words in articles, kind of creating content,…

Everything goes to shit when marketing is involved. Or more like, everything goes to shit when money is involved.

That's true, of course, but consider this: if there is no money, there may be nothing to go to shit; that which does not live, does not die, etc.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#40

Post by _bxg1 »

exolymph wrote: post #35
_bxg1 wrote: post #13

From personal experience, including reading a lot of HN, I think programmers as a species are especially biased towards putting forth opinions in the hopes of being validated for our experience or intelligence, even when we know we don't know much about the subject. The fact that IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer) [but...] is a common enough statement in these circles to deserve its own acronym is telling. We often throw out…

To be fair, IANAL is common across the entire know-it-all internet, which is basically everyone who can read at a college level and plenty who can't.

I've never seen it outside of HN personally
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