[mindcrime]

I kinda feel like this has become the new "middlebrow dismissal". It seems superficially insightful, but doesn't actually say anything useful. Sure, many - hell, maybe even most - people don't need (machine learning | quantum computing | big data | a partridge in a pear tree | whatever). But plenty do.

Merely pointing out this dichotomy doesn't do anything to help people understand when they do, or don't, need those things.

How about a comment along the lines of "Here's how to know when you need to use quantum computing, and how to know when you shouldn't"?

[throwawaymath]

I agree. I find comments like that one to be incredibly stifling to discussion. In my opinion there's a certain smugness to dismissals like this, and I think they don't contribute much for several reasons.

First, the fact that most of us don't need quantum computers doesn't mean we shouldn't feel inspired to learn about them. It's a thoroughly interesting subject. I don't believe I'll live to see practical quantum computers for most of the use cases they're hyped about now, but that didn't stop me from making them my research focus in graduate school.

Second, in many exceptionally well-moderated forums for critical discussion (e.g. /r/AskHistorians), there is a mandate in place that requires commenters to engage with their source material. This means it's not enough to link to something that's ostensibly accurate; you also need to critically clarify that material to make it accessible to other readers and contextually relevant. When a link is posted without that engagement, you force others to click through to decide for themselves not only why it's relevant, but why it's accurate.

Finally, it's not a novel insight. There are scores of comments repeating the same point for any number of hyped topics, from machine learning to blockchain to JavaScript frameworks to quantum computing. It's essentially a meme. But it's more insidious than a meme, because memes are obviously low effort and insufficientally novel. This is a middlebrow dismissal precisely because it appears intellectual, yet has no insightful contribution.

And this is the result: instead of discussing what might be a very interesting Python library for quantum computing, we're litigating the appropriateness of a dismissive top comment. What have we achieved?