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Ask HN: What product, etc. do you think is snake oil?
- gruglife 6y agoFor me it’s slack. I don’t get why it’s so popular and why people love it. It’s just another chat app to me.
- muzani 6y agoThe other chat apps are worse. The gap isn't quite as big as Excel vs Google Sheets, but try sending documents via Discord it WhatsApp.
- muzani 6y agoTo clarify (since I can't edit), we use Slack as a replacement for email, and other apps for chat. It's great for sending quick code snippets. It's good for notifying the whole team when there's a new build for testing, as well as getting comments on that build. It's okay for bringing attention to a thing. Notifications during office hours by default hurts it - instead of people not sending messages outside work hours, everyone just uses something else for notifications.
- calmworm 6y agoI use it daily and like using it but it will never leave my mind that it’s just shiny IRC.
- codegeek 6y agoDont forget dropbox was just shiny FTP :)
- dzhiurgis 6y agoSame, but it's Discord. A wet teenage gamer dream. I know 0 communities of interest that uses it.
- fsflover 6y agoBrave browser. See many discussions here for details why.
- sharps_xp 6y agoi think any software that only highlights its benefits is inherently deceptive. i have to go and figure out the fundamentals and see if i can surmise the tradeoffs. one top of mind example is event streaming like kafka. sure it has benefits but as soon as start using streams like a WAL and turn your application into a database with ACID guarantees you’re going to blanket regret going with event streaming. you might call that user error but enterprise support won’t tell you stop using it that way
- marketgod 6y agoEveryone thinks options trading/advisory services/trading roooms are snake oil.
- Crontab 6y agoCBD.
- trengorilla 6y agoAbsolutely. I'm certain it helps SOME people but the claims made by anyone pushing it are absolutely ridiculous. I've yet to meet or hear from a single person who felt any difference from it yet there's shit loads of podcasters and influencers who seem to have amazing results, go figure.
- wmoser 6y agoI don’t take it myself but our 17 year old dog takes a dog version in the morning and night and there is a noticeable difference in her stiffness and being able to navigate the stairs if she misses a dose. It was recommended by the Vet.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoBlockchain/distributed finance.
- jonsno56 6y agoDonald
- davidajackson 6y agoAny place that advertises pay to pitch events
- buffaloo 6y agoFacebook sucks
- consilience 6y agoAny program/seminar/book that sells you success without factoring in luck...which is pretty much all of them.
- sangli 6y agoAll the ideology based practices in software engineering. TDD, xtreme programming, pair programming, BDD etc. This comment is going to rile up many, but I haven't found anyone to show me even a half-ass scientific study to show that any of these things make anything better.
- duxup 6y agoNot to say I disagree but are there any studies about coding practices that tell us anything?
- ThrowMeAwayOkay 6y agoAgile
- simonblack 6y agoAlmost: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/i~cAAOSwEDde2HIE/s-l400.jpg https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/i~cAAOSwEDde2HIE/s-l400.jpg
- harryruhr 6y agoAlmost any "NextGen" "cybersecurity" product
- dzhiurgis 6y agoTurmeric. Drinking dollops of paint doesn't make much sense healthwise.
- maerF0x0 6y agosee: https://examine.com/supplements/curcumin/ https://examine.com/supplements/curcumin/ Probably not snake oil. Though maybe better to supplement with the extracts directly
- znpy 6y agosocial media
- maerF0x0 6y agoActively managed funds (hedge/mutual)
- creatornator 6y agoLikewise, anyone that sells investing advice. Most make their money off of the service, not off of applying their knowledge, which really tells you their knowledge isn't worth much.