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Comment by yawz | Hacker News Reader

A competent programmer knows that tomatoes are fruits. A proficient programmer doesn't put tomatoes in a fruit salad. :)

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To bring this full circle, "a marketing guy can sell a tomato-based fruit salad."

Even when the salad has no tomatoes in it!

Nor fruits.

"Salsa".

Found the marketing guy. (Or, in the alternate versions I was thinking of, "Bard.")

I like this. It can be applied in a much broader range of professions than just programming, but it's a nice, memorable analogy.

I always heard it as:

"Knowledge is knowing tomatoes are fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put tomatoes in fruit salad."

I am missing an option for the guy who could not care less whether or not a tomato is a fruit or not, because he knows it does not matter at all for his purposes. IMHO the real expert knows what knowledge is relevant and what knowledge is for forum discussions that are just used to kill time.

I'm missing an option for the guy who could not care less whether or not a tomato is a fruit or not, because he knows it does not matter at all for his purposes. IMHO the real expert knows what knowledge is relevant and what knowledge is for forum discussions that are just used to kill time.

How does it not? When making a fruit salad, the knowledge that tomatoes don't go in fruit salad seems pretty relevant.

If you don't have any arguments you downvote, you stupid troll?

You don't have to know that tomatoes are fruit for that? Your reply makes no sense at all. I say "you don't need to know H" and your reply is "but you do need to know Y"! Not to mention that specifically your reply is something only worth knowing when when does know that tomatoes are fruit, and not when one doesn't.

You don't have to know that tomatoes are fruit for that? Your reply makes no sense at all. I say "you don't need to know H" and your reply is "but you do need to know Y"! Not to mention that specifically your reply is something only worth knowing when when does know that tomatoes are fruit, and not when one doesn't.

If you know nothing but what you need to know, then how would you know what you need to know?

Who said "nothing" but you Dick? http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-06-07

I have taken - just for fun - over 70 courses completely out of my own field of expertise (CS) on edX and Coursera. EVERYBODY knows nothing, that is unavoidable. Knowledge is infinite, your brain is very, very finite. So knowing what is actually WORTH knowing - and that is different for every single person - is extremely valuable. Simply calling "you must know this!" "you must know whist too!" and combining all those calls from all people does not work.

In the words of Sherlock Holmes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuIMmwJbnco

Trying to know everything is - as stupid as it gets. Trying to tell others they have to know everything even more so. How much do you know?

I have take several neuroscience classes and know quite a bit about the brain. I'd say that is a lot more valuable than being able to put categories on plants. Yet I would never dream of claiming "you MUST know that!" and downvote anyone who disagrees with me as you did, Dick from the Internet.

Please reflect before answering:

What do you really need the knowledge that "Tomato is not a fruit" for? What does it help you with? And don't use arguments so meta it that can be used for any knowledge. Be precise. I'm really curious what all those people who don't know that are missing in their lives.

Who said "nothing" but you? http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-06-07

I have taken - just for fun - over 70 courses completely out of my own field of expertise (CS) on edX and Coursera. EVERYBODY knows nothing, that is unavoidable. Knowledge is infinite, your brain is very, very finite. So knowing what is actually WORTH knowing - and that is different for every single person - is extremely valuable. Simply calling "you must know this!" "you must know whist too!" and combining all those calls from all people does not work.

In the words of Sherlock Holmes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuIMmwJbnco

Trying to know everything is - as stupid as it gets. Trying to tell others they have to know everything even more so. How much do you know?

Please reflect before answering:

What do you really need the knowledge that "Tomato is not a fruit" for? What does it help you with? And don't use arguments so meta it that can be used for any knowledge. Be precise. I'm really curious what all those people who don't know that are missing in their lives.

You must be a riot at parties.

Maybe the next class you take should be on how not to be the worst.

If you don't have any arguments, this is what you have to come up with. You show that you are just a trolling loser with no substance. Care to react to my arguments? Of course not. Maybe you should spend more time getting an education instead of browsing Internet forums, you don't seem to have anything of value to contribute if have to go for personal attacks.

And a Real Programmer™ makes salsa.

Why wouldn't you put tomatoes in a fruit salad?

Unanswerable.

First of all people do put non-fruit in their fruit salads such as honey, nuts, coconut-milk-jelly, other dairy products like cottage cheese.

Secondly, there is no law saying that I have to make any given named recipe the same way that you and your friends make it. What if I really like tomatoes? Or what if I don't like them at all but the doctor says I must eat so I want to put them into something that tastes yummy to cover the tomato flavor?

Tomatoes are a fruit, specifically they are a berry. Some varieties of tomato are quite sweet, so sweet that some people hate those varieties. Sweet tomatoes work fine in a fruit salad and if you served it to your friends without warning most of them would likely eat it and not complain.

Tomatoes are not the only fruit/vegetable that is sometime used as a fruit and sometimes as a vegetable.

> First of all people do put non-fruit in their fruit salads such as honey, nuts, coconut-milk-jelly, other dairy products like cottage cheese.

In which country does this happen?

Phillipines?

Thailand/Malaysia/Singapore probably, but insisting that a tomato is a fruit these days is like saying anti-Semitism is discrimination against Arabs too.

Lots of reasons[1].

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=Why+wouldn't+you+put+tomatoe...

Counterpoint (taken from those google results):

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016885-tomato-fruit-sala...

Fun fact: the US Supreme Court says that for the purposes of trade and commerce, tomatoes are vegetables.

"Fruit" is a biological classification, "vegetable" is a culinary one. Tomatoes are both. "Fruit" also has a colloquial meaning which generally contrasts with vegetable, hence the discrepancy.

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