Hacker News Reader

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.

View on HN

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.

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

Reply on news.ycombinator.com