3 ms·

Call me crazy, but on this subject at least I'll take Enrico Fermi's aesthetic judgment over yours. If I have to manipulate a big equation I give nicknames to

Call me crazy, but on this subject at least I'll take Enrico Fermi's aesthetic judgment over yours. If I have to manipulate a big equation I give nicknames to the different pieces, like "the curvature leftovers" or "the linear stuff" or "that ugly fucker from under the radical." "The little neutral guy" seems like a perfectly natural name to me.

swombat 17y ago
sigh I was just teasing sho about http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=643051 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=643051
- sho 17y ago
  I think I was punished enough for that! Hope there's no hard feelings anyway, I certainly didn't intend it as some kind of attack. It can be hard to get honest feedback that hasn't been softened by politeness, so I attempt to provide it, even at the risk of being seen as a prick. The rebuttals were instructive, by the way. One person chided me thus: "You could try couching it in some politeness" And I suppose it is easy enough for me to do that. I am usually extremely polite. But is that really what you want? "Polite feedback only?" If that's what you want, ask your Mom. Despite what you might think, I do try to be honest and, more importantly, useful. My actual, real-life reaction to that company name was visceral - I really hated it. I tried to get that across; it was pretty late, and I was somewhat drunk (hehe), maybe I dialed up the harshness a little too high but reading it again I don't think I was that far off the mark. And certainly better than misrepresenting myself for the sake of protecting feelings. Obviously there is a balance to be found between worthless feelgood encouragement and worthless destructive "that sucks" snark. Perhaps in this instance I went too far to the latter. But at the same time, look at the whole thread. No-one else even mentioned the name. Was it because they all love it? Or because something so fundamental is off-limits? It cost me 20 mod points or something to get that point across, not that I care about that, but still - now you know that some people think the name sucks and it might be a problem. I am satisfied with the outcome. Do you really want everyone to be following the principle "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all"?
  - swombat 17y ago
    Dude, I was just teasing you. You'll notice I didn't even reply to that thread. I'm the last person to be bothered by harsh online feedback (which would be hypocritical considering I dish out a fair bit of it myself). You can imagine we didn't come up with this name without some thought, and we did do some testing of it before releasing it. Yes, some people will have an immediate adverse reaction to it, but they're a tiny minority, from what we observed. Most are puzzled by the name, but they don't care that much. One advantage we get from this name is that it sounds different from the competition, and so people remember us. It's all about trade-offs. Anyway, the above point was just a tease, I'm fine with feedback in all its forms.
    - sho 17y ago
      OK we cool then : ) I have to admit, the name is memorable. By that metric, you've succeeded admirably. It might be seared into my brain as "worst name ever" but - it's seared into my brain, lol ...

swombat 17y ago

sigh I was just teasing sho about http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=643051 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=643051

sho 17y ago
I think I was punished enough for that! Hope there's no hard feelings anyway, I certainly didn't intend it as some kind of attack. It can be hard to get honest feedback that hasn't been softened by politeness, so I attempt to provide it, even at the risk of being seen as a prick. The rebuttals were instructive, by the way. One person chided me thus: "You could try couching it in some politeness" And I suppose it is easy enough for me to do that. I am usually extremely polite. But is that really what you want? "Polite feedback only?" If that's what you want, ask your Mom. Despite what you might think, I do try to be honest and, more importantly, useful. My actual, real-life reaction to that company name was visceral - I really hated it. I tried to get that across; it was pretty late, and I was somewhat drunk (hehe), maybe I dialed up the harshness a little too high but reading it again I don't think I was that far off the mark. And certainly better than misrepresenting myself for the sake of protecting feelings. Obviously there is a balance to be found between worthless feelgood encouragement and worthless destructive "that sucks" snark. Perhaps in this instance I went too far to the latter. But at the same time, look at the whole thread. No-one else even mentioned the name. Was it because they all love it? Or because something so fundamental is off-limits? It cost me 20 mod points or something to get that point across, not that I care about that, but still - now you know that some people think the name sucks and it might be a problem. I am satisfied with the outcome. Do you really want everyone to be following the principle "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all"?
- swombat 17y ago
  Dude, I was just teasing you. You'll notice I didn't even reply to that thread. I'm the last person to be bothered by harsh online feedback (which would be hypocritical considering I dish out a fair bit of it myself). You can imagine we didn't come up with this name without some thought, and we did do some testing of it before releasing it. Yes, some people will have an immediate adverse reaction to it, but they're a tiny minority, from what we observed. Most are puzzled by the name, but they don't care that much. One advantage we get from this name is that it sounds different from the competition, and so people remember us. It's all about trade-offs. Anyway, the above point was just a tease, I'm fine with feedback in all its forms.
  - sho 17y ago
    OK we cool then : ) I have to admit, the name is memorable. By that metric, you've succeeded admirably. It might be seared into my brain as "worst name ever" but - it's seared into my brain, lol ...