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Ask HN: What are some iconic comments on HN?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some iconic comments on HN?

#91

Post by meowster »

meowster wrote: post #78
solardev wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a parody of the original: https://www.thesr71blackbird.com/Aircraft/Stories/sr-71-blac...

The original story doesn't pass the smell test, but it's fun and hard to disprove. Sled Driver is a great book for anyone looking for something to read. Physical copies sell for the hundreds of dollars, but there is a PDF floating on the high seas.

The volatility of voting on my comment seems like an explanation is deserved:

Here's a different SR-71 pilot saying it's probably not true: https://old.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/xis19w/reddits_be...

There was another thread that had a larger discussion as to additional holes in the story, but Google is not as good as it once was.

Re: Ask HN: What are some iconic comments on HN?

#92

Post by paulcole »

JohnFen wrote: post #89
paulcole wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially… This is the part where he loses any sympathy. If it’s so trivial why was nobody doing it? It’s classic tech bro know-it-all-ism. Plus yeah wow, without the 3% of people who run desktop Linux whatever will a business do?

> If it’s so trivial why was nobody doing it? It was commonly done, and still is.

It’s probably why Dropbox failed.

Re: Ask HN: What are some iconic comments on HN?

#93

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

photochemsyn wrote: post #61
BoxOfRain wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://hn.algolia.com/ is quite good for finding things on HN.

Curiously, you can search stories by popularity but not comments.

Unfortunately, what I really want is to find any story about my search term that has comments, but I've never found a way to do that. (Usecase: "Hm, should I install Foo or Bar? Let's see if anyone on HN has used either and written about it...")

Re: Ask HN: What are some iconic comments on HN?

#94

Post by paulddraper »

pavlov wrote: post #19
sidcool wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will always be the best example of HN.

Yes, in the sense that it’s someone providing useful and concise feedback on a YC application, which is what the original poster (the Dropbox founder) explicitly asked for.

What part of the feedback was most useful to Dropbox?

* That it didn't solve a problem for Linux users?

* That it ultimately relies on some internet connectivity?

* That it is not very "'viral' or income generating"?

Re: Ask HN: What are some iconic comments on HN?

#95

Post by paulddraper »

codegeek wrote: post #24
IamLoading wrote: post #13

i found this funny. bitcoin's first HN post, and commentor claiming its cute, but no will entertain the idea. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=600813

And everything they said is still true. yes there are some believers but most crypto lovers are nothing but trying to get rich quick. No real world practical adoption after 15+ years.

> No real world practical adoption

You can quibble about which parts of the world are "real" or not, but the adoption of Bitcoin ($1.3T) dwarfs 99% of company market caps.

Re: Ask HN: What are some iconic comments on HN?

#96

Post by JohnFen »

paulcole wrote: post #92
JohnFen wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If it’s so trivial why was nobody doing it? It was commonly done, and still is.

It’s probably why Dropbox failed.

I don't understand the snark here.

The existence of restaurants doesn't imply that people don't cook their own food. That people have long come up with their own solutions for the problem that Dropbox addresses isn't incompatible with the notion that Dropbox can be a successful product. Obviously.

The world is packed full of products and services that do things that people can easily do themselves, because plenty of people are happy to not have to do that thing regardless. That's Dropbox's target market.

Re: Ask HN: What are some iconic comments on HN?

#97

Post by flessner »

knowaveragejoe wrote: post #67
flessner wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to forget that "cheap fees" is an argument that doesn't hold up anymore - Bitcoin and Ethereum fees are outlandish; Solana and other chains are just about "alright". The tech at its core is really interesting though, sadly the most innovation seems to be in marketing at the moment.

The fees are virtually nothing on the layer 2 chains, but of course that's besides the point because it's a hurdle for anyone remotely non-technical to get there.

All new networks promise low fees, but as soon as the activity shifts there they don't hold up. I have seen it happen too many times before and is just by design of the fee market.

I don't even think the hurdle is that big, I find a lot of "crypto wallets" nicer to use than many banking apps - main issue imo is the risk to loose funds, which is significant even for technical users.

Re: Ask HN: What are some iconic comments on HN?

#98

Post by sanj »

crop_rotation wrote: post #76
fotta wrote: post #4

Did you win the Putnam? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079

Is it just me or that comment seems planted to get that response? I don't get why is there a random reference to Ravi Vakil who has nothing to do with the context of that conversation. And if you want to cite for academic accomplishment, you can cite someone known much more widely. I find it much less iconic due to that.

Ravi's my cousin.

Re: Ask HN: What are some iconic comments on HN?

#99

Post by crop_rotation »

sanj wrote: post #98
crop_rotation wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it just me or that comment seems planted to get that response? I don't get why is there a random reference to Ravi Vakil who has nothing to do with the context of that conversation. And if you want to cite for academic accomplishment, you can cite someone known much more widely. I find it much less iconic due to that.

Ravi's my cousin.

That still does not make it relevant. Saying to some random stranger on the internet who claims to be bold that he is not bolder than your cousin and quoting a specific accomplishment just feels too much like one knows that the accomplishment is common to both and invites the now famous reply by Colin.

Don't get me wrong, Ravi being your cousin adds a lot of context and makes it much easier to understand why. But still makes the comment much less iconic for me.

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