Ask HN: What product, etc. do you think is snake oil? • Hacker News Board

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

#11

Post by calmworm » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 1:11 AM UTC

gruglife wrote: post #2

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.

I use it daily and like using it but it will never leave my mind that it’s just shiny IRC.

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

#12

Post by muzani » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 1:42 AM UTC

muzani wrote: post #5

gruglife wrote: post #2

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.

The other chat apps are worse. The gap isn't quite as big as Excel vs Google Sheets, but try sending documents via Discord it WhatsApp.

To clarify (since I can't edit), we use Slack as a replacement for email, and other apps for chat. It's great for sending quick code snippets. It's good for notifying the whole team when there's a new build for testing, as well as getting comments on that build. It's okay for bringing attention to a thing.

Notifications during office hours by default hurts it - instead of people not sending messages outside work hours, everyone just uses something else for notifications.

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

#13

Post by buffaloo » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 2:26 AM UTC

Facebook sucks

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

#14

Post by consilience » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 2:41 AM UTC

Any program/seminar/book that sells you success without factoring in luck...which is pretty much all of them.

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

#15

Post by sangli » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 2:52 AM UTC

All the ideology based practices in software engineering. TDD, xtreme programming, pair programming, BDD etc.

This comment is going to rile up many, but I haven't found anyone to show me even a half-ass scientific study to show that any of these things make anything better.

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

#16

Post by ThrowMeAwayOkay » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 3:56 AM UTC

Agile

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

#17

Post by simonblack » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 4:04 AM UTC

Almost:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/i~cAAOSwEDde2HIE/s-l400.jpg

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

#18

Post by harryruhr » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 4:49 AM UTC

Almost any "NextGen" "cybersecurity" product

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

#19

Post by duxup » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 5:05 AM UTC

sangli wrote: post #15

All the ideology based practices in software engineering. TDD, xtreme programming, pair programming, BDD etc. This comment is going to rile up many, but I haven't found anyone to show me even a half-ass scientific study to show that any of these things make anything better.

Not to say I disagree but are there any studies about coding practices that tell us anything?

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

#20

Post by codegeek » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 6:25 AM UTC

calmworm wrote: post #11

gruglife wrote: post #2

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.

I use it daily and like using it but it will never leave my mind that it’s just shiny IRC.

Dont forget dropbox was just shiny FTP :)