4 ms·

"It’s an idiosyncrasy to which we are dedicated." Sounds like a good thing to me. It quickly identifies you as someone who prioritizes personal idiosyncrasies

"It’s an idiosyncrasy to which we are dedicated." Sounds like a good thing to me. It quickly identifies you as someone who prioritizes personal idiosyncrasies over communicating whatever it is you want to communicate - since pretty much every reader will do a double-take on the date (or is it a date?) and be distracted from reading the content. That's helpful, since one can generally assume that anyone with that attitude isn't communicating anything useful.

chipotle_coyote 5y ago
> That's helpful, since one can generally assume that anyone with that attitude isn't communicating anything useful. "Anyone who shows noticeable personal idiosyncrasies in their writing must not have anything useful to say" strikes me as a heuristic of exceedingly little value.
- radford-neal 5y ago
  It's not just any idiosyncrasy. For example, someone might have the idiosyncrasy that whenever they mention some not-completely-common concept they put in a link to the wikipedia article on it, which I think might get rather annoying. However, I would believe that they thought they were being helpful to the reader, even if they weren't. So in that case, I wouldn't think, "if they don't care about communicating this, why should I bother reading it?"
kragen 5y ago
It sounds like you're only posting here in order to launch personal attacks on other people rather than because you have anything to say about old operating systems. The contrast between the amount of relevant and interesting information communicated by your comment, the only one you've posted on this thread, and the comment of mine that you're attacking, is extremely glaring, and it is not in the direction you assert. Please don't do that.
- coolso 5y ago
  I will say this, sometimes there needs to be a "bad guy" who says what we're all thinking, even if it comes across as mean. Otherwise, how would any of us know what behaviors of ours that other people find irritating, so we can adjust accordingly (since most people don't purposely want to irritate others, usually, and within reason)?
  - kragen 5y ago
    Sure, if I had bad breath or if I was walking around with my fly open, your comment would apply. But, in this case, the only useful information conveyed is that I'm violating an arbitrary date formatting convention, and that some people become unreasonably angry whenever they see an arbitrary convention being violated. But, obviously enough, I already know I'm violating the date formatting convention, and I could hardly be more aware of those people. My theory is that, like Carmen Ortiz, they like attacking people because it makes them feel powerful, and violations of arbitrary conventions give them the opportunity.
    - coolso 5y ago
      I think it's less that you're violating an "arbitrary date formatting convention" and more that you know the formatting convention everyone uses (4 digits), and decide to use your own arbitrary convention that maybe a hundred people in the world use. In fact, you're putting in extra effort just to use this convention that, by the time it's relevant, the earth probably won't even exist anymore. Most people will interpret this sort of thing as extremely pretentious and also assume that you're fishing for "compliments" and trying to look cooler than everyone else. Like an inside joke only you know about, so will someone please ask you about it? This type of behavior is typical in a classroom but becomes a lot less culturally acceptable the older you get.
      - kragen 5y ago
        The convention "everyone" uses doesn't stop being arbitrary just because most people use it. Who cares what most people think? And, yeah, it's true that most human cultures are very conformist, although I'm not sure I agree with your assertion that social groups full of old people are the most conformist. That conformism is why, for example, it took the humans 2000 years from recognizing that light darkens silver chloride until they invented photography, and they're constantly killing each other en masse in warfare, and 50 years after the first Moon landing there are still no cities off Earth. So, lighten up. Play a little. Violate arbitrary conventions. The mind you save could be your own.
agalunar 5y ago
I mean this with sincerity (it's a genuine question). Why write such a lengthy comment telling someone you're dismissing them rather than just dismissing them? Is it to discourage their behavior, or to warn other readers? Or simply to share how you feel?
- feoren 5y ago
  Because the world is a garden of ideas and some of us feel the urge to weed it occasionally.
  - kragen 5y ago
    Kid, get the hell out of my flowerbed, and hand over those damned gardenias. Now. No, those aren't weeds, and you aren't helping. I'm going to have a talk with your parents when they get home. Now scram.
newsbinator 5y ago
I both agree that it's an idiosyncrasy that prioritizes the interests of the writer over the comfort of the reader, and love to see stuff like this on HN, because it's the only place in the world I'm exposed to it. I was familiar with the general Long Now ethos, but seeing prefixed years in the wild and going down this HN rabbit hole has been worthwhile. Also seeing how politely & reasonably you folks debated back and forth on this usage makes me love the HN community (if we can even call it that?) even more.
- kragen 5y ago
  Man, if this seems polite and reasonable to you, I'd hate to see the kind of conversations you're accustomed to! The person you're responding to said my post about operating systems wasn't communicating anything useful, and I compared him to a prosecutor who bullied a friend of mine to suicide with ridiculously disproportionate criminal charges. I'm glad you enjoyed the conversation, though, and found it worthwhile.
  - newsbinator 5y ago
    I guess I'm comparing to Reddit, so my baseline is way out of kilter. But you all stayed on topic and brought up solid reasoning for your positions, and that's a rarity on the internet. One of the best ways to be polite is Principle of Charity and that's mostly what I saw here.

chipotle_coyote 5y ago

> That's helpful, since one can generally assume that anyone with that attitude isn't communicating anything useful. "Anyone who shows noticeable personal idiosyncrasies in their writing must not have anything useful to say" strikes me as a heuristic of exceedingly little value.

radford-neal 5y ago
It's not just any idiosyncrasy. For example, someone might have the idiosyncrasy that whenever they mention some not-completely-common concept they put in a link to the wikipedia article on it, which I think might get rather annoying. However, I would believe that they thought they were being helpful to the reader, even if they weren't. So in that case, I wouldn't think, "if they don't care about communicating this, why should I bother reading it?"

kragen 5y ago

It sounds like you're only posting here in order to launch personal attacks on other people rather than because you have anything to say about old operating systems. The contrast between the amount of relevant and interesting information communicated by your comment, the only one you've posted on this thread, and the comment of mine that you're attacking, is extremely glaring, and it is not in the direction you assert. Please don't do that.

coolso 5y ago
I will say this, sometimes there needs to be a "bad guy" who says what we're all thinking, even if it comes across as mean. Otherwise, how would any of us know what behaviors of ours that other people find irritating, so we can adjust accordingly (since most people don't purposely want to irritate others, usually, and within reason)?
- kragen 5y ago
  Sure, if I had bad breath or if I was walking around with my fly open, your comment would apply. But, in this case, the only useful information conveyed is that I'm violating an arbitrary date formatting convention, and that some people become unreasonably angry whenever they see an arbitrary convention being violated. But, obviously enough, I already know I'm violating the date formatting convention, and I could hardly be more aware of those people. My theory is that, like Carmen Ortiz, they like attacking people because it makes them feel powerful, and violations of arbitrary conventions give them the opportunity.
  - coolso 5y ago
    I think it's less that you're violating an "arbitrary date formatting convention" and more that you know the formatting convention everyone uses (4 digits), and decide to use your own arbitrary convention that maybe a hundred people in the world use. In fact, you're putting in extra effort just to use this convention that, by the time it's relevant, the earth probably won't even exist anymore. Most people will interpret this sort of thing as extremely pretentious and also assume that you're fishing for "compliments" and trying to look cooler than everyone else. Like an inside joke only you know about, so will someone please ask you about it? This type of behavior is typical in a classroom but becomes a lot less culturally acceptable the older you get.
    - kragen 5y ago
      The convention "everyone" uses doesn't stop being arbitrary just because most people use it. Who cares what most people think? And, yeah, it's true that most human cultures are very conformist, although I'm not sure I agree with your assertion that social groups full of old people are the most conformist. That conformism is why, for example, it took the humans 2000 years from recognizing that light darkens silver chloride until they invented photography, and they're constantly killing each other en masse in warfare, and 50 years after the first Moon landing there are still no cities off Earth. So, lighten up. Play a little. Violate arbitrary conventions. The mind you save could be your own.

agalunar 5y ago

I mean this with sincerity (it's a genuine question). Why write such a lengthy comment telling someone you're dismissing them rather than just dismissing them? Is it to discourage their behavior, or to warn other readers? Or simply to share how you feel?

feoren 5y ago
Because the world is a garden of ideas and some of us feel the urge to weed it occasionally.
- kragen 5y ago
  Kid, get the hell out of my flowerbed, and hand over those damned gardenias. Now. No, those aren't weeds, and you aren't helping. I'm going to have a talk with your parents when they get home. Now scram.

newsbinator 5y ago

I both agree that it's an idiosyncrasy that prioritizes the interests of the writer over the comfort of the reader, and love to see stuff like this on HN, because it's the only place in the world I'm exposed to it. I was familiar with the general Long Now ethos, but seeing prefixed years in the wild and going down this HN rabbit hole has been worthwhile. Also seeing how politely & reasonably you folks debated back and forth on this usage makes me love the HN community (if we can even call it that?) even more.

kragen 5y ago
Man, if this seems polite and reasonable to you, I'd hate to see the kind of conversations you're accustomed to! The person you're responding to said my post about operating systems wasn't communicating anything useful, and I compared him to a prosecutor who bullied a friend of mine to suicide with ridiculously disproportionate criminal charges. I'm glad you enjoyed the conversation, though, and found it worthwhile.
- newsbinator 5y ago
  I guess I'm comparing to Reddit, so my baseline is way out of kilter. But you all stayed on topic and brought up solid reasoning for your positions, and that's a rarity on the internet. One of the best ways to be polite is Principle of Charity and that's mostly what I saw here.