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by tomc1985 2335 days ago
These horrible analogies make me want to stab the writer with a pen

How about he just writes technically and lets reddit comments translate? I'm so sick of writers' concerns for illiterate proles (along with, in this case, a seeming need to maintain the energy and punch of a memetastic for-12-year-olds YouTuber) ruining perfectly good technical writing

3 comments

> These horrible analogies make me want to stab the writer with a pen

Are physical threats what Hacker News is about now?

How about you are not the target audience?
I decided to downvote you for both a gate-keeping attitude (how dare a non-SWE else understand a bit of this stuff?) and for name calling, etc. Please consider learning some empathy.
How is desiring technical depth in a technical post "gatekeeping"?

The ananlogies are horribly pained. It is an excess of empathy that ruins technical writing that could otherwise be quite rich with information. This attitude of writers having to do all the work needs to end; let the reader do some of it

edit- its reductivist to think that only SWEs would understand this stuff. Have you forgotten about the legions of IT professionals and computer nerds that many SWEs came from? The rich history of hacking, much of which this post laments? Or is that kind of nerditry simply unfashionable nowadays?

Unfortunately, richness of information is probably something they want to avoid, lest they give cheat programmers any help.

Not that I'm defending this crap, in my mind it's basically a rootkit that can snoop on anything in your system. Currently trying to figure out how to run games in a hypervisor.

I get that, but it's not like a dedicated attacker can't find relevant information elsewhere.

If your adversary controls the hardware, you've already lost

Which explains why most of the moneymen in this industry push so hard to control hardware we've bought and paid for -- and in many cases built.

I decided to up-vote him because I think technical writing that is aimed at an advanced audience has its place, and that he is well within his rights to express his frustrations in a crass and comedic manner. Please don't over-project your sensibilities.
So did the article not meet the standards of technical writing?
> This person said something I don't like, guess I had better behave like a gatekeeper while hypocritically accusing them of being one

This is you right now