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HN is not a technology site. Not exclusively, anyway. Some days not even primarily! HN is an aggregator, so we pluck articles from varied contexts all the time.

HN is not a technology site. Not exclusively, anyway. Some days not even primarily! HN is an aggregator, so we pluck articles from varied contexts all the time. "Intellectual curiosity". But "Miss Julie" has exactly as much inherent context as "Riemann Hypothesis", or "Kubernetes". In all cases, a web search will return, as the first result, the correct reference. If we took a random sampling of people off the street, I'd be curious to see how many would recognize Miss Julie vs the other two. I lean toward more for Miss Julie! Anyway, what's a better title? "The Real Miss Julie (being a character in an eponymous 1888 play by Swedish playwright August Strindberg)"?

CyberDildonics 3y ago
"Miss Julie" has exactly as much inherent context as "Riemann Hypothesis", or "Kubernetes" No it doesn't. Let's think super hard. "Miss Julie" could be anyone named Julie. What else would "Riemann Hypothesis" or "Kubernetes" mean? If we took a random sampling of people off the street, This isn't 'the street', it's a tech website. Anyway, what's a better title? "The Real Miss Julie (being a character in an eponymous 1888 play by Swedish playwright August Strindberg)"? Yeah, that's much better, there is actual information and context.
- CRConrad 3y ago
  > > "Miss Julie" has exactly as much inherent context as "Riemann Hypothesis", or "Kubernetes" > No it doesn't. Let's think super hard. "Miss Julie" could be anyone named Julie. That is, frankly, bullshit. "Let's think super hard"... "Romeo and Juliet" could be any two people named Romeo and Juliet. But that's not what you thought when you saw the names, is it? Just because your Allgemeingbildung is sucky enough to only know (or at least have vaguely heard of) Shakespeare, but not Strindberg, doesn't make "Miss Julie" any more generic than "Romeo and Juliet". It just means you need to work on widening your literary horizons, not just your hacker ones.
- pvg 3y ago
  Your interpretation of HN's title conventions is inaccurate, titles are not required to have 'context' and that alone does not make them clickbait. That's never been a thing - it might not be to your taste but your 'pipeline' is just plum wrong, e.g. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20%22work%20a%20little%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
- quesera 3y ago
  Bad examples. Anyone named Riemann might hypothesize on any subject. And Kubernetes is a word in Ancient Greek. I had a Natural History professor in college named Riemann. He was a Darwinist, the irony! And I've met Greek scholars in the same venue. At some point, you just have to say "My liberal arts education was cut short before we got to 19th C Scandinavian playwrights". It's fine. You're in excellent company. (At the risk of offending the canon, I have to say that I really did not enjoy Strindberg, and although I acknowledge the cultural significance, I would happily exchange those hours for one kanelbulle.)
  - CRConrad 3y ago
    > At the risk of offending the canon, I have to say that I really did not enjoy Strindberg Yeah, by all acounts, he was pretty much an arsehole. But fuck, could that arsehole write!
  - CyberDildonics 3y ago
    Only here would someone try to argue that two terms that have giant wikipedia pages as their first result on google are somehow ambiguous. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubernetes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubernetes
    - quesera 3y ago
      I really think you're missing my point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Julie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Julie
      - CyberDildonics 3y ago
        This is exactly what I thought you would reply. You were saying the other two were ambiguous, now are you saying that a wikipedia page means they aren't ambiguous? At some point, you just have to say "My education was cut short before a class on logic". Also: Hacker News (HN) is a social news website focusing on computer science and entrepreneurship. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_News https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_News

CyberDildonics 3y ago

"Miss Julie" has exactly as much inherent context as "Riemann Hypothesis", or "Kubernetes" No it doesn't. Let's think super hard. "Miss Julie" could be anyone named Julie. What else would "Riemann Hypothesis" or "Kubernetes" mean? If we took a random sampling of people off the street, This isn't 'the street', it's a tech website. Anyway, what's a better title? "The Real Miss Julie (being a character in an eponymous 1888 play by Swedish playwright August Strindberg)"? Yeah, that's much better, there is actual information and context.

CRConrad 3y ago
> > "Miss Julie" has exactly as much inherent context as "Riemann Hypothesis", or "Kubernetes" > No it doesn't. Let's think super hard. "Miss Julie" could be anyone named Julie. That is, frankly, bullshit. "Let's think super hard"... "Romeo and Juliet" could be any two people named Romeo and Juliet. But that's not what you thought when you saw the names, is it? Just because your Allgemeingbildung is sucky enough to only know (or at least have vaguely heard of) Shakespeare, but not Strindberg, doesn't make "Miss Julie" any more generic than "Romeo and Juliet". It just means you need to work on widening your literary horizons, not just your hacker ones.
pvg 3y ago
Your interpretation of HN's title conventions is inaccurate, titles are not required to have 'context' and that alone does not make them clickbait. That's never been a thing - it might not be to your taste but your 'pipeline' is just plum wrong, e.g. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20%22work%20a%20little%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
quesera 3y ago
Bad examples. Anyone named Riemann might hypothesize on any subject. And Kubernetes is a word in Ancient Greek. I had a Natural History professor in college named Riemann. He was a Darwinist, the irony! And I've met Greek scholars in the same venue. At some point, you just have to say "My liberal arts education was cut short before we got to 19th C Scandinavian playwrights". It's fine. You're in excellent company. (At the risk of offending the canon, I have to say that I really did not enjoy Strindberg, and although I acknowledge the cultural significance, I would happily exchange those hours for one kanelbulle.)
- CRConrad 3y ago
  > At the risk of offending the canon, I have to say that I really did not enjoy Strindberg Yeah, by all acounts, he was pretty much an arsehole. But fuck, could that arsehole write!
- CyberDildonics 3y ago
  Only here would someone try to argue that two terms that have giant wikipedia pages as their first result on google are somehow ambiguous. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubernetes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubernetes
  - quesera 3y ago
    I really think you're missing my point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Julie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Julie
    - CyberDildonics 3y ago
      This is exactly what I thought you would reply. You were saying the other two were ambiguous, now are you saying that a wikipedia page means they aren't ambiguous? At some point, you just have to say "My education was cut short before a class on logic". Also: Hacker News (HN) is a social news website focusing on computer science and entrepreneurship. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_News https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_News