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Comment by Jabrov | Hacker News Reader

Lighten up chap

No, just like engineers, doctors, etc. take their work seriously so should programmers.

There are places for jokes. This is not one of them.

You're wasting your time. Despite the fact that computers literally run the world, the vast majority of software engineers have collectively decided that their work is only deserving of ridicule and stupid memes. Software engineering is the only profession in human history where self-hate is the cultural norm, and any attempt to imbue the work with seriousness and respect is invariably met with contempt from the professional masses.

As always, relevant xkcd

https://xkcd.com/2030/

Both the "joke" you linked to, and the fact that you linked to it, are part of the problem I described. If you can't respect what you do, I promise you that others won't either.

If it wasn't obvious (it probably wasn't), I like HTTP 418 and I applaud movements to make sure it stays. Having a good sense of humor is akin to oil that keeps the world working properly.

I'm just trying to make some money so I can live in the city and eat food. Not really interested in earning people's respect.

Why the hell would anyone care if someone respects their profession or not anyways? Seems like a weird thing to get bent out of shape about.

Lighten up a little man, life is supposed to be about having fun and enjoying it.

The only joke I see is the cosmic irony of some pompous, self-appointed gatekeeper bitterly complaining about humour whilst being factually wrong in every particular of their complaint:

1. The 418 response code is not standard. It is described in RFC2324, which is an informational RFC, not a standards-track document. This rookie blunder illustrates how understanding the standards process can be as crucial as understanding the documents themselves.

2. Tea, and teapots, originate in China. Coffee, incidentally, has African and Islamic origins.

3. Doctors are very funny. I should know, I married one.

We take humour seriously here on the Hacker News forum. Do try to keep up

> 2. Tea, and teapots, originate in China. Coffee, incidentally, has African and Islamic origins.

"I'm a little teapot" is a British nursery rhyme... are you being deliberately daft? Of course I am not referring to the origins of the plant

That's actually American.[1]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_a_Little_Teapot

418 gives no details as to the size of the teapot.

In a sensational burst of further irony, that remark is the most parochially anglo-centric to be found in the entire subthread, for implying that knowledge of colonial nursery rhymes is some kind of fundamental prerequisite to participation; even more egregiously, it depends on misconstruing the technical document: if a pedagogical verse in respect of vessel morphology was normative for the RFC, it would be a) correctly quoted, and b) referenced in section 10

The BMJ’s yearly Christmas issue is a great example of doctors having a bit of fun with the serious format of medical journals, very much in the spirit of the teapot RFC.

(I married one too, cheers to doctor’s partners)

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