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Comment by ajarmst | Hacker News Reader

I think I'll open with a dubious metaphor I just came up with and a demand that the reader immediately and wholeheartedly accept that metaphor as literal truth. That's how you grab an audience!

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Yes, I write intentionally click-baity blog posts. You got me.

https://archive.is/1CJpA

ajarmst's point goes beyond click-baitiness -- indeed it is about the little quote-box on the first para rather than the title. You say: "Any software system begins as a shared narrative about a problem and the people who come together around solving that problem."

I can, in fact, bend my view of facts to fit this metaphor. And if am also dubious about doing so, that's OK as it makes it all the more likely that I will learn something new from your post.

So why spoil that with some the arrogant demand that: "If you don’t accept the above proposition completely then nothing I have to say about software is going to work for you."?

Just to advocate for the devil here, I think some advice is predicated on a shared model, between the giver and the taker, of how things work. If you don’t buy the model, then you probably won’t deeply understand or agree with the arguments that would get you from the model to the thesis.

I definitely appreciated this early warning to get off the ride.

While I appreciate the spirit of what you are saying, the average time on page of 3 minutes 45 seconds (across 2k uniques) indicates most visitors are continuing past the paragraph you claim would be problematic.

Devils advocate: Do you know what the average time is to read the entire thing is? If it's 7.5 minutes, then one possible explanation is that your audience is split (50/50). Median time would be a much better indicator.

Yep. I spend a lot of time qualifying and hedging on these ideas in the work I do for software organizations. These blog posts are my opportunity to just lay my true opinions out for people and see what happens :)

The fact you thought about it enough to write 3 paragraphs about it shows the stickiness of my click-bait technique. You may not like my post but you will remember it.

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