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Sorry to be off-topic but I dislike the "what every X should know" or "X everyone should know" headlines. Do some searching on hn.algolia.com on different varia

• raverbashing 5y ago
  True, and I agree. Every coder that deals with graphics in some contexts should know Gamma. That knowledge would have been useful I think once in my professional career and only because of some specific stuff. There's no hard/fast rule, but there are several more important things that coders in general should know before Gamma.
• pvtmert 5y ago
  Partly agree partly not It is not really required to memorize these stuff anyway. Just the idea of it gives you a broader perspective. One of the reasons I come to HN and read these things. They add some knowlegde to me, even though I cannot list them or their exact properties, I get to be familiar with the topic.
• ant6n 5y ago
  It’s probably useful to know that scales that may appear linear at first sight may actually not be, and then you have to be careful operating on it. For example, ever notice how sweet lemonade may become sour when you dilute it with water 1:4? That really doesn’t make sense, since water isn’t sour. But perhaps sweetness and sourness have different gamma curves, changing the relative perception when operating on some value.
• civilized 5y ago
  I disagree. I read the article because it nudged me, even though I probably don't really need to know the contents right this moment. If the title had been "What some coders may need to know about gamma, but definitely no worries if not"... I probably wouldn't have read it. To me, the anxious muddle of qualifiers would have suggested a lack of confidence and focus that would bode poorly for the clarity and helpfulness of the contents. When people are so insecure about their abilities that they feel threatened by the notion that they may not know something they should know, I think that's something for them to work on within themselves, not something the world needs to tiptoe around to keep them comfortable. As an aside, I have occasionally had coworkers who have had important things to say, but they have forced me to struggle way harder than necessary to understand what those things are, because they are terrified of explicitly saying that their work revealed someone else's assumptions or practices to be flawed. This is especially an affliction of young women, who often seem to think that it is their (and everyone's) moral obligation to be exquisitely sensitive to all possible negative ways that a communication could be perceived, no matter how fragile or unreasonable. As a result, they are morally against directly correcting anyone else's ideas, and will freak out if anyone else prefers to be more direct.
  • syoc 5y ago
    While I agree about the tiptoe part I have an instinctive negative reaction to the nudge argument. I do not see a clear difference between "What every X should know about Y", "Programmers hate this one weird gamma trick" and "top 10 crazy gamma hacks". Sure, it might make more people read the article, but that is just clickbait. My point was mostly that the title was clickbaity and (IMO) incorrent. There are some things that I think all programmers should know, but it's not much at all. I just wish HN level articles would be more descriptive in their titles. I don't need the nudge, I'll read what interests me.
    • civilized 5y ago
      I guess it could be "what you need to know about gamma if you work on graphics"
    • b3morales 5y ago
      It's worth distinguishing "clickbait" that takes you to brain-rotting junk versus taking you to an informative essay. Is the latter really a problem?
• phone8675309 5y ago
  Titles on HN that I would be happy if I never saw again: "What every X should know about Y" "X considered harmful" "An opinionated version of X"
  • civilized 5y ago
    "an opinionated opinion about opinions"
    • phone8675309 5y ago
      "What every X should know about Y considered harmful, an opinionated version of Z"