4 ms·
> Exception: when the number is meaningful As it is in this case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins
by jashkenas 12y ago
> Exception: when the number is meaningful
As it is in this case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins
If a (some might say, literary) allusion has no place on Hacker News, just because it happens to have a number in it, then the small-minded literalists have really taken over this joint.
- forthefuture 12y agoYou don't need to know the seven deadly sins to know anything about types. They could have had 5 or 8 sins having to do with types and the content wouldn't have changed. That's pretty much the definition of unnecessary.
- tome 12y agoIt should have been "The sins of talking about types" then.
- GeneralMayhem 12y agoBut the content doesn't really relate to the allusion in any way. It's not like the seven sins listed are analogues to gluttony, lust, sloth, etc. There just happen to be seven of them.