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Comment by choward | Hacker News Reader

That's exactly what I thought when I read the title. It's very frustrating how many landing pages, project readmes, blog posts, etc that don't answer the question "why?". I usually need to know that before going further when I come across something that I've never heard of before. If they don't have the "why?" somewhere easy to find I just close the tab.

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You know, that might not be unintentional. They might want those who don't see the value to just close the tab and move on. That way only those who see the value keep reading. I imagine it helps avoid having to engage in (often endless) arguments about the validity of the use case.

I am quite surprised by your message. This is HN and even before or outside of that, for years I have myself dived into totally random projects simply because "why not?".

To try random ideas is part of learning and when you have something to share, just do that. There will always be like minded someone to pick up.

Whenever I see someone ask these "whys", I have the urge to show them this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4hOIgRPlNU

It's a bit of a guilty pleasure for me to read these kinds of weird things with no practical application. It's just a little refreshing to read about something technically possibly, but frivolous (no offense meant to the OP, of course) just because it can be done.

"Because it can be done" is a very solid answer to "Why?"

It helps me to step outside my own context and view a familiar use case, problem, or solution with an unfamiliar perspective.

Because it was there.

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