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by thraway123 592 days ago
Yeah, I always get depressed[1] when us Hacker News[2] Readers fail to mention little tidbits[3] of facts that connect things together like Erdos Number[4]. It's indeed solely for these little random facts that I come here at all. My knowledge of them, and my need to cite[5] them whenever they are even marginally related to the article I at most skimmed allow me to feel like I'm part of a special group indeed.

If someone does not mention these facts that I myself know, and many readers of this site know, then I feel completely at a loss. What am I to do? Am I to critically think of the article at hand. See the man depicted as something other then the distillation of these tidbits of Wikipedia article links scattered in my memory? Or do I think: no, this is an existential issue. Anyone who does not know, does not mention, does not prostrate themselves before an uhh... numbering system... are the lost ones. Not I!

This same pedantic drive, which drives the entirety of my life, also compels me to correct you: it's actually called an Erdős number.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depression_(mood)

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/

[3] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tidbit

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erd%C5%91s_number

[5] This is a citation.