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I think you missed something : the whole post is plain sarcasm. Maybe not obvious to you, but still.

by vhf 14y ago

abraxasz 14y ago
I think YOU missed something. smacktoward understood the sarcasm, translated it, and commented on the message itself. You're the one who did not read or undertand the comment carefully.
- sophacles 14y ago
  Cut some slack - sarcasm leads to some convoluted negation chains based on implicit and idiomatic translations of the sarcasm. It can be difficult for native speakers who are well acclimated culturally to follow, let alone anyone who isn't a native speaker. Doubly so in text without tonal and non-verbal cues of how statements are meant.
  - abraxasz 14y ago
    I am not a native speaker either. This is why I read things carefully before commenting :) Didn't mean no harm by the way, just replicated the tone of the commenter..
    - vhf 14y ago
      Sorry for the tone, didn't mean no harm neither. So we both aren't native speakers. I still don't think my tone was anything more than informative. ;) Sorry if I offended someone, though.
larrys 14y ago
Understanding it was sarcasm requires taking the time to do more than just skim the article. Or knowing Jason in particular. I made the same mistake of taking it seriously. The assumption that the overwhelming majority of people seeing this post would assume and know it is sarcasm really detracts from using HN as a useful part of one's day. People expect a video link to be labeled as such, why not "sarcasm" as part of the subject? (Answer, might not get as many points or people who know it's sarcasm won't be able to laugh at the "fools" who were taken by it? What if the article had been about best practices in security programming and the person reading it was new to the game? What if it dealt with hashing of passwords and gave the wrong info? How would you expect a beginner to necessarily know that? Where do you draw the line. A few things: "Stay in stealth mode until the last minute." That's his opinion. Nothing screams out if this is his first statement that this is obviously bogus as a strategy. "You need your sleep!" That's actually true. "Steve Jobs didn’t work constantly, Bill Gates had lots of hobbies, Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t tethered to his laptop" From popular culture the above is contradicted. But how do you expect someone who hasn't been following all of this for many years to know that and how do you know if Jason read something that just recently came out (that you didn't) that claims that Bill Gates had lots of hobbies?
- mulya 14y ago
  The biggest sign is this sentence: "Once you launch, then millions of people will know about you, including competitors".
mhartl 14y ago
He didn't miss anything. He's replying to the serious points obtained by inverting the sarcastic statements. Steve Jobs didn’t work constantly Missing the sarcasm: "Actually, Jobs worked really hard." Getting the sarcasm: "True, Jobs worked hard, but the consequences were severe, so maybe he's not the best role model to adopt." The parent comment clearly falls into the latter category.

I think you missed something : the whole post is plain sarcasm. Maybe not obvious to you, but still.

by vhf 14y ago

I think you missed something : the whole post is plain sarcasm. Maybe not obvious to you, but still.

I think YOU missed something. smacktoward understood the sarcasm, translated it, and commented on the message itself. You're the one who did not read or undertand the comment carefully.

sophacles 14y ago
Cut some slack - sarcasm leads to some convoluted negation chains based on implicit and idiomatic translations of the sarcasm. It can be difficult for native speakers who are well acclimated culturally to follow, let alone anyone who isn't a native speaker. Doubly so in text without tonal and non-verbal cues of how statements are meant.
- abraxasz 14y ago
  I am not a native speaker either. This is why I read things carefully before commenting :) Didn't mean no harm by the way, just replicated the tone of the commenter..
  - vhf 14y ago
    Sorry for the tone, didn't mean no harm neither. So we both aren't native speakers. I still don't think my tone was anything more than informative. ;) Sorry if I offended someone, though.

larrys 14y ago

Understanding it was sarcasm requires taking the time to do more than just skim the article. Or knowing Jason in particular. I made the same mistake of taking it seriously. The assumption that the overwhelming majority of people seeing this post would assume and know it is sarcasm really detracts from using HN as a useful part of one's day. People expect a video link to be labeled as such, why not "sarcasm" as part of the subject? (Answer, might not get as many points or people who know it's sarcasm won't be able to laugh at the "fools" who were taken by it? What if the article had been about best practices in security programming and the person reading it was new to the game? What if it dealt with hashing of passwords and gave the wrong info? How would you expect a beginner to necessarily know that? Where do you draw the line. A few things: "Stay in stealth mode until the last minute." That's his opinion. Nothing screams out if this is his first statement that this is obviously bogus as a strategy. "You need your sleep!" That's actually true. "Steve Jobs didn’t work constantly, Bill Gates had lots of hobbies, Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t tethered to his laptop" From popular culture the above is contradicted. But how do you expect someone who hasn't been following all of this for many years to know that and how do you know if Jason read something that just recently came out (that you didn't) that claims that Bill Gates had lots of hobbies?

mulya 14y ago
The biggest sign is this sentence: "Once you launch, then millions of people will know about you, including competitors".

mhartl 14y ago

He didn't miss anything. He's replying to the serious points obtained by inverting the sarcastic statements. Steve Jobs didn’t work constantly Missing the sarcasm: "Actually, Jobs worked really hard." Getting the sarcasm: "True, Jobs worked hard, but the consequences were severe, so maybe he's not the best role model to adopt." The parent comment clearly falls into the latter category.