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Thank you for being a voice of reason in a domain that has increasingly become overrun by frauds and zealots. As someone who has been involved in blockchain re

Thank you for being a voice of reason in a domain that has increasingly become overrun by frauds and zealots. As someone who has been involved in blockchain research since 2011, it’s sad to see a promising technology (in limited use cases) turn into a buzzword thrown around by the many speculators and scam artists peddling vaporware and pumping crypto prices.

bartread 9y ago
Yup: it's the Big Data hype train of 2013/2014 re-liveried and stopping soon at a station near you.
- ooOOoo 9y ago
  According to Gartner, blockchain has just passed the "Peak of Inflated Expectations". Next phase is "Trough of Disillusionnment". http://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/top-trends-in-the-gartner-hype-cycle-for-emerging-technologies-2017/ http://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/top-trends-in-the-...
  - thisisit 9y ago
    This one is funny. While cryptocurrency gets most of the brickbats around here on HN, I think Deep Learning is also in the same boat. Executives want to apply Deep Learning to everything and anything they can get their hands on. The results most of the time are underwhelming and could be had with a much simpler set of tools. Just wondering how long before Deep Learning goes into trough of disillusionment.
    - LoSboccacc 9y ago
      On the job I have to constantly shoot down big data / data mining / intelligent nn analysis crapware showeled to my bosses, and 99% of the time the answer is “you got NO data to speak of” One day a consultant or another yesman will be able to check in and syphon precious resources with their pipe dream and I’ll watch six figures fly out of the window while my dev team struggles debugging simulated ipads with mac minis.
      - jomkr 9y ago
        We're in an industry ten years behind so we're just getting into Big Data. Obviously the issue that we can't write working normal software hasn't been addressed but we'll see how it goes. I'm actually relatively optimistic.
      - user5994461 9y ago
        Take a step back and look at your work conditions. Maybe you should become the consultant in that story.
        LoSboccacc 9y ago
        No thanks will not be able to sleep at night doing that line of work (not consultancy in general, just the overselling and running with the money bit)
      - SmellTheGlove 9y ago
        > One day a consultant or another yesman will be able to check in and syphon precious resources with their pipe dream and I’ll watch six figures fly out of the window while my dev team struggles debugging simulated ipads with mac minis. Six figures? Oh sweet summer child. :) First you'll need to burn seven figures to have a Big 3 advise your leadership that you need this tech. Then you burn the six figures implementing it with a lower tier firm.
    - beepboopbeep 9y ago
      brick·bat ˈbrikˌbat noun plural noun: brickbats a piece of brick, typically when used as a weapon. a remark or comment which is highly critical and typically insulting. "the plaudits were beginning to outnumber the brickbats" My WotD
      - bartread 9y ago
        Mine too: I'd never heard it before and had to look it up. Now I'm just lying in wait for an opportunity to use it.
    - megaman22 9y ago
      It feels like lately bots and AI are the biggest hype-train. Everybody wants bots. Bots for this, and bots for that. With natural language processing bolted on somehow. Got a simple, defined flow that could just be a decision tree? Nope, we need natural language processing in a chatbot, we can't possibly present a menu. I feel like I'm fighting the Infocom parser again.
  - ramphastidae 9y ago
    Very interesting chart.
    - ak39 9y ago
      Indeed. Google "Gartner Hype Cycle" followed by the year to get a sense of the evolution of the different hype cycles. I still remember my manager getting very excited about XBRL in 2007.
- cm2187 9y ago
  Taking over the VR hype train on the way, passing by the wreck of the 3D TV hype train, and competing with the AI hype train.
alien_at_work 9y ago
>it’s sad to see a promising technology (in limited use cases) turn into a buzzword The same thing happened to REST. Every "web interface" is supposedly REST now, yet the client and server are even more coupled than they would have been if the interface were implemented in SOAP!
- songshu 9y ago
  Yes REST tends to mean "web API you don't hate" or "web API written less than 5 years ago" and is heading towards just meaning "web API".
- lr4444lr 9y ago
  And here I thought I was the lone voice in the wilderness. From Roy Fielding's original paper: The client-stateless-server style derives from client-server with the additional constraint that no session state is allowed on the server component. Each request from client to server must contain all of the information necessary to understand the request, and cannot take advantage of any stored context on the server. Session state is kept entirely on the client I've heard enough verbal gymnastics to fill a book trying to excuse how modern web apps aren't violating this condition.
  - alien_at_work 9y ago
    Not alone. I find the problem most people have is no suitable example they can think of. The examples we have online are "starbucks as REST", etc. A better example is the greatest REST client ever made: the web browser. When Facebook updates their "app", I don't even need to restart my "client" to get the updated features. These days I start all "REST: you're doing it wrong" conversations with this.
- chiph 9y ago
  It's an industry cycle. 15 years ago it was "XML all the things!"

bartread 9y ago

Yup: it's the Big Data hype train of 2013/2014 re-liveried and stopping soon at a station near you.

ooOOoo 9y ago
According to Gartner, blockchain has just passed the "Peak of Inflated Expectations". Next phase is "Trough of Disillusionnment". http://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/top-trends-in-the-gartner-hype-cycle-for-emerging-technologies-2017/ http://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/top-trends-in-the-...
- thisisit 9y ago
  This one is funny. While cryptocurrency gets most of the brickbats around here on HN, I think Deep Learning is also in the same boat. Executives want to apply Deep Learning to everything and anything they can get their hands on. The results most of the time are underwhelming and could be had with a much simpler set of tools. Just wondering how long before Deep Learning goes into trough of disillusionment.
  - LoSboccacc 9y ago
    On the job I have to constantly shoot down big data / data mining / intelligent nn analysis crapware showeled to my bosses, and 99% of the time the answer is “you got NO data to speak of” One day a consultant or another yesman will be able to check in and syphon precious resources with their pipe dream and I’ll watch six figures fly out of the window while my dev team struggles debugging simulated ipads with mac minis.
    - jomkr 9y ago
      We're in an industry ten years behind so we're just getting into Big Data. Obviously the issue that we can't write working normal software hasn't been addressed but we'll see how it goes. I'm actually relatively optimistic.
    - user5994461 9y ago
      Take a step back and look at your work conditions. Maybe you should become the consultant in that story.
      - LoSboccacc 9y ago
        No thanks will not be able to sleep at night doing that line of work (not consultancy in general, just the overselling and running with the money bit)
    - SmellTheGlove 9y ago
      > One day a consultant or another yesman will be able to check in and syphon precious resources with their pipe dream and I’ll watch six figures fly out of the window while my dev team struggles debugging simulated ipads with mac minis. Six figures? Oh sweet summer child. :) First you'll need to burn seven figures to have a Big 3 advise your leadership that you need this tech. Then you burn the six figures implementing it with a lower tier firm.
  - beepboopbeep 9y ago
    brick·bat ˈbrikˌbat noun plural noun: brickbats a piece of brick, typically when used as a weapon. a remark or comment which is highly critical and typically insulting. "the plaudits were beginning to outnumber the brickbats" My WotD
    - bartread 9y ago
      Mine too: I'd never heard it before and had to look it up. Now I'm just lying in wait for an opportunity to use it.
  - megaman22 9y ago
    It feels like lately bots and AI are the biggest hype-train. Everybody wants bots. Bots for this, and bots for that. With natural language processing bolted on somehow. Got a simple, defined flow that could just be a decision tree? Nope, we need natural language processing in a chatbot, we can't possibly present a menu. I feel like I'm fighting the Infocom parser again.
- ramphastidae 9y ago
  Very interesting chart.
  - ak39 9y ago
    Indeed. Google "Gartner Hype Cycle" followed by the year to get a sense of the evolution of the different hype cycles. I still remember my manager getting very excited about XBRL in 2007.
cm2187 9y ago
Taking over the VR hype train on the way, passing by the wreck of the 3D TV hype train, and competing with the AI hype train.

alien_at_work 9y ago

>it’s sad to see a promising technology (in limited use cases) turn into a buzzword The same thing happened to REST. Every "web interface" is supposedly REST now, yet the client and server are even more coupled than they would have been if the interface were implemented in SOAP!

songshu 9y ago
Yes REST tends to mean "web API you don't hate" or "web API written less than 5 years ago" and is heading towards just meaning "web API".
lr4444lr 9y ago
And here I thought I was the lone voice in the wilderness. From Roy Fielding's original paper: The client-stateless-server style derives from client-server with the additional constraint that no session state is allowed on the server component. Each request from client to server must contain all of the information necessary to understand the request, and cannot take advantage of any stored context on the server. Session state is kept entirely on the client I've heard enough verbal gymnastics to fill a book trying to excuse how modern web apps aren't violating this condition.
- alien_at_work 9y ago
  Not alone. I find the problem most people have is no suitable example they can think of. The examples we have online are "starbucks as REST", etc. A better example is the greatest REST client ever made: the web browser. When Facebook updates their "app", I don't even need to restart my "client" to get the updated features. These days I start all "REST: you're doing it wrong" conversations with this.
chiph 9y ago
It's an industry cycle. 15 years ago it was "XML all the things!"