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Comment by killthebuddha | Hacker News Reader

This post is so wonderfully confused it's throwing my brain into an infinite loop. Misunderstanding newspeak, then a howler of a non sequitur, all about elegant composition, all the while turning a simple announcement into a super clunky argument. It's perfect doublespeak, the kind of language that throws critical thinking into infinite loops.

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newspeak is for dramatic (and dare I say, rather fun) effect. I think his point is straightforward and not confused: one style and one liner for the entire programming language prohibits personal expression of style. A linter to enforce your own personal / team styles is a good idea. I don't see the confusion. You might disagree with one or both, but to me it seems logically consistent with the premise of the article which is that personal style is important in programming.

Correct, it enforced style freedom.

Is that his point? Or is his point that shipping rails with his own personal linting preferences is a good idea? (For what it's worth, I think it's a perfectly fine idea).

he's a genius at that. his blog posts are always like, "it's dumb that we do this or even debate about this. but my way is better. here is me debating my way in a sanctimonious blog post where i said i'm above debating this issue yet here i am debating this, and i think that my taste is the best even though i'm advocating for a big tent and i'm a really good writer and you should read me, i spent oh so much time editing this beauty of a blog post."

and then the follow up blog post: "I DON'T KNOW WHY EVERYBODY IS MAD ABOUT THIS! I AM RIGHT!!!"

He didn't even bother to proofread this so what do you expect.

Should have used a linter

What for, he’d probably configure it to his unique and expressive style.

DHH imposes this kind of cognitive dissonance on the Ruby community at a pretty regular interval.

it's generally worth it, but it's still a kind of brain tax.

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