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I don't get it. Why is this on HN?

ColinWright 14y ago
Because not every hacker is a web developer. I, for example, am a self-confessed non-web developer. I program big iron and embedded systems in a safety critical context. I'm not scraping database for information and arranging it on the screen nicely for people to make purchases, I'm helping to stop oil tankers from crashing into nuclear submarines. But occasionally I, and others, stray from our core competencies and either choose to or have to deal with things with which they are unfamiliar. In those cases it's nice to have a community to turn to consisting of people who do have expertise and experience in the unfamiliar area. If it's not too often, and if it's obvious that people have made a genuine attempt to sort things out for themselves, and if the question is distilled to its essence, it's possible that more than one person can learn from the resulting thread. And many times I've answered people's questions about math, or algorithms, and it's nice to get something back. So thank you to those who replied - it's pretty much sorted now, and I've learned something.
- oliakaoil 14y ago
  If you spend your days preventing the next global ecological or thermonuclear disaster and looking down your nose at those who do something like sell a product, I find it hard to believe that you have a hard time figuring out something like this without reaching out to the community in this manner, but that is another issue I'm not interested in. What I was asking about is the fact that I have been reading HN for about a year now and I've never seen a "story" like this come into my news feed. I was wondering why one suddenly popped.
  - ColinWright 14y ago
    I don't look down my nose at people "who do something like sell a product" - I have great respect for their skills, and for what they do. I, too, sell products and provide services, I just do it in a different context, albeit still computer based. Business-wise the activities have a lot in common. I'm trying to point out that the skills required in scraping databases and arranging things on screens is not what I do, and I find it hard. If nothing else it's an acknowledgement that people who do web development are skills I don't have. I find it hard to believe that you have a hard time figuring out something like this without reaching out to the community in this manner. And I have a hard time believing that people struggle with some of the elementary math I see questions about, but I generally assume that they have other skills, and that this stuff is hard for them, so that's why I do what I can to help when I get the opportunity. Different people have different skills, different training, different experience and different talents. What I was asking about is the fact that I have been reading HN for about a year now and I've never seen a "story" like this come into my news feed. I was wondering why one suddenly popped. Well, I've been reading HN for about 5 years now, and I've seen them before. Not often, and usually they are fleeting because the answers come quickly and efficiently, so the item never makes it to the Front Page. It doesn't have to.

Because not every hacker is a web developer. I, for example, am a self-confessed non-web developer. I program big iron and embedded systems in a safety critical context. I'm not scraping database for information and arranging it on the screen nicely for people to make purchases, I'm helping to stop oil tankers from crashing into nuclear submarines. But occasionally I, and others, stray from our core competencies and either choose to or have to deal with things with which they are unfamiliar. In those cases it's nice to have a community to turn to consisting of people who do have expertise and experience in the unfamiliar area. If it's not too often, and if it's obvious that people have made a genuine attempt to sort things out for themselves, and if the question is distilled to its essence, it's possible that more than one person can learn from the resulting thread. And many times I've answered people's questions about math, or algorithms, and it's nice to get something back. So thank you to those who replied - it's pretty much sorted now, and I've learned something.

oliakaoil 14y ago
If you spend your days preventing the next global ecological or thermonuclear disaster and looking down your nose at those who do something like sell a product, I find it hard to believe that you have a hard time figuring out something like this without reaching out to the community in this manner, but that is another issue I'm not interested in. What I was asking about is the fact that I have been reading HN for about a year now and I've never seen a "story" like this come into my news feed. I was wondering why one suddenly popped.
- ColinWright 14y ago
  I don't look down my nose at people "who do something like sell a product" - I have great respect for their skills, and for what they do. I, too, sell products and provide services, I just do it in a different context, albeit still computer based. Business-wise the activities have a lot in common. I'm trying to point out that the skills required in scraping databases and arranging things on screens is not what I do, and I find it hard. If nothing else it's an acknowledgement that people who do web development are skills I don't have. I find it hard to believe that you have a hard time figuring out something like this without reaching out to the community in this manner. And I have a hard time believing that people struggle with some of the elementary math I see questions about, but I generally assume that they have other skills, and that this stuff is hard for them, so that's why I do what I can to help when I get the opportunity. Different people have different skills, different training, different experience and different talents. What I was asking about is the fact that I have been reading HN for about a year now and I've never seen a "story" like this come into my news feed. I was wondering why one suddenly popped. Well, I've been reading HN for about 5 years now, and I've seen them before. Not often, and usually they are fleeting because the answers come quickly and efficiently, so the item never makes it to the Front Page. It doesn't have to.