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DHH Is Worse Than I Thought
- mustaphah 1y ago[flagged]
- sibartlett 1y agoIt was previously posted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45451467 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45451467
- petercooper 1y agoI can't answer the second question, but to the first, it may have been "flagged" by multiple users. That tends to push items off the front page.
- leakycap 1y agoDHH feels like a mini-Elon. Extremely problematic but somehow great at selling to whoever is interviewing him. The last time I felt DHH deserved headlines was in the early 2000s. Since then I think we're just forced to hear from him because he's good at soundbites.
- znpy 1y agoAlso extremely prolific author, software engineer, and entrepreneur.
- brazukadev 1y agoI mean, Rails was good and all 20 years ago but it is not as if 37signals products are as great as the his interviews and books pictured them.
- leakycap 1y ago> extremely prolific author, prolific self-published author of free things on the internet sometimes also sold as books > software engineer along with many others who wrote great things in 2005! but what lately? the setup script called omarachy? > entrepreneur again, we're two decades from anything I'd call entrepreneurial babies have born and can vote since the last major wave DHH made, but he's great at soundbites and attention cycles
- conor- 1y agoLooking through the commit graph for Omarchy is wild. It has 2000+ commits, most of which contain the type of intermediary work pushed into the trunk that you'd see from a jr who doesn't squash their local work Also some gems like: https://github.com/basecamp/omarchy/commit/af72a45dbd4358bcaa0d8dc5590eb3246f70e284 https://github.com/basecamp/omarchy/commit/af72a45dbd4358bca... > Remove non-existent vibe-code hallucinated options and clean up theme files or https://github.com/basecamp/omarchy/commit/4fedfbe9f193030464515daa051ff5657968caf9 https://github.com/basecamp/omarchy/commit/4fedfbe9f19303046... There's also Omakub[0] which was sort of a precursor to Omarchy that gives users the `wget <some url> | bash` as a means of installation where the install script is a thin wrapper around another `eval $(wget <some url>` that then git clones a repository and executes a 3rd script. That's definitely the kinds of patterns I'd expect some prolific software engineer to use and also encourage complete novices to Linux to be comfortable just piping arbitrary wgets into a shell [0] https://omakub.org/ https://omakub.org/
- leakycap 1y agoIt’s as if DHH is so confident in their own work that they skip all the foundational steps and best practices -- even on an operating system project. The un-squashed commits are just the tip of the iceberg, but the installation method is the most egregious. Omarchy's distribution and install is the kind of thing I'd expect to see from a college project, not a leader in the tech world. I don't see DHH as a leader in anything except controversy and clicks these days, though, so the cheerleading around Oma-anything confuses me.
- angoragoats 1y agoI've heard this "Elon is great at selling" thing a few times and I simply don't understand it. The guy stumbles over his words frequently, is often awkward, and always attempts to appear smart but often inadvertently reveals his lack of knowledge in whatever topic he's discussing. Clearly not great at selling to me. What am I missing?
- sidibe 1y agoYou don't have enough credulity of wealthy people. Just imagine you didn't know anything about what he is talking about and you believe people's success is a good barometer of their expertise. Now what he's saying is amazing! You won't have to drive or do chores in a few years, actually a few years ago even! His stumbling over his words is just his big brain thinking of too many things at once
- angoragoats 1y agoNo one here said anything about this only applying to wealthy people, and I don’t think I’ve heard that elsewhere either.
- a_shovel 1y ago> Note that David never actually addresses the “far right” label on its merits — he just pivots to calling it overused, trying to direct your attention elsewhere like a magician distracting the audience as he performs a trick. I'm not sure he's bringing it up for that reason. He thinks the label is losing its power because it really is losing power over him, because he's becoming more comfortable with it and beginning to accept it. Keep an eye out for if he starts to call himself a fascist "ironically".
- jakelazaroff 1y agoI have bad news: https://nitter.net/dhh/status/1973621011590553927 https://nitter.net/dhh/status/1973621011590553927
- port11 1y agoLook, I've no reason to defend him. I do like Basecamp and the books that have been published by the team. That said, I don't care one iota if a millionaire formerly-cool guy digs himself a grave. Okay, that's my online-mandated disclaimer to come across as a neutral figure. The label is losing its power. The central blocs have been labelling everything they don't like as either far left or far right. The party I mainly vote for in my home country has been accused of being far left, when they've stayed to their traditionally left/center-left discourse. I think there's a case, in Europe, for accusing the mainstream parties of moving the far left/right goalposts so people who vote for these parties are seen as a marginal part of the electorate.
- legitster 1y ago> DHH’s politics are not normal. Maybe they used to be, I don’t know, but as of right now the dude is way the fuck outside of what most people would consider moral or acceptable. Is being vaguely anti-immigrant actually that far outside of what people people consider moral or acceptable these days? Like, I am shocked how much gets said on HN when H1B's are brought up. I don't agree with with any of the points in DHH's linked article. But like, DHH acknowledging Tommy Robinson's march existed probably shouldn't subject him to every criticism of Tommy Robinson.
- user982 1y ago> being vaguely anti-immigrant He is not vague about it. > DHH acknowledging Tommy Robinson's march existed He did more than just acknowledge it.
- fragmede 1y agoSpecifically, DHH posted https://world.hey.com/dhh/as-i-remember-london-e7d38e64 https://world.hey.com/dhh/as-i-remember-london-e7d38e64 where he wrote > London is no longer the city I was infatuated with in the late '90s and early 2000s. Chiefly because it's no longer full of native Brits. and linked to the Wikipedia page on ethnic groups in London showing that there aren't as many white people in London as there used to be. About Tommy Robinson's march, he wrote Tommy Robinson's march > That frustration [with mass immigration] was on wide display in Tommy Robinson's march yesterday. British and English flags flying high and proud Tommy Robinson is devoutly anti-Islam and founded the English Defence League.
- WickyNilliams 1y agoA large portion of DHH's article is dedicated to Tommy Robinson and the march. It's almost a common thread that ties it together, weaving in callbacks throughout. He is romanticising TR and the march. It's beyond merely acknowledging its existence. There's definitely an air of admiration. As for Tommy, if you are not familiar with it's worth looking at his Wikipedia entry. He is a violent thug and career criminal. He has been convicted of: fraud, possession intent to supply drugs, assaulting a police officer (whom he kicked in the head while on the floor), entering the US on a false passport, stalking and harassing journalists, contempt of court on multiple occasions (one of which he seriously jeopardised the court trial of some paedophiles) This is not an exhaustive list. And without getting into his foul politics. Lending any credence whatsoever to this man is very telling
- latexr 1y agoReminder that Cloudflare is sponsoring DHH’s work. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45332860 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45332860 774 points | 496 comments | 10 days ago
- Trasmatta 1y agoAnd that's saying something, because I've known for at least 10 years that DHH was bad.
- periodjet 1y ago> DHH’s politics are not normal. Maybe they used to be, I don’t know, but as of right now the dude is way the fuck outside of what most people would consider moral or acceptable. Only a person deeply ensconced in an information bubble could assert this. DHH’s opinions are only surprising and disquieting to a tiny minority of social justice fundamentalists. The reason this is so uncomfortable for them is because it’s a clear signal that normal middle-of-the-road opinions are (thankfully) becoming normalized once again after the socjus fundies held everyone hostage for over a decade. The fever is breaking, though, and such people are being revealed for what they actually are: a tiny group of rather unhinged extremists. The rest of us normies are relieved to just be getting back to regular life again.
- jakelazaroff 1y agoLike I said in the article: a high-signal indicator that someone knows their views are extreme and unpopular is when they use this sort of rhetoric. There's a reason you're sort of gesturing vaguely at "DHH's opinions" rather than just plainly stating what you mean.
- A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 1y ago<< rather than just plainly stating what you mean. Hmm. What do you think his opinions mean?
- angoragoats 1y agoNo, this is completely wrong. The DHH article that people are referring to here is straight up white nationalist propaganda. It's not even being coy or beating around the bush about it. White nationalism has always been a fringe belief, and is clearly not a "normal middle-of-the-road" opinion. It's funny to me that those who tend to jump to calling out "information bubbles" seem to be the ones most ensconced in them. It's not just you; for example, the most recent DHH blog ("We've all had enough of this nonsense") ranting about how people are trying to "cancel me from Rails" contains a sentence full of links calling the outpouring of support overwhelming, and every single link is a link to a Twitter post. It's equivalent to a pro-LGBT candidate boasting that they have overwhelming public support because they polled everyone at the Pride parade. I'm actually convinced that many people who claim "that normal middle-of-the-road opinions are becoming normalized once again" believe this _solely_ because of the overwhelmingly hard-rightward shift of political beliefs on Twitter. These people don't seem to understand that Twitter is not real life.
- colinbartlett 1y ago[flagged]
- lawn 1y ago[flagged]
- temphaaa 1y ago[dead]
- tim333 1y agoI think you'll find most Brits are not sure about London being taken over by people from places like Pakistan, India and the middle east. I went to Ilford for the first time recently, which used to be white working class and was surprised to find that it now seems about 90% islamic. I'm not sure calling anyone having doubts as to whether it's a good thing or not racist is very productive. For context I live in central London and quite like the diversity but I don't have a problem with people debating it and saying they'd prefer it different. In fact I think it's healthy to have an open debate.
- colinbartlett 1y agoDid you read this methodically written and sourced post? It is most certainly NOT calling "anyone having doubts" a "racist". It is calling one particular person's astonishingly racist post as exactly what it is.
- tim333 1y agoI read the DHH "As I remember London" post and don't find it astonishingly racist. I guess you are referring to that? Which line is astonishing? I think jakelazaroff twists things rather - I'm after something DHH actually wrote.
- archagon 1y agoWhat, the post where DHH implies that brown immigrants are rapists and criminals and that Britain is being invaded and needs to be cleansed? The one that paints five-time convicted criminal and fascist Tommy Fucking Robinson as some sort of folk hero? That man is a post away from shrieking about remigration for non-whites, just like many of his new-found allies already do.
- tim333 1y agoIndeed that on which does not contain the words "brown", "rapists", "criminals", "invaded" or "cleansed" and does not say Robinson is a folk hero. As I said - I'm after something DHH actually wrote.
- mikewarot 1y agoSo, this reads like a hit piece to me, carefully crafted support a narrative, and discourage nuance. I can see why it's been flagged here on HN.
- camillomiller 1y agoLOL what a bunch of apologists
- LightBug1 1y agoJust adding this in case DHH happens to be searching for himself on HN (I wouldn't be suprised at all). And who cares. This whole thing is flagged. Hey, DHH. You're a wanker, mate. And, speaking as a Londoner, you haven't the foggiest idea what you're talking about. Stick to Rails, something you actually seem proficient at.