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Comment by helmholtz | Hacker News Reader

It's wearisome how predictable HN is. I guess I've spent too much time on here (and continue to do so!). Every single time something vaguely design-related comes up, the entire discussion is about how thou shalt not steal my god-given right to use pure-black-on-white. Programmers apparently detest anything even remotely not #000, but fuck me is it ever repetitive and boring.

I loved this list.

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I don't think there's a name for this concept but I think of it as like, anti-pretentious pretentiousness. The place I first saw it well described was in a novel where tennis players who spend a lot of time on the court picking up balls develop a fluid motion to launch the ball off the ground with their racket and so avoid bending over to pick it up. It becomes a signal that a player is serious. But then less serious players see that, see that it looks smooth and cool, understand what it signals, and so practice that motion for its own sake.

In response the really elite players just go back to bending over to pick up the ball with their hand, signaling that they're too skilled to bother signaling how skilled they are.

HN falls hard into this in general. But then combine it with the disdain or even contempt it's fashionable to show towards subjective pursuits like aesthetics, and it gets dialed way up.

Like you said it's very predictable. Any time I see a link that has any sort of distinctive design, unique typographic style, or especially authorial tone, I know instantly what a handful of comments are going to be.

> In response the really elite players just go back to bending over to pick up the ball with their hand, signaling that they're too skilled to bother signaling how skilled they are.

Truly elite players have ball boys and girls pick up balls for them.

Your point, though, reminds me of the Sneetches by Dr. Seuss

I grew up in the days of SD video and the start of using computers for digital designs for video. In SD NTSC/PAL, you'd never use 000 for black nor 255 for white. Instead, you'd use broadcast safe 16,16,16 and 235,235,235. That's just something that has always stuck, even when converting to web. It's not because some rule, but just because I like to know there's a little bit more if I ever need it. To this day, I'll still start in a similar limited vein for HD and 4K designs. It's like a warm fuzzy blanket that I'll never let someone take away.

I'm sorry, but stop it with the "thou shalt not use black on white". _That's_ the predictable evergreen amateur design bro take.

Once you realize that "appeal to nature" is a fallacy, you will be free.

You missed the motivation behind my diatribe. Wanting black on white is fine (it's what I do on my text editors). I just hate that up and down this thread, that's all I get to read, although the list is full of other nuggets that I would have loved to have seen fleshed out here.

Your comment was the first one related to that rule I read, and I'm a good way down the page. Maybe you just happened to see the comments early on when a discussion on that happened to be at the top.

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