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Comment by ivanb | Hacker News Reader

If this post was written by a non-celebrity, then it would have been immediately buried. But here were are at 771 points for some cheap maxims.

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Cheap maxims written by someone whose immediate response to your comment was just two words: "React developer?"

Since flagged, but it's also highly relevant here, since it shows this isn't someone who's interested in serious thoughts or discussion about the merits of his arguments, just hot takes and cheap shots. Whatever he may have done in the past, I see no reason why he should be taken seriously here.

They are one liner maxims about things that are impossible to don't understand. You may argue, for instance, why it happened, what are (if any) the good sides, for instance, of this absurd chain of dependencies, but if you don't get that there is wrong, and those are just cheap maxims, you don't deserve more than that two words. Because here there is at play a lot of self-protection. There are a lot of people that would not even deserve a job, and they have it thanks to this new incarnation of software, and especially if they live in socially unsafe places like US, where if you lose your position it's not clear where you may finally end, since there are too little social protections, then people strongly overreact to anything that questions the status quo where, for the good or the bad, they kinda have some role.

Saying this as a fan of the article who agreed with the whole thing...

> and especially if they live in socially unsafe places like US, where if you lose your position it's not clear where you may finally end

This is very unlikely to be motivating the comments you see here. The devs here are fine and don't worry about this kind of thing, by and large. But you're not all wrong, because what is probably happening is that they feel their identity, which is tied up with those insane tools and ecosystems, is being attacked.

That makes sense, thanks. We are all in part into this situation, because one bit here, one bit there, that's what we, as a collective entity, built, and there are clearly things that are not working as expected. It's hard to acknowledge that and improve the situation, since it also creates frictions in the way we work day-to-day, but still I hope to see this improving, in some way.

The comment you are replying to is nothing more than an insult. The two-word sarcastic quip it got in response was actually funny.

We are destroying mutual understanding by hanging on to words†.

—

†) Please interpret my words literally and in your favor.

In the past, you had to practically be on a Wheaties box or major magazine cover to be considered a celebrity.

Now everyone is a “celebrity”and hubris is at an all time high.

I’ve been in tech for 25+ years and never heard of this person until now but it’s not the first time I’ve heard similar talk.

These maxims strike me more as bitter senior neck beard developer complains about the rest of his team in a passive aggressive way at the work lunch table before COVID.

If you’re a celebrity, we don’t need your snarky complaints. We need you using your “celebrity” to make things better.

You've been in tech for 25+ years and never heard of Redis?

Living is serverless world.

None of the maxims actually seems to fit the verb "to destroy". We are making non-optimal software, pehaps. Perhaps even bad software. Though opinions might differ. But "destroy"? "To damage (something) to the point that it effectively ceases to exist." By adding too many, too complex features? Yeah, no. But I guess the word sounds impressive, and that's what matters.

“Good enough for jazz” might be useful here?

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