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> Nobody thinks "cockroach = doesn't die". We think "disease" because we evolved to have a strong rejection response to these creepy crawlies. Roaches cause dis
by reificator 6y ago
> Nobody thinks "cockroach = doesn't die". We think "disease" because we evolved to have a strong rejection response to these creepy crawlies. Roaches cause disease. Does anybody want that with their infra?
The problem with statements like this is that's exactly what I think. I hear that name and immediately think of a database that's very resilient.
If you want to win the argument about changing the name, don't start by claiming that people who think differently than you don't exist.
- mcx 6y agoResilientDB would practically sell itself!
- pc86 6y agoDo you think that because your first thought of "cockroach" is "doesn't die," or because you've researched about this DB in particular?
- reificator 6y agoI have never used or researched CockroachDB, my only exposure to it is when every few months a story about it comes to the front page of HN and the top thread is inevitably about people being upset at the name. I remember reading the first thread and being confused why so many people were missing the "obvious" meaning behind the name. Clearly it's not as obvious as I had initially thought, but it's the first thing that came to my mind. I know that's not the answer you want to hear, and I apologize for that.
- geofft 6y agoIMO this is a stronger reason - it's not that nobody gets the intended meaning, it's that enough people get the unintended one and every HN thread is derailed. If that's the sentiment on a community with downvotes and a strong culture of "we just care about the technical issues", imagine the sentiment on a team considering adopting it. FWIW I will never proactively advocate for this DB or try it out because I don't want other coworkers to feel squicked. I'll do my job if I find myself on a team using it, of course, but in my many years working on software, I've found that you can't make the computers happy unless the people typing into the computers are happy. Limiting the pool of people who can be happy reading CockroachDB docs when they're paged at 2am for an outage seems not worth the chance that it might page us at 2am slightly less.
- dijit 6y agoNot the OP but the first time I heard “cockroach db” I assumed resiliency because of the childhood myth/meme that in the event of nuclear winter the cockroaches would survive.
- reificator 6y agoThis is exactly what I pictured in my head when I first read the name. I'd be interested to know how many of the people who are upset about the name have heard and remember that theory.
- 6y ago
- majormajor 6y agoI don't think his argument is "this name has cost you every customer," just "this name has cost you SOME customers." So I think his argument about the name is stronger than yours - at my current job the Cockroach marketing emails we get are treated as much more of a joke than the ones from their competition, and it's solely because of the name.
- reificator 6y ago> I don't think his argument is "this name has cost you every customer," just "this name has cost you SOME customers." Likewise, I don't think my argument has anything to do with lost customers whatsoever. I am merely criticizing the argumentative technique of claiming that one's position is so unassailable that people who disagree simply don't exist. I have no attachment to the Cockroach name or product. The only horse I have in the race at all is that I hope the project changes the name just so I don't have to read the same debates every single time the database hits the HN front page.
- blhack 6y agoAs somebody who hadn't heard of this DB before, my thought pattern was basically: "cockroachDB? Oh is this a joke project...? Why would they leave IBM for a...oh, cockroach like can survive a nuclear explosion. Huh."