Ask HN: What product, etc. do you think is snake oil?

#1

Post by meagher » Mon, Oct 19, 2020, 10:17 PM UTC

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Re: Ask HN: What product, etc. do you think is snake oil?

#2

Post by gruglife » Mon, Oct 19, 2020, 10:28 PM UTC

For me it’s slack. I don’t get why it’s so popular and why people love it. It’s just another chat app to me.

Re: Ask HN: What product, etc. do you think is snake oil?

#3

Post by fsflover » Mon, Oct 19, 2020, 10:29 PM UTC

Brave browser. See many discussions here for details why.

Re: Ask HN: What product, etc. do you think is snake oil?

#4

Post by sharps_xp » Mon, Oct 19, 2020, 11:17 PM UTC

i think any software that only highlights its benefits is inherently deceptive. i have to go and figure out the fundamentals and see if i can surmise the tradeoffs.

one top of mind example is event streaming like kafka. sure it has benefits but as soon as start using streams like a WAL and turn your application into a database with ACID guarantees you’re going to blanket regret going with event streaming. you might call that user error but enterprise support won’t tell you stop using it that way