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Comment by spoonjim | Hacker News Reader

Interesting that they named their company after the Amazonian fish that can supposedly swim up your penis and lodge itself inside

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Seems to be a pattern in these circles - there's at least also Palantir, named after the crystal ball that corrupted Saruman in The Lord of the Rings.

What on earth do you consider the common thread between those two names?

Both are "evil". (edit: I am not the poster you replied to)

But in this case the thinking went probably like

phishing -> fishing -> bad fish

The common thread I'm seeing is "something you shouldn't aspire to be". That is, no one should want to be a candiru fish, nor a palantir.

@AlexBlechman

Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale

Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus

11:49 PM · 8 nov 2021

https://x.com/AlexBlechman/status/1457842724128833538

To be fair it is a pretty cool/appropriate name for their line of work

If we're being fair, they're an evil company that does evil work for evil people. It's abhorrent that they're using Tolkien to give themselves nerd-appeal.

The uncomfortable truth is that nerds can be evil too.

I think that's more than obvious to any nerd who has ever played an online game.

Juvenile humor is rarely correlated with mature ethical development.

Our corporate processes have established that using "Fish That Swims Up Your Penis" as the name of the product might contribute to 1% sales decrease. Having in mind our focus on maximizing the profit by appealing to widest audience possible, this is the core reason why we're strongly against the chosen name. Instead, we suggest conducting market research which will determine the optiminal naming scheme for our products. We are very big and very serious.

Thanks, anal_reactor, very cool.

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