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Tangential to this article, but can I just say that this is HN at its best. Random, curious, snippets of learning on topics that I can’t imagine hearing about a

Tangential to this article, but can I just say that this is HN at its best. Random, curious, snippets of learning on topics that I can’t imagine hearing about anywhere else. It’s a pure love of knowledge that leads thousands of people to spend Friday night reading a largely useless Wikipedia entry on house burning just because it’s mystery

jbluepolarbear 6y ago
I read the whole thing. I love learning new things like this.
evmar 6y ago
If you’d like more, the Wikipedia community on Reddit regularly shares neat articles like this one.
- moehm 6y ago
  I just want to chime in, because I collect (good) Wikipedia articles and their respective discussions posted on HN: https://www.mostdiscussed.com/ https://www.mostdiscussed.com/
Ansil849 6y ago
> Tangential to this article, but can I just say that this is HN at its best. Random, curious, snippets of learning on topics that I can’t imagine hearing about anywhere else. The submission, I agree is the best of HN; the comments, however, are the worst. Tons of 'bikeshedding' comments offering flippant uninformed analyses that belittle established and well-researched theories. By offering 'back of a cocktail napkin' comments like 'I think such and such theory doesn't get enough attention because of my random opinion', or 'I think such and such likely happened, based on me just ruminating about this for a few minutes, versus doing years of research on'; the comments are tacitly disrespecting the work researchers whose specialty this is put into formulating theories. We HN users need to learn to just say 'we don't know', instead of playing internet experts in every single discipline a given submission is about.
- egeozcan 6y ago
  We are not here to do science though, and while completely unsubstantiated ideas are frowned upon, it's okay to do some mind exercise and share theories with others. It's fun to read, fun to write, and well above the populist karma-stunts.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- chucky 6y ago
  This seems like a more general problem with the Internet or even of people (and in particular men of a more technical and nerdy persuasion, in my own experience). The majority have nothing of value to say, so will post nothing. The only ones who can realistically offer comments on this article are experts and those who will offer "back of a cocktail napkin" comments (as you put it), and the latter group is so much larger than the former.
  - animal_spirits 6y ago
    Agreed, I wasn't going to comment on this post because this is something I've never heard of before. There's no point for me to add a comment like "I don't know the reason behind this" because that adds no value to the discussion. Actually discussing ideas whether or not they are researched for years or not adds value to the discussion, because then you can actually discuss where those ideas are wrong or where they could be right.
    - beaconstudios 6y ago
      The point is that any idea you could come up with in 5 minutes has probably been done to death by researchers who actually focus on the topic so no, you're not contributing anything. But it's beside the point because HN isn't there to add anything to actual research, nor is it going to. It's for people to discuss random interesting Internet things, it's for entertainment. But there does seem to be a nerd contingent that can't accept that it's entertainment and have to believe its some kind of intellectual pursuit.

jbluepolarbear 6y ago

I read the whole thing. I love learning new things like this.

evmar 6y ago

If you’d like more, the Wikipedia community on Reddit regularly shares neat articles like this one.

moehm 6y ago
I just want to chime in, because I collect (good) Wikipedia articles and their respective discussions posted on HN: https://www.mostdiscussed.com/ https://www.mostdiscussed.com/

Ansil849 6y ago

> Tangential to this article, but can I just say that this is HN at its best. Random, curious, snippets of learning on topics that I can’t imagine hearing about anywhere else. The submission, I agree is the best of HN; the comments, however, are the worst. Tons of 'bikeshedding' comments offering flippant uninformed analyses that belittle established and well-researched theories. By offering 'back of a cocktail napkin' comments like 'I think such and such theory doesn't get enough attention because of my random opinion', or 'I think such and such likely happened, based on me just ruminating about this for a few minutes, versus doing years of research on'; the comments are tacitly disrespecting the work researchers whose specialty this is put into formulating theories. We HN users need to learn to just say 'we don't know', instead of playing internet experts in every single discipline a given submission is about.

egeozcan 6y ago
We are not here to do science though, and while completely unsubstantiated ideas are frowned upon, it's okay to do some mind exercise and share theories with others. It's fun to read, fun to write, and well above the populist karma-stunts.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
chucky 6y ago
This seems like a more general problem with the Internet or even of people (and in particular men of a more technical and nerdy persuasion, in my own experience). The majority have nothing of value to say, so will post nothing. The only ones who can realistically offer comments on this article are experts and those who will offer "back of a cocktail napkin" comments (as you put it), and the latter group is so much larger than the former.
- animal_spirits 6y ago
  Agreed, I wasn't going to comment on this post because this is something I've never heard of before. There's no point for me to add a comment like "I don't know the reason behind this" because that adds no value to the discussion. Actually discussing ideas whether or not they are researched for years or not adds value to the discussion, because then you can actually discuss where those ideas are wrong or where they could be right.
  - beaconstudios 6y ago
    The point is that any idea you could come up with in 5 minutes has probably been done to death by researchers who actually focus on the topic so no, you're not contributing anything. But it's beside the point because HN isn't there to add anything to actual research, nor is it going to. It's for people to discuss random interesting Internet things, it's for entertainment. But there does seem to be a nerd contingent that can't accept that it's entertainment and have to believe its some kind of intellectual pursuit.