For titles, shorter is typically better. In this case, it's nowhere near the character count limit for HN, but limits of that sort are another good reason to er

For titles, shorter is typically better. In this case, it's nowhere near the character count limit for HN, but limits of that sort are another good reason to err on the side of "shorter is better." But it boils down to cognitive load. Attention spans are limited and it's a busy world full of distractions. You need to grab someone's attention with the least burden on their limited resources -- mental bandwidth, attention, time, etc -- and get them to click. A good title can be the difference between a successful article and a flop and titles are hard.