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Comment by barrysteve | Hacker News Reader

I shouldn't ask but I wonder what the comment was. There's a weird individuality to internet comments. We all read the same comments and sometimes walk away with a meaning that only matters to us, which we rarely share with others. I wonder, should there be second order discussions about public comments?

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It wasn't even that pointed. I don't remember the exact wording but the comment was basically someone telling me I had no right to criticize a language's choices until I'd written a compiler myself.

It's is clearly nonsense, the same kind of logic as people who hate movie critics, but it's gotten a rent-free place in my head for years now.

Something just about the tone of the comment made it stick in my brain.

Well in case it helps, yes that's complete nonsense. Of course languages can be criticised, by anyone, just like everything else. That's how they improve.

I guess by that logic the person shouldn't be criticising your criticism of the language until they've tried criticising the language themselves .

Makes me wonder if the person who made the comment had themselves written a compiler, or, as I suspect, not.

A few days ago someone got confused by traffic patterns and shouted angrily at me from his car window. He was in the wrong, but still it sticks in my mind. I wish there was a way to have some meta discussion about situations like that without it inevitably being interpreted as a petty continuation of the first-order conflict.

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