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This is the quintessential example of a pedantic Hacker News comment.
by arnold_palmur 5y ago
This is the quintessential example of a pedantic Hacker News comment.
- mywittyname 5y agoWhat you're saying is the OP is missing the torrent through the raindrops?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- __blockcipher__ 5y agoAnd to expand on what I would like to hope your point is, comments like the GP are exactly why I and many others come here :)
- pkghost 5y agoAnd this is the great thing about threaded comments — everyone who wants to follow the pedantic branch of conversation can do so without derailing the others (though this ideal is frequently thwarted by bad UX). Of course, it's nice when the pedants are self-aware, as is the case here, and acknowledge the pedantry of their tangent. Normalize polite pedantry!
- grp000 5y agoI don't think it's pedantic though. If what makes your argument powerful is tying it back to a natural phenomenon, then it should be right, otherwise you're using a bad example.
- TeMPOraL 5y agoAlso, to the degree it's wrong, you can try to take that error back and see where the argument flows. Like, compounding is magic, except realistically, one or more of the following typically happens: - Interest rate is so small that it doesn't add up to a meaningful difference over your lifetime. See e.g. most people and regular savings accounts. - You aren't able to keep systematically saving / learning / etching a canyon for long enough for the compounding to matter. - There's a natural decay process that is stronger than compounding. Whether it's digging a canyon, learning new skills, or amassing wealth, it seems that concentrated but unfrequent actions are much more effective than a steady but weak trickle.
- tobmlt 5y agoYes. With unsteady and infrequent but purposeful action, move the very bowels of the earth. I mean, accomplish a lot, politely, eh hem. Excessive steady and consistent work has rendered me delirious, clearly. I’ll see myself out.
- pilsetnieks 5y agoUsing bad logic is building a house on sand. One might get lucky and the house might stand their lifetime but they're also likely to get swallowed by a sinkhole.
- 6510 5y agoHow about cities by the coast?
- sjg007 5y agoAlso torrents of activity might be better or at least as valid as drops of water.
- pkghost 5y agoAh! When it comes to arguments, yes, I do agree that their supporting examples really ought to be true-to-life. But I don't think that's quite what was going on here. munificent was using a metaphor in service of his plea, his encouragement, his advice that you really ought to consider making regular efforts at what you care about. To me, that feels a lot less technical and a lot more human than an argument does. The difference between metaphors and examples might be that the important part of a metaphor is how it functions in context, how it adds to the metaphrand[1], and the important part of an example is how it functions out of context. To give an example of metaphor: many Native American tribes besides the Lemhi Shoshone have stories that claim Sacagawea as one of their own. The stories—themselves metaphors for tribal values—are, of course, wrong, but they serve an important instructional purpose, nonetheless, transmitting values and custom in a narrative that inspires. In that case, it seems less important that the children of these tribes are hearing something factually incorrect, and more important that they are inspired by and identify with the story. To give an example of example: if you're making an argument in court, you have to reference examples of past rulings that support your position. The strength of your argument depends completely on the validity of your examples, as they occurred outside the current context. If you think I'm full of hot air, you're right, but anyway here is a list of famous authors explaining how fiction is truer than the truth itself: https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/01/27/famous-authors-on-truth-vs-fiction/ https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/01/27/famous-authors-on-t... Thanks for coming to my TEDxHN talk. 1) Julian Jaynes, in the beginning of "The Origins of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind", does a lovely segment on how we only learn via metaphor, and in which he develops the terms metaphier (commonly, the metaphor itself) and metaphrand (the thing being described by the metaphor).
- tobmlt 5y agoHuh... Suddenly I want “comment code folding” up in here. I mean generally speaking, of course.
- retsibsi 5y ago> Suddenly I want “comment code folding” up in here I'm probably misunderstanding but if you mean you want to collapse comment threads, click the [-] next to the timestamp of a comment.
- omgJustTest 5y agoDid the torrent create it or the boundary layer of droplets?
- xattt 5y agoWhat I get from it is that occasional cram sessions is the way to move boulders.
- askafriend 5y agoFor some people this is what's most effective. Many ways to approach life.
- nend 5y agoI don't know, I appreciated the correction and additional information. There was also an acknowledgment that it doesn't change ops point. Seemed like a useful comment to me.
- jstummbillig 5y agoWell, pedantry is quite popular around here.
- elevenoh 5y agoWriting code w/o a pedantic frame ~= buggy code.
- pvorb 5y agoBut writing code while being pedantic doesn't save you from bugs. Maybe writing code ~= buggy code.
- random_kris 5y agoWriting code with pedantic frame makes you ship slower which makes bug discovery slower
- samstave 5y agoI was listening to a podcast recently with a PHD scientist, and she was saying that she was a terrible programmer and that she would go back to her code after !6months and it didnt make sense to her, but that she was good at adding comments to the code, but they were useless because she was commenting on her emotional state while she was writing the code (her thesis was on the way stars evolve and devour solar systems and planets etc) ((dope premise btw)) but the fact that her code comments were all about how she was feeling at the time, and were completely unhelpful with discerning what the code meant/does...
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y agoTo be precise, it occurs a lot around here. /s
- brianwawok 5y agoIsn’t it great? Lol.
- pilsetnieks 5y agoScience thinks that a bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly. The parable is used anyways because woo teachers don't care what humans think is illogical.
- xwdv 5y agoI’d much rather see pedantic comments that are technically correct than people just nodding along and perpetuating meme-like garbage facts. Too often when I scroll through social media I read quotes and posts that make me roll my eyes at how people will avoid critical thinking and reasoning as long as the words sound good and tell a good stereotypical story in their minds. In this case, the idea that vast canyons are formed by little drops of rain over time.
- bobobob420 5y agoThe irony considering your comment itself is an example of. A useless comment while OP made a valuable correction while respecting the original point made
- 6510 5y agoLet me help, you are suppose to say the torrents of water are made up out of many single drops on their journey around the world.
- musicale 5y ago> This is the quintessential example of a pedantic Hacker News comment. Everyday mistakes that people make every day.
- the__alchemist 5y agoI don't think it's pedantic - it's an instructional example for how oversimplifications can be misleading, and have subtle flaws.
- invisiblerobot 5y agoIt isn't pedantic if torrents turn out to be an equally effective means of creating change.