[Ntrails]

I think the idea was that 3D printing made doing a thing accessible, previously required solid fundamental knowledge (and very expensive kit). Now you can just take some specs off the internet and press go.

The comparison does not seem as absurd to me as it does to you. vOv

[cloudfudge]

The lesson here is that one should never attempt analogies on HN, because people can't just relax and try to see the point of the analogy. They are compelled to fixate on the fact that an analogy is different from the thing it is being compared to.

I see multiple examples of it in this thread.

[jacobgkau]

I feel like Hacker News commenters love to make analogies more than average people in your average space, though. You can't come across a biology/health topic on here without someone chiming in with "it's like if X was code and it had this bug" or "it's like this body part is the Y of the computer."

Analogies can be useful sometimes, but people also shouldn't feel like they need to see everything through the lens of their primary domain, because it usually results in losing nuances.

[cloudfudge]

On the other hand, if you are communicating with a bunch of people who share that primary domain, it can be a useful way of making a point.

(unless that primary domain tends to attract a lot of people who tend to the hyper-literal /s)