4 ms·

> Does anyone actually care about any of these things? On HN, sure. The other 3.6 billion smartphone users out there? No. The top voted opinions on HN are nich

> Does anyone actually care about any of these things? On HN, sure. The other 3.6 billion smartphone users out there? No. The top voted opinions on HN are niche and don't represent the general population in any way. You can see this effect on other threads. Here are a few classic examples. - Everyone on HN hates Facebook, and yet 2 billion+ people use it every day. - Privacy is a paramount concern on HN, more important than anything else, and yet billions of people don't care as long as their dick pics are safe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRWxk7o-QlI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRWxk7o-QlI). - HN users hate ads and would happily pay for the privilege of eliminating ads. In the real world? Youtube has 2 billion monthly active users, only 1% of whom pay to eliminate ads. - The ideal HN smartphone is one that has software support for years, is rootable, can have it's OS changed on a whim, can install any app from any app store. Hardware should be modular, with a swappable battery, camera etc. So Fairphone, basically. Units sold - 200k in 5 years. iPhone, the exact opposite of this in every respect (except software support) - 1 Billion in 5 years. What I've said is so obvious it's self evident. But now and then people do get surprised and maybe annoyed when they find the world doesn't reflect the gospel truth preached on HN. At the time of this writing, your comment is actually downvoted ... for implying that the general population might not be Tasker-Termux installing, life automating power users.

Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
I agree about the HN bubble, but not every comment has to reflect the larger market; The comment is about the power users and it reflects the significant portion of HN. Just like content on Computer Science is preferred on HN, it doesn't mean just because not everyone is a CSE/Computer Scientist in the real world, CS content is not valuable.
- oblio 6y ago
  The problem with this logic is that with millions of people, everything can happen. When someone says "never/no one" in a casual conversation, they don't mean "it's physically and mathematically impossible for this to happen, I'm sure the chance of this is 0%". They mean: "the vast majority of people". Techie communities can be tiresome with all the nitpicking. I swear that if I posted a comment saying "nobody puts their dick in the vacuum cleaner shaft" while discussing the best vacuum cleaner design, somebody would feel the need to object and say they did it. https://tirania.org/blog/archive/2011/Feb-17.html https://tirania.org/blog/archive/2011/Feb-17.html
- nindalf 6y ago
  The issue is not that HN users have different preferences or that they signal those preferences. The issue is when they are surprised and annoyed that the ordinary folks in the real world don't make the same superior choices that they do. Why do they keep buying iPhones instead of Fairphones? Why do they keep using ad supported services instead of paying for it? Why do hundreds of millions of them eat at McDonald's?! This lack of understanding of the general population is the issue.
- nl 6y ago
  My argument is more subtle than that. I'm arguing that Tasker/Termux users aren't really your normal power users at all. Instead they are hackers, and would be satisfied by any form of stitching bits together to accomplish some task. If Tasker/Termus didn't exist they'd be equally happy accomplishing the same things with custom hardware sensors or carrying a RPi around or whatever. They aren't actually doing anything useful with the software that couldn't be accomplished slightly less conveniently in other ways - the joy of the hack is the accomplishment. When you view it like this, the market satisfaction argument looks different.
oblio 6y ago
Yeah, I hate this part on HN. People with horse blinkers that don't even seem to realize they have them on :-)
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
summm 6y ago
The Fairphone has really crappy specs otherwise. Abysmal camera, low RAM, etc. That is an important reason power users don't buy it. Instead one could have some old phone with good hackability which is better and even cheaper. I see too many posts like yours here, so I do not imagine most of the HN think like you describe. Unfortunately.
nl 6y ago
I agree, but I think this case is even more extreme. I'd be surprised if there are more than ~10 people (even on HN) who use the ability of Tasker and Termux to communicate with each other - and I bet those 10 people would be equally happy using some other solution they hacked together. I think it's the act of hacking a solution together that they like, rather than it being a truly useful thing that can't be accomplished equally well in other ways.

Abishek_Muthian 6y ago

I agree about the HN bubble, but not every comment has to reflect the larger market; The comment is about the power users and it reflects the significant portion of HN. Just like content on Computer Science is preferred on HN, it doesn't mean just because not everyone is a CSE/Computer Scientist in the real world, CS content is not valuable.

oblio 6y ago
The problem with this logic is that with millions of people, everything can happen. When someone says "never/no one" in a casual conversation, they don't mean "it's physically and mathematically impossible for this to happen, I'm sure the chance of this is 0%". They mean: "the vast majority of people". Techie communities can be tiresome with all the nitpicking. I swear that if I posted a comment saying "nobody puts their dick in the vacuum cleaner shaft" while discussing the best vacuum cleaner design, somebody would feel the need to object and say they did it. https://tirania.org/blog/archive/2011/Feb-17.html https://tirania.org/blog/archive/2011/Feb-17.html
nindalf 6y ago
The issue is not that HN users have different preferences or that they signal those preferences. The issue is when they are surprised and annoyed that the ordinary folks in the real world don't make the same superior choices that they do. Why do they keep buying iPhones instead of Fairphones? Why do they keep using ad supported services instead of paying for it? Why do hundreds of millions of them eat at McDonald's?! This lack of understanding of the general population is the issue.
nl 6y ago
My argument is more subtle than that. I'm arguing that Tasker/Termux users aren't really your normal power users at all. Instead they are hackers, and would be satisfied by any form of stitching bits together to accomplish some task. If Tasker/Termus didn't exist they'd be equally happy accomplishing the same things with custom hardware sensors or carrying a RPi around or whatever. They aren't actually doing anything useful with the software that couldn't be accomplished slightly less conveniently in other ways - the joy of the hack is the accomplishment. When you view it like this, the market satisfaction argument looks different.

oblio 6y ago

Yeah, I hate this part on HN. People with horse blinkers that don't even seem to realize they have them on :-)

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

summm 6y ago

The Fairphone has really crappy specs otherwise. Abysmal camera, low RAM, etc. That is an important reason power users don't buy it. Instead one could have some old phone with good hackability which is better and even cheaper. I see too many posts like yours here, so I do not imagine most of the HN think like you describe. Unfortunately.

nl 6y ago

I agree, but I think this case is even more extreme. I'd be surprised if there are more than ~10 people (even on HN) who use the ability of Tasker and Termux to communicate with each other - and I bet those 10 people would be equally happy using some other solution they hacked together. I think it's the act of hacking a solution together that they like, rather than it being a truly useful thing that can't be accomplished equally well in other ways.