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> I really wish the headline would have flagged that this is written by a "site reliability engineer" and not an epidemiologist with credentials. (Note: not th

> I really wish the headline would have flagged that this is written by a "site reliability engineer" and not an epidemiologist with credentials. (Note: not the author). I think any article like this can attract (and even deserve, depending on what's presented) criticism. But I absolutely dislike the "lack of credentials" as an opening argument. It's much better to tear away the points you don't dislike, IMO, without mentioning credentials. It's obvious that being in the field can give you much better understanding of the issues, but not being in it does not mean one will not try to reason over the data (even if wrongly). I'm a biologist (well...half biologist, half computational biologist, and something else thrown in the mix). Does that mean I can not criticize (hypothetically) something on epidemiology because I don't have credentials, or, conversely, not try to figure out something in the data (even if my reasoning is totally wrong) because I don't have the required credentials? I understand the above is a little too black-and-white, but I mean, let's encourage debate, even strong disagreements like your post, without going over what the author is doing in the first place. P.S.: (not a jab at you, but a thought that emerged while writing this reply) I believe there are a lot of models floating on SARS-CoV-2, but I feel we also need loads of basic, bench level experiments to understand it better.

whatisthiseven 6y ago
I don't get it. Imagine an HN where random people who never did any software started flooding HN with articles about how the software people are lying to us all and just making big bucks. Software is easy, here is how to make great software. And every single one of them was just random near-garbage pulled from a couple minutes reading slides from Agile experts and the occasional wiki article about "software abstraction". It would be downvoted so fast for being so wrong, and no one would engage with it for being so terribly wrong because disproving all the points is exhausting and not worth the time. Yet, you would think it OK on HN. Maybe you downvote some of the wrong ones, but others get lots of comments, and soon all these wrong posts just get more attention and comments as people are arguing over half-made points in a blog post by a sales guy that "has a few software friends". The long-term changes to HN would eventually push away people that care. But we don't live in that world, maybe not yet. So instead we allow people who get so many basic facts wrong about an epidemic to post on HN, and @dang explained elsewhere why this makes sense (and I agree from a moderating standpoint to keep this content up) and I agree with it. But we really only allow this content because it isn't the bulk of content on HN. If the bulk of content on HN resembled the above, I don't think we would like the community HN becomes. Quite ironically, this is highly related to the virus itself. The virus isn't a problem on its own. It is a problem because it infects hundreds of millions of people very quickly, and we have poor means for slowing or stopping it at all. Very much like misinformation.

whatisthiseven 6y ago

I don't get it. Imagine an HN where random people who never did any software started flooding HN with articles about how the software people are lying to us all and just making big bucks. Software is easy, here is how to make great software. And every single one of them was just random near-garbage pulled from a couple minutes reading slides from Agile experts and the occasional wiki article about "software abstraction". It would be downvoted so fast for being so wrong, and no one would engage with it for being so terribly wrong because disproving all the points is exhausting and not worth the time. Yet, you would think it OK on HN. Maybe you downvote some of the wrong ones, but others get lots of comments, and soon all these wrong posts just get more attention and comments as people are arguing over half-made points in a blog post by a sales guy that "has a few software friends". The long-term changes to HN would eventually push away people that care. But we don't live in that world, maybe not yet. So instead we allow people who get so many basic facts wrong about an epidemic to post on HN, and @dang explained elsewhere why this makes sense (and I agree from a moderating standpoint to keep this content up) and I agree with it. But we really only allow this content because it isn't the bulk of content on HN. If the bulk of content on HN resembled the above, I don't think we would like the community HN becomes. Quite ironically, this is highly related to the virus itself. The virus isn't a problem on its own. It is a problem because it infects hundreds of millions of people very quickly, and we have poor means for slowing or stopping it at all. Very much like misinformation.