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> Tiktok has nailed the delightful "stumble upon" effect Am I the only one who hates this usage of the word "delightful"? I think of delightful as nearly a syn
by idrios 4y ago
> Tiktok has nailed the delightful "stumble upon" effect
Am I the only one who hates this usage of the word "delightful"? I think of delightful as nearly a synonym to the word "serendipitous", in that there's a rare joy to it -- difference between those two words that serendipitous is unexpected while delightful could be expected. I associate this with events like running into close friends or family, or just having a beautiful day and being able to have fun outside. It needs an element of rarity, whereas TikTok and Instagram are novelty on demand, and so that serendipitous joy fades into habit-forming addiction.
I am probably making an old-man-yells-at-cloud argument here, but I recently read an article that described the Android Compose toolkit as a way to make developing Android apps a "delightful experience" and it made me realize how much I despise that usage of the word for fairly mundane things.
- harrisonjackson 4y agoYes, delight has been overused and dumbed down to industry vernacular for any positive user emotion. It has a connotation that includes rarity or almost... (and I am putting on my over the top sales person hat) "something to be treasured". But I chose the word intentionally to reference stumble upon which I think a lot of folks on HN feel nostalgia for.
- lukeasrodgers 4y agoReminds me of the CS Lewis quote, "Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say infinitely when you mean very; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite."
- rchaud 4y agoYou're right, the meaning of the word has been bastardized by tech and design people. In fact it feels like the only time I ever even hear it nowadays is from a tech press release or from an overwrought tech conference presentation.