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While I generally agree with your response to the perceived arrogance - shouldn’t we all ask if we can do better than assuming someone else is an expert and has

While I generally agree with your response to the perceived arrogance - shouldn’t we all ask if we can do better than assuming someone else is an expert and has fully optimized a solution? As long as we approach new domains with a sense of humility and respect I think it’s desirable to always be looking for better solutions.

mindslight 4y ago
> assuming someone else is an expert and has fully optimized a solution? I wasn't offering my own singular expert [0] opinion, but rather pointing out what I've observed the entire industry has seemingly converged on. Despite being subject to the hyper-cost-optimization of the consumer market, every refrigeration appliance I've seen still uses copper heat exchanger tubes and copper piping. I would welcome someone chiming in saying something like "actually I work in HVAC and things are moving towards aluminum heat exchanger tubes and stainless piping" or "that's already the case for most new building-scale systems", because I'd learn something new. But "just asking questions" based on one single material property isn't particularly helpful. And yeah, copper has gotten expensive. That has helped some new technologies displace it (eg PEX), but copper is also still used where it's needed (eg PEX and PEX fittings over 1" nominal (which is equivalent to 3/4 copper) are prohibitively expensive for some reason). [0] In fact, I'm not a refrigeration professional, and have yet to pretend to be one. I just tend to look at how things are built.