As a hacker on Hacker News I'd have to agree with the others that animations are a Very Bad Thing. They are distracting to me, an easily distracted person, who is currently avoiding work by reading Hacker News this afternoon.
As a hacker on Hacker News you're not a typical user.
Don't get me wrong, I feel like a lot of animation is unnecessary but if you did what Hacker News advised every webpage would look the same in Lynx as it does in Chrome. Animations can serve a purpose - to focus the user's eye, to give them a sense of where something is going to and from, etc. etc.
They're not universally bad, and this is a fascinating library - it deserves more credit than "animations are bad".
Since I'm aware of material design, I find myself constantly looking for the animations and trying to evaluate how they work on me, which kind of defeats the purpose. I keep seeing those circles everywhere!
I think it's the right direction, though; animating to subtly direct user attention to the right place.
Don't get me wrong, I feel like a lot of animation is unnecessary but if you did what Hacker News advised every webpage would look the same in Lynx as it does in Chrome. Animations can serve a purpose - to focus the user's eye, to give them a sense of where something is going to and from, etc. etc.
They're not universally bad, and this is a fascinating library - it deserves more credit than "animations are bad".