[fwdpropaganda]

HN continues to confuse me to no end.

Mention some mathematically advanced idea: out come the pitchforks about how you don't need that, all you need is code/market size/scalability/product fit/investment/execution.

Mention a banality that anyone who studied algebra knows: frontpage.

[dang]

Could you please not post like this? It's a shallow dismissal and it's tediously meta.

There's nothing wrong with the OP at all—someone sharing the excitement of discovering something for themselves.

[viraptor]

You may be overestimating the banality. I studied CS with many math courses and some of the article goes over my head. (It would be clearer 10y ago) I don't expect many people here actually studied math as their main goal.

[fwdpropaganda]

That aside I think there's something bigger here.

I think learning is really hard work, and so most people's first reaction to hard work is to say No, and then go and construct an a posteriori rationale for why actually they shouldn't do that hard work (it's not that useful, you're never gonna use it, you're an expert at something else, etc).

Similar story for why asking data structures in job interviews is a bad idea when you're an applicant (but the people who have been hired and are hiring, do think it's good to ask)

[steamer25]

Yeah it seems analogous to bike shedding or Paul Graham's 'blub' paradox. I.e., "we don't understand that and haven't [realized that we've] needed it to date therefore it's probably not important and certainly not of interest".

I like your conservation-of-mental-energy interpretation.

[fwdpropaganda]

TIL about the Blub paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blub_paradox#The_Blub_paradox

Thanks for that.

[viraptor]

Or... you know, this is actually new information to some people. Why does there have to be something bigger behind it?

[fwdpropaganda]

Or... both can be true.

[rs86]

My sentiments exactly. I see how the author felt thrilled by his discovery. But hn is getting less interesting each month. Otoh lobsters and Lbda the ultimate keep going strong.

[fwdpropaganda]

Oh how interesting. Just went on lobste.rs and at the bottom they have the moderation log made public. Really cool. I guess it's unusual because moderators don't like accountability.

What's Lbda though?

[rs86]

Ltu, lambda the ultimate