[tom_mellior]

> I dunno how I "persuade" more.

In your original post, the first paragraph made you sound like a crank. You said the paper is like breaking the speed of light, but you don't even mention the topic of the paper. I almost stopped reading at that point. Similarly for the sentence towards the end saying that this is "crazy important". People can decide that for themselves. They can decide even better if you put stuff into context.

So to persuade more, for this specific post of yours, I would have suggested to replace the first paragraph by something like: "Here is a surprising paper that shows that you can sort general data structures in linear time!"

[KirinDave]

> In your original post, the first paragraph made you sound like a crank. You said the paper is like breaking the speed of light, but you don't even mention the topic of the paper. I almost stopped reading at that point. Similarly for the sentence towards the end saying that this is "crazy important". People can decide that for themselves. They can decide even better if you put stuff into context.

I literally mention the TITLE of the paper, itself precisely explaining its domain & method, directly after the statement and end it with a semicolon.

Let's be real here. The paper is a real dragon of a read. If you're not going to go past a single surprising sentence maybe it was pointless for me to mention it anyways.

> "Here is a surprising paper that shows that you can sort general data structures in linear time!"

I have done this twice, tried different tact twice more, and been downvoted or ignored every time. This is the new me, assuming that folks just don't know how their every artifice of computation is backed by sort. And I suppose... why would they? A great many people simply skip even the basic theory of computation as they join the industry now, and maybe that's okay.

But I say it precisely as I do to generate shock. It should be surprising. I've caught people interviewing for principal engineering positions at Google and Amazon off guard with this. It's very, very surprising.

[s_gourichon]

> I have done this twice, tried different tact twice more, and been downvoted or ignored every time.

You should have tried this: "This weird trick by a dad sorts in linear time. Check it out!" Proven to work on so many ad-ridden clickbait websites, so why shouldn't it work on HN? ;-)

[KirinDave]

"I don't want to live on this planet anymore."

[s_gourichon]

I don't know if your comment is humour in reply to my humour, or if you're actually kinda hurt. So let's err on the safe side.

The short comment "weird trick" that you replied to was just a joke intending to yield a smile to readers, including you. Actually I liked the "speed limit" way you previously used to submit the paper on HN.

That said, I skimmed through the article you mention and found it to look serious and instructive (from my experience getting a Ph.D. in computer science / robotics, yet nothing does not guarantee anything) yet needing to allocate a serious time slot for actual understanding. Many people, even on HN, don't upvote due to complexity, yet it was right to submit it. A number of other insightful comments were written in this thread, thanks for them. Also, your ELI5 explanations are interesting.

My current feeling is like: this sort/discriminator stuff is probably valuable, though it will start usage in demanding situations. It may also eventually be used, without their users even knowing, as a private implementation detail of some data structure in high-level languages. Wait and see.

Back to feelings, this planet has some drawbacks but all in all it's worth it. B612 is too small, we're better here. You can expect good things from HN an similar communities but don't expect too much. Try to refrain from complaining, this feeds the negative part of you and readers as human nature tends to stick bad karma to the ones who complain. Also, when disappointed try to not misattribute causes and favor doubt. Feed the positive part of life.

[KirinDave]

I understood your joke. I was making a reference to a famous episode if Futurama.

I can't bring myself to clickbait genuine science and math.