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Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

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Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#151

Post by BiteCode_dev »

vba616 wrote: post #141
saulpw wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

90% of everything is crap. -- Sturgeon's Law

Based on a couple of his best known stories that I read when I was pretty young, I revered him as an author. But a few years ago, I found out that his short stories had been collected in a multi-volume series, and I started reading them. I was pretty crestfallen; I don't use the term "cringey" much, but that's how I would describe a lot of them. I intended to read the whole series, but haven't and probably won't. Not…

That kinda prove the whole point: even for the same author, 90% is crap.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#152

Post by up2isomorphism »

ilyt wrote: post #46
spacemadness wrote: post #18

One devious form of bullshit is always using the simplest of examples to prove out an architecture pattern and call it a day. I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve seen patterns with glaring open questions and pitfalls the author avoids. Then the cacophony of likes follow from folks who’re likely very early in their career or hobby and don’t know any better. This is very prevalent on iOS development blogs as authors…

I feel like classic object oriented tutorials talking about fruits and apples with no connection to actual apps you'd build are ones to add to this pile

Actually these are not bad examples per se if what you want is to understand objects oriented concepts, the problem is that for many scenarios OOP is just a bad model for them.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#153

Post by yen223 »

shrimp_emoji wrote: post #101
rcurry wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh man, who can forget the interview questions back in the nineties. I go to an interview after spending all week writing trading systems in C++ and it’s always “let’s say you are building a car, how would you structure the classes?” LMAO, I always failed. Good times.

Reading that made me cringe. I'd make the `Tire` class derive the `SteeringWheel` class, and `Tire::turn()` moves the car while `SteeringWheel::turn()` steers the car.

Tires and steering wheels are the same after all, no need to reinvent the wheel

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#154

Post by samsquire »

Each architectural pattern produces its own fruit, which can be good or bad.

I think the error that technical people do is assume that what they've settled on as the truth IS the ONLY truth and they are right and everybody else is wrong. I think the author makes this error too ("Everybody else's technical content is WRONG")

One persons' beauty is another person' trash.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#155

Post by rramadass »

shortrounddev2 wrote: post #88

I think HN is a madhouse. Any article I click on, there's things I've never heard of that sound like made up techno-jargon, like programming languages which I've never seen used in a real job, let alone met anyone who uses them But I go to the comments and there's 150 people who all know every intimate detail of this technology already. Experts in the subject. I think most of you all are faking it

>I think most of you all are faking it

There is a lot of that of course; but ...

It is also the nature of the medium (i.e. short pithy comments) which makes one come across as an "Expert" without the writer having intended it.

The way i deal with it is to treat comments strictly as data/pointers/advice which i then look up in some detailed book on that domain. In other words, don't take anything at face value but do your own study.

Finally it also seems to be the case that HN has more exceptions to your statement than is found at other sites i.e. we have more outliers showing up here.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#156

Post by rldjbpin »

shortrounddev2 wrote: post #88

I think HN is a madhouse. Any article I click on, there's things I've never heard of that sound like made up techno-jargon, like programming languages which I've never seen used in a real job, let alone met anyone who uses them But I go to the comments and there's 150 people who all know every intimate detail of this technology already. Experts in the subject. I think most of you all are faking it

i thought that this was an open secret.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#157

Post by j_french »

vba616 wrote: post #141
saulpw wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

90% of everything is crap. -- Sturgeon's Law

Based on a couple of his best known stories that I read when I was pretty young, I revered him as an author. But a few years ago, I found out that his short stories had been collected in a multi-volume series, and I started reading them. I was pretty crestfallen; I don't use the term "cringey" much, but that's how I would describe a lot of them. I intended to read the whole series, but haven't and probably won't. Not…

That's it! Seems my pal may have been passing Sturgeon's law off as his own invention.

Definitely agree that it holds true on an individual basis. I've made some music. Most of it's crap. Some of it's alright. Definitely no masterpiece.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#158

Post by jlengrand »

quenix wrote: post #74
jlengrand wrote: post #21

" On est toujours le con de quelqu'un, et tant pis pour lui". -> "We are always someone's jerk, and so much the worse for him". Agree with the article, I just wished it wasn't conflating "bullshit / actual harmful content" as much with "stuff that is valid, but in a given context". 200% that nothing online, (nor IRL to be fair), should be taken as universal truth. I see that same at conferences, with certain topics/f…

I think a more natural translation would be “You are always the idiot to someone else. And too bad for them.”

Thanks!

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#159

Post by valval »

tensor wrote: post #50
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #43

True, but most content in general is bullshit. Most scientific publications is BS published for the sake of pumping your numbers. Most student memoire is BS to pass the exam. Most financial analyses, most TV journal reporting, most tweets, most books are BS. Ever read doctors or lawyers specialized magazines? Most pages are BS on top of BS. Paid content, content produced to fill space, making volume, low quality auth…

This is grossly reductive. There is a huge spectrum of quality in content. Most of what you describe, formal studies by experts, is on a much much higher tier than the 99% of content most people read. Comparing informed formal studies to the uninformed opinion pieces most of the tech crowd reads and implying they are somehow the same is borderline supporting disinformation. There is absolutely a big spectrum of quali…

I’m not sure what you mean by reductive in this case. 90% of kids’ plays are crap while 90% of Broadway shows are crap, with no need to compare those two domains.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#160

Post by thebigwinning »

eternityforest wrote: post #143
thebigwinning wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is cool and authentic content though. Got any recs for me?

Industrial Society and Its Future, and the various influences for it? The Golden Spruce? I mostly only pay attention to anything tech-negative at all if it's got some kind of historical or human interest. I've read a lot of the Suckless stuff though, and the Worse is Better stuff, because I always see it on places like this and thought I should probably at least know what it is. But it always seems like people from l…

> mathematicians

I see that differently. Mathemticians often come into a field that's complex and filled with fudge factors and layers of engineering and make it clear and simple. See the history of electrical engineering in the 20th century.

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