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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

Instead of "opinionated", perhaps this word is a better fit:

    Paternalistic (adjective)

    (of people in authority) making decisions for other people rather than letting them take responsibility for their own lives

Source: Cambridge Dictionary

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> rather than letting them take responsibility for their own lives

It would seem to me people sometimes don't want to bother figuring out what's the best way of doing X, therefore I feel it is still valuable for someone to do the research and productize his know-how on "the best way of doing X".

There's nothing wrong with having good defaults, just with not being able to override them. "Opinionated" usually means latter.

Not just usually, opinionated means exactly paternalistic: "opinionated" is the opposite of "configureable". That is a basic tenet of the article.

That makes it sound easy. Overriding means the capacity to be overriden. I.e., if you can change the default, then it presupposed that you have a mechanism for dealing with various options PLUS some other options. That's additional work.

Yes, you need to implement a configuration mechanism, but you almost always do anyway.

I don't really understand the objection. The article is only meaningful as a response to those who try to make a product that is everything to everyone, thus producing a product for nobody. Besides, unless you only buy bespoke, made-to-order products design in consultation with you, anything with a design has already been decided potentially in a way that you dislike but others don't.

"Opinionated software" is a established term, hence the use I guess.

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