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Comment by automatoney | Hacker News Reader

Yeah I'll be honest the work is nice but the author comes off as extremely insufferable. The writing gives off the impression that the author wants us to see him as this highly educated renaissance man, but it feels like that impression is being forced. Which is unfortunate because I seem to have quite a bit in common with him. Gentle reminder to myself to try and NOT talk like this.

I feel this would also be suited by connecting the topic to trends in minimalism and maximalism. Also maybe a better comparison to the guns and swords (which were essentially accessories) would be to smartphones and the cases people use - it's a more similar comparison, although not relevant to the "building a computer" part.

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Adding new detailed thoughts in a reply:

The article leans heavily on traditionalist phrasings - "no one was lifting the most centrally important functional objects in our lives into the domain of beauty. The practice of these long-gone artisans had disappeared." And then tracing some etymology back to PIE and referring to that etymology as imparting "thousands of years of wisdom from the most successful cultures in history." onto a phrase is a statement that couldn't possibly be more Euro-centric (and linguistically ill-informed - almost every word has thousands of years of history).

"The process of 'men of strength, skill, and virtue using their hands to enforce their will on materials' should not be forgotten." feels really gross in a modern context - it's not too far off from complaining about "what happened to real men." as if the past was some glorious golden age (and has kind of imperialist vibes - why must men "enforce" their will on materials? What structure does "enforce" imply that "work with" does not?)

And then ending with a quote from The Aeneid is just... I don't know what the word is, pretentious? I'm a massive classics fan, and I've read/translated portions of the Aeneid (for school, not fun), but it seems like that work was only chosen because it's famous and old - not because this has anything to do with that myth.

There are two phrases I hate to use. Due to their overuse to the point of becoming meaningless.

The first is pretentious. Which the OP massively is, they seek to impose the impression that they're a learned and intelligent person. By appeal to classics, high art, and digressions of philosophy and ideological viewpoints. Which I can believe has place in a postmortem of a project like this; as it seems an incredibly personal project that is created in order to explore an ideological viewpoint. Therefore explaining the "why" and "how" of the project is necessary for fully appreciating the intention.

I will not use the secondary phrase, as it tends to distract conversations and lead to people interpreting it as an attack. So instead I'll talk about what I mean directly; and that the appeal to tradition and implication that modern society is a "decayed and degenerate" form of past "western" society leads to a rather unfortunate ideology.

It seems to advocate that modernity is a decayed version of a past civilization. And the obvious end point of this form of thought is in order to reverse this decay society must return to a "golden age. Which the author seems to imply is 18th and 19th Century Western Europe, due to the artifacts and architecture that is upheld; as well as the fascination with historical Japan (which was common in late 19th century Europe). And likewise, there is an implication of Übermenschian "imposing one's will on society" with that quote you placed in the middle paragraph. That the author places their device in opposition to all of modernity, and therefore superior due to it drawing from undiluted history rather than the decay of modern society. Likewise, the digression of going on Instagram, "despite my higher self choosing the latter," seems to imply an internal disgust of not being "strong enough" to overcome their weak will. Ultimately, placing themselves and their computer as a mythological hero against a degenerate world.

This viewpoint I find personally gross and distasteful. And instead a kind of intellectual and emotional honest perspective would have been much more interesting and easier to digest. One that proposes this project as an experiment to draw from the Arts and Craft movement, and craftsmanship computing as a tool for personal fulfillment. Being honest about the drawbacks and the difficulties of such a device; and presenting lessons that one can apply to their own projects. Encouraging others to reflect on craftsmanship as a viewpoint, and thinking how to apply it in unexpected places (like computing).

Invoking Spengler's metaphysical aspects of cultures is also … an interesting choice, and really doesn't sit well combined with the praise for the "superior" aristocrat showpieces...

This writing ain't great, but I've sure read far worse fake-smart trying-too-hard pieces. Usually, those sorts come off like they've got no real promise as writers—this, I dunno, it seems like the writer's fairly young, maybe five or ten years of refinement of discernment, taste, self-awareness, and audience empathy, and hell, they might be pretty good. The prose definitely doesn't stand up under the weight of all that pretension, but I'll be damned if doesn't, at times, almost make it. There are some promising elements on display.

Meanwhile, god damn, I wish HN would get half this riled up when much nastier things come across the site than some trust fund kid writing about their woodworking project. I mean, wow, this is a mean discussion, and I get the criticism of the piece, and even agree with much of it, but yikes.

[EDIT] That last bit, incidentally, is not a jab at you, automatoney.

yep - it's a bit hard to get past the writing in places: "It proffers an alternate computational reality." Sure?

I appreciate anyone experimenting with cool aesthetics, but this description ignores the enormous numbers of people building case mods, including many out of wood or unconventional materials.

It's sort of in the style of what you might find in a luxury catalog, when someone is about to try to sell you something at 60000% markup, but ladled on with a power sprayer.

I fully agree.

And what an anticlimactic article. The only ugly piece of craft on this page is his "computer". It's useless too, which is fine, art can be useless, but I have a hard time seeing the esthetic value. In the eye of the beholder, sure. But it feels like my 5-year old having painted something in pre-school and showing it to me. Sure he's proud. Sure I'll praise him. But is it art? Well..

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