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> I'm from Poland, so such name is natural for us. I'm aware, but your global audience is generally not. That's why I advise on name changes. You own your name

> I'm from Poland, so such name is natural for us. I'm aware, but your global audience is generally not. That's why I advise on name changes. You own your name, you can do anything to it. There are people from India with names so long that a byte overflows and there are people from Africa with exclamation marks (click sounds) in their names. I'm sure there's a great cultural heritage behind these names, but they're just impractical. If I don't know how to pronounce a name, I am going to avoid you just a little bit more. I'm less likely to remember your name. I'll have to look it up to spell it right. Should I get into the unfortunate situation of having to pronounce it in public, I'm likely to embarrass myself. In short, your name is a risk to me. A small risk, all things considered, but a risk nonetheless. It's causing me extra work. A small amount of extra work, but extra work nonetheless. The thing is, it's not just me, it's almost everyone, even those who wouldn't dare admit it or those who are unconscious of it. All those tiny little negatives add up to a significant negative in your life. Studies show that "foreign-sounding" names lead to less job interviews, for instance, but it doesn't end there. Of course, if you hate success (as is common in Poland) you might not be bothered by all of that. Sour grapes, but fair. > Euboea depends on POSIX and X86 highly, therefore I thought about Euboea like about another text processing / computation language to be used in shell scripts making programming easier. If that's the focus, your selling point should be something along these lines of "a simple programming language to create UNIX tools", because that's really what distinguishes it. I also think you can then give up on the whole "safety" aspect, because UNIX fundamentally is unsafe and "no access to files" becomes a limitation, not a feature.

lucozade 8y ago
> That's why I advise on name changes What astonishing presumption > Of course, if you hate success (as is common in Poland) Is the casual racism completely necessary? Couldn't you just stick to the critique of the work rather than the person and his nationality?
- zeroname 8y ago
  > What astonishing presumption There's tons of evidence: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/why-your-name-matters https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/why-your... If it's "presumptious" of me to point that out, I don't care. Only ever telling people what they want to hear is not helpful. > Is the casual racism completely necessary? Is the casual accusation of racism completely necessary? It has nothing to do with race, more with history. Crab mentality is very common in the former "eastern block". > Couldn't you just stick to the critique of the work rather than the person and his nationality? I'm not criticizing the person's nationality, that's not their choice. I'm drawing the distinction between the individual and their nationality. You can be a proud Pole, doing polish things, espousing polish ideals and mannerisms above all else, whatever. You also can be an individual in global society who happens to be from Poland.
  - lucozade 8y ago
    You don’t need to cite the prevalence of racist bigotry. Most people are aware. Practising it is fucking despicable.
    - zeroname 8y ago
      > You don’t need to cite the prevalence of racist bigotry. Most people are aware. If you think discriminating based on difficult names is "racist bigotry", okay. It doesn't change the facts. If you want free discrimination showered upon you, keep your unpronouncable foreign name. If you want success, change it. It is common practice for a reason. > Practising it is fucking despicable. You know what's despicable? Accusing people of "being racist" for just acting like ordinary people happen to act. It's diminishing the impact of the word. Ordinary people, including you, do have these biases. Consciously, unconsciously, it doesn't matter. I want people to do better for themselves, I can't change the world for them. Neither can you by leaving these comments on HN.
      - lucozade 8y ago
        It’s common practice because there are a lot of racist bigots. That’s not a particularly compelling reason. You suggested to someone that they hide their heritage so you don’t think less of them. You may consider that ordinary. But that’s common or garden racism. And your inability to pronounce someone’s name is a failing in your education or experience. Your failing, not theirs.
palaiologos 8y ago
I think complaing about author's and project's name is out of place.
- zeroname 8y ago
  I'm not complaining, your name choices aren't grievances of mine. I couldn't care less about the name of a stranger on the internet. I'm informing you that they're objectively going to lower your chance of success. Considering that it is "impolite" to tell that to someone, it becomes uncommon knowledge. Fortunately, I'm not a polite person. For what it's worth, if I had any scientific evidence that having an Anime avatar on Github lowered your chances of success, I would tell you that as well. I will leave you with this quote by Donald Knuth: "The most important thing in the programming language is the name. A language will not succeed without a good name. I have recently invented a very good name and now I am looking for a suitable language."
  - palaiologos 8y ago
    The name is just spelled like [ˈevia]. You know, we don't choose names ourselves. I feel comfortable with Krzysztof Szewczyk, but if it's risky for you, nothing stops you from calling me somewhat different. This avatar wasn't taken from anime. It's drawing of Alexios Komnenos.
    - zeroname 8y ago
      > The name is just spelled like [ˈevia]. I don't understand what that means. > You know, we don't choose names ourselves. Who is this "we" people? What makes you so sure you belong to them, bound by their arcane rules? > I feel comfortable with Krzysztof Szewczyk, but if it's risky for you, nothing stops you from calling me somewhat different. Thanks, Chris. > This avatar wasn't taken from anime. It looks like anime, therefore it is anime, for all practical purposes. > It's drawing of Alexios Komnenos. Let's just say I have no idea what Anime Alexios is supposed to communicate to me.
      - 8y ago

lucozade 8y ago

> That's why I advise on name changes What astonishing presumption > Of course, if you hate success (as is common in Poland) Is the casual racism completely necessary? Couldn't you just stick to the critique of the work rather than the person and his nationality?

zeroname 8y ago
> What astonishing presumption There's tons of evidence: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/why-your-name-matters https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/why-your... If it's "presumptious" of me to point that out, I don't care. Only ever telling people what they want to hear is not helpful. > Is the casual racism completely necessary? Is the casual accusation of racism completely necessary? It has nothing to do with race, more with history. Crab mentality is very common in the former "eastern block". > Couldn't you just stick to the critique of the work rather than the person and his nationality? I'm not criticizing the person's nationality, that's not their choice. I'm drawing the distinction between the individual and their nationality. You can be a proud Pole, doing polish things, espousing polish ideals and mannerisms above all else, whatever. You also can be an individual in global society who happens to be from Poland.
- lucozade 8y ago
  You don’t need to cite the prevalence of racist bigotry. Most people are aware. Practising it is fucking despicable.
  - zeroname 8y ago
    > You don’t need to cite the prevalence of racist bigotry. Most people are aware. If you think discriminating based on difficult names is "racist bigotry", okay. It doesn't change the facts. If you want free discrimination showered upon you, keep your unpronouncable foreign name. If you want success, change it. It is common practice for a reason. > Practising it is fucking despicable. You know what's despicable? Accusing people of "being racist" for just acting like ordinary people happen to act. It's diminishing the impact of the word. Ordinary people, including you, do have these biases. Consciously, unconsciously, it doesn't matter. I want people to do better for themselves, I can't change the world for them. Neither can you by leaving these comments on HN.
    - lucozade 8y ago
      It’s common practice because there are a lot of racist bigots. That’s not a particularly compelling reason. You suggested to someone that they hide their heritage so you don’t think less of them. You may consider that ordinary. But that’s common or garden racism. And your inability to pronounce someone’s name is a failing in your education or experience. Your failing, not theirs.

palaiologos 8y ago

I think complaing about author's and project's name is out of place.

zeroname 8y ago
I'm not complaining, your name choices aren't grievances of mine. I couldn't care less about the name of a stranger on the internet. I'm informing you that they're objectively going to lower your chance of success. Considering that it is "impolite" to tell that to someone, it becomes uncommon knowledge. Fortunately, I'm not a polite person. For what it's worth, if I had any scientific evidence that having an Anime avatar on Github lowered your chances of success, I would tell you that as well. I will leave you with this quote by Donald Knuth: "The most important thing in the programming language is the name. A language will not succeed without a good name. I have recently invented a very good name and now I am looking for a suitable language."
- palaiologos 8y ago
  The name is just spelled like [ˈevia]. You know, we don't choose names ourselves. I feel comfortable with Krzysztof Szewczyk, but if it's risky for you, nothing stops you from calling me somewhat different. This avatar wasn't taken from anime. It's drawing of Alexios Komnenos.
  - zeroname 8y ago
    > The name is just spelled like [ˈevia]. I don't understand what that means. > You know, we don't choose names ourselves. Who is this "we" people? What makes you so sure you belong to them, bound by their arcane rules? > I feel comfortable with Krzysztof Szewczyk, but if it's risky for you, nothing stops you from calling me somewhat different. Thanks, Chris. > This avatar wasn't taken from anime. It looks like anime, therefore it is anime, for all practical purposes. > It's drawing of Alexios Komnenos. Let's just say I have no idea what Anime Alexios is supposed to communicate to me.
    - 8y ago