
Ask HN: Favorite HN comment(s) - _6cj7
There are bunch of informative&#x2F;interesting comments on HN. Throwing here just few of them:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14327829<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12941574<p>Which HN comment(s) are among your favorite ones? Which ones have created value for you?
======
tptacek
This is actually a feature of HN (but a well-hidden one). My favorite comments
here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/favorites?id=tptacek&comments=t](https://news.ycombinator.com/favorites?id=tptacek&comments=t)

~~~
yodon
Wow, your list of favorite comments is every bit as wonderful as your list of
comments. No wonder yours was the first name here on HN I learned to look for
to learn from (with dang's being the second)

------
Briel
Since our mental wellbeing plays a huge role in how we use our knowledge and
skills, one of my favorite HN comments (which is actually a quote from another
source):

"Human life the Stoics appear to have considered as a game of great skill; in
which, however, there was a mixture of chance [...] In such games the stake is
commonly a trifle, and the whole pleasure of the game arises from playing
well, from playing fairly, and playing skilfully. If notwithstanding all his
skill, however, the good player should, by the influence of chance, happen to
lose, the loss ought to be a matter, rather of merriment, than of serious
sorrow. He has made no false stroke; he has done nothing which he ought to be
ashamed of; he has enjoyed completely the whole pleasure of the game. [...]

Our only anxious concern ought to be, not about the stake, but about the
proper method of playing. If we placed our happiness in winning the stake, we
placed it in what depended upon causes beyond our power, and out of our
direction. We necessarily exposed ourselves to perpetual fear and uneasiness,
and frequently to grievous and mortifying disappointments. If we placed it in
playing well, in playing fairly, in playing wisely and skilfully; in the
propriety of our own conduct in short; we placed it in what, by proper
discipline, education, and attention, might be altogether in our own power,
and under our own direction. Our happiness was perfectly secure, and beyond
the reach of fortune."

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12995076](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12995076)

------
acheron
"JavaScript Delenda Est", by zeveb:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11447851](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11447851)

Excerpt: _JavaScript is the XML, the Yugo, the Therac-25 of programming
languages. The sheer amount of human effort which has been expended working
around its fundamental flaws instead of advancing the development of mankind
is astounding. The fact that people would take this paragon of wasted
opportunity and use it on the server side, where there are so many better
alternatives (to a first approximation, every other programming language ever
used), is utterly appalling._

~~~
ejcx
Js is clearly very popular. What are these fundamental flaws that js has that
this comment mentions? I don't understand why it would be the "paragon of
wasted opportunity".

~~~
roblabla
let's see... Lack of a real integer type ?

The fact that {} + [], [] + [], [] + {} are all valid and all give different
results ? [1]

The fact that it has some silent error conditions like NaN ?

The fact that, in v8 (which is the most common js engine out there), if you
add a comment to a function, it can suddenly start performing poorly ?[0]

I love JS, I really do. Hell, I write nodejs for a living ! I find
prototypical inheritance to be an awesome idea. The simplicity, and
extensibility of the language is something that I really like from it. But I
can see where people hating it are coming from. I wish lua had been used
instead of JS.

[0]: [https://top.fse.guru/nodejs-a-quick-optimization-
advice-7353...](https://top.fse.guru/nodejs-a-quick-optimization-
advice-7353b820c92e)

[1]:
[https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat](https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat)

~~~
_ar7
Most of the issues you listed with the language itself are fixed by using
either Flow or TypeScript. As for that V8 issue, it's not ideal, but how about
just putting comments of that size outside of the function, or not
overcommenting functions small enough to be inlined.

I know a lot of people view using so much tooling as a con of the language,
but if you use Babel + Eslint + Flow/Typescript, JavaScript becomes a lot
nicer and safer to program in. For small to mid-sized projects, I think
JavaScript is pretty great.

~~~
piedoom
> Most of the issues you listed with the language itself are fixed by using
> either Flow or TypeScript.

Hence the initial comment about putting effort into fixing something
fundamentally broken.

~~~
_ar7
Ah true. I guess what I was really getting at was that even though JavaScript
has some fundamental missteps, it's not beyond being fixed and definitely not
the worst language in existence i.e. that behind the quirks, is a quite nice
and powerful language that isn't a waste of effort.

------
Tomte
Graphs of the memory hierarchy:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4048204](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4048204)

What's bayesian and frequentist statistics:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4741146](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4741146)

Again:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=384399](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=384399)

DSA math:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6195606](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6195606)

Automotive development:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10496625](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10496625)

QNX and message passing:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9872640](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9872640)

Path through InfoSec:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11710028](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11710028)

What does performance in Erlang mean:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6359493](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6359493)

Emacs and C/C++:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8617300](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8617300)

Money and self-publishing:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8373185](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8373185)

Kerbal Space Program:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12640451](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12640451)

Bush v. Gore:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12187666](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12187666)

Teaching a class:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=818367](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=818367)

Precedence climbing:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13915458](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13915458)

------
olalonde
Best HN comeback:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079)

~~~
cperciva
How did I guess this was going to show up again?

~~~
krapp
You do the math.

~~~
cperciva
Speaking of math, despite being easily my most _famous_ comment, it's nowhere
near being my most _upvoted_ comment.

~~~
dsacco
Which is the most upvoted?

------
sndean
There's a whole series of (long) comments by arcfide [0] about APL, and code
in general, in the "Smaller Code, Better Code" thread [1] that I thought were
great.

In particular this one [2].

"I'm pushing the other direction. If you can see your entire compiler at one
go on a standard computer screen, what sort of possibilities does that open
up? You can start thinking at the macro level, and simply avoid a whole host
of problems because they are obviously wrong at that level. When you aren't
afraid to delete you entire compiler and start from scratch? What sort of
possibilities does that open up to you?"

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=arcfide](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=arcfide)

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13565743](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13565743)

[2]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13571160](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13571160)

------
protomyth
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=287767](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=287767)

 _anamax 3190 days ago | on: So, you 're gonna code the whole thing, do the
serv...

If they don't have the money to pay you, you're not an employee, you're a
founder and you get the same deal that they get.

If they balk, suggest that they find another code monkey while you find
another biz monkey and let the market decide who ends up with the bananas._

------
minimaxir
Here's an old spreadsheet I have of the Top HN Comments (by point score) for
each month until October 2014:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZwonVX_KlDYhuhPnAAnV...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZwonVX_KlDYhuhPnAAnVpdVRgu4LxldP74-c_kvOd5k/edit?usp=sharing)

------
msutherl
On chef and cucumber:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13209760](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13209760)

On Knuth, C, and Haskell:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12741430](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12741430)

On npm and In Praise of Idleness:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12209300](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12209300)

On revenue:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11307264](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11307264)

On cranks:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10931403](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10931403)

On "Great Men":
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10166372](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10166372)

On the vastness of space:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9937353](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9937353)

Advice from a doctor:
[https://www.are.na/block/324266](https://www.are.na/block/324266)

A+ dig at pg:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7140065](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7140065)

A+ troll:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7229519](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7229519)

------
danso
Loved cubano's explanation of how Snapchat would be the end of him sharing
networks with his young daughter:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11076284](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11076284)

------
m1el
User Steuard explains why EmDrive doesn't work and responds to an ad-hominem
attack

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9473209](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9473209)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9476202](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9476202)

~~~
swingdoc
Sorry to point out that Steuard comments are as valid as me stating that
because I don't understand how to calculate the integral, there can be no way
anyone else can . Just because some people don't know how to do something
doesn't mean its not possible.

~~~
m1el
> because I don't understand how to calculate the integral, there can be no
> way anyone else can > Just because some people don't know how to do
> something doesn't mean its not possible.

While this is a wrong place to continue this, I still think that I must answer
this.

This analogy is incorrect. Let me rephrase your statement about the integral:
"I'm incapable of calculating the integral therefore it cannot be calculated"

It's not a question of human _capabilities_. The problem with EmDrive is not
that we say that humans are _incapable_ of inventing a reactionless drive.

The problem is that all working physics theories embed conservation of
momentum, and reactionless drives contradict conservation of momentum. This is
equivalent to saying "here's a proof this integral cannot be calculated in all
useful mathematical formalisms". Please note that there are no "proofs" in
physics, and I'm only using this as an analogy.

Of course you could _define_ a formalism that makes it possible to calculate
the integral, which EmDrive proponents don't do.

I would be glad to be proven wrong. If there was a rigorous experiment that
invalidates all modern physical theories, I would change my mind really fast,
so would the majority of scientists. However, EmDrive proponents produce no
rigorous experiments. The analogy would be saying "oh those silly
mathematicians saying I _couldn 't_ calculate this integral, here's my
calculation!" while having many errors in your calculations.

> By the way we saw the same thing in algo trading, were a cabal of finance
> professors argued for more than 10years that the EMH theory holds and algo
> trading is a hoax. Just saying..

Again, this analogy is incorrect, because you won't find an adequate physicist
that disputes conservation of momentum. And EMH was/is disputed.

~~~
swingdoc
I agree that it might be a false assumption emdrive works. But I don't think
you should state that the standard model is evidence of that emdrive cannot
work. Again I agree with conservation of momentum, but what if your assumption
is wrong? What if emdrive don't violate it? My point is, rather focus your
energy on building your own version than throwing out statements which also
have no proof.

~~~
m1el
> But I don't think you should state that the standard model is evidence of
> that emdrive cannot work

I specifically said that _reactionless_ drives contradict conservation of
momentum. This is a direct result of _all_ useful physical theories.

> what if your assumption is wrong? What if emdrive don't violate it?

Believe it or not, but I've answered this question before. If EmDrive doesn't
violate conservation of momentum, then according to standard model it cannot
produce more thrust than a photon drive, which makes EmDrive utterly useless.

> My point is, rather focus your energy on building your own version [...]

My own version: EmDrive inventor is a crackpot, which can be deduced from
papers he writes and statements he makes. I'm not obliged to explain every
single crackpot claim. The burden of proof is on the side making extraordinary
claims.

> [...] than throwing out statements which also have no proof

Please quote specific statements rather than making broad accusation of
baseless speech.

I'm tired of dissecting every single one of your sentences.

------
nulagrithom
Raise your rates:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4247615](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4247615)

------
sigil
This one, about doing 40 million req/s in Lua on a single box, still blows my
mind.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7180672](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7180672)

------
alpha_squared
This one about furniture and why there's no okay quality furniture:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13743311](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13743311)

------
cmsimike
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4759660](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4759660)
edw519's response to "I am a terrible programmer"

------
taspeotis
This history lesson.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9048947](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9048947)

------
shpx
[https://news.ycombinator.com/favorites?id=shpx&comments=t](https://news.ycombinator.com/favorites?id=shpx&comments=t)

JumpCrisscross's comment about perfectionism being bad
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12729864](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12729864)
and pg with a similar thought
[https://twitter.com/paulg/status/855342574063800320](https://twitter.com/paulg/status/855342574063800320)

------
dkns
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4540459](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4540459)

This one from 'How To Die With No Regrets'

------
petters
Dan Luu has a good list of HN comments: [https://danluu.com/hn-
comments/](https://danluu.com/hn-comments/)

------
denzil_correa
The HN comment - "comeback of all time".

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079)

The thing I liked about the thread is also has Drew Houston from Dropbox
talking about his then startup idea.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35095](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35095)

------
dandelion_lover
About the "free choice" when you sign some Terms of Service:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12958035](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12958035)

Why backdoors are bad:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12751461](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12751461)

------
beefman
some of my most-upvoted comments...

energy systems
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8386603](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8386603)

delayed IPOs
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13831214](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13831214)

desktop v mobile
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7182345](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7182345)

free fruit
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10728601](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10728601)

role of self-experimentation
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13965307](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13965307)

------
schwag09
burntsushi's performance analysis of string parsing in Rust vs. Go:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13268051](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13268051)

I learned quite a few things about both Rust and Go!

------
soneca
Related, I am learning to code and in the process I built this simple website
that randomly shows the most upvoted HN comments:

[http://www.opusnota.com/hnbc](http://www.opusnota.com/hnbc)

~~~
minimaxir
HN comment scores are not public, so I am unsure how you find the "most
upvoted comments"

~~~
soneca
Algolia's API show votes for older comments (not sure how old is the line when
it stops showing).

Edit: naturally, there is a strong bias for older comments in the list.

Code I use:

    
    
        <script>
    		
    		  $(document).ready(function() {
      var lasthours = "";
        
        $("#refresh").on("click", function() {
          
          var html = "";
          var url = "https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?tags=comment&numericFilters=points>120&page=";
          var page = Math.floor(Math.random() * (20)) + 1;
          url += page.toString();
           
          var position = 0;
          position = Math.floor(Math.random() * 20);
       
          
        $.getJSON(url, function(json) {
          
            var hits = json.hits;
            
            var html = "<p>"+hits[position].comment_text+"</p><p>Story: <a  target='_blank'  href='"+hits[position].story_url+"'>"+hits[position].story_title+"</a><br><a  target='_blank'  href='https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id="+hits[position].story_id+"'>comment by "+hits[position].author+"</a></p>";
            
        $("#quote-text").html(html);
        });
        });
      });
    		
    		</script>

~~~
minimaxir
The Algolia API cutoff for comment scores is October 2014. (which I know
because it was cut off after I made a blog post on the subject:
[http://minimaxir.com/2014/10/hn-comments-about-
comments/](http://minimaxir.com/2014/10/hn-comments-about-comments/))

There have been quite a few good comments since then.

It is worse to make an incredibly biased list than no list at all.

~~~
soneca
It is just a learning project. Feel free to not access it and downvote my
comment advertising it if you think it is dangerous.

~~~
minimaxir
My comment was not a criticism, but a warning. It is very important to note
where the data is coming from and any associated caveats which may influence
the results.

------
komputerist
Ask HN: What do you use Machine Learning for? -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14358120](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14358120)

------
bshimmin
This one will always be my favourite:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7932261](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7932261)

~~~
scandox
I love that. Sometimes the lack of whimsy on HN wrecks my head.

------
factsaresacred
Nice idea. I actually save the gems I find here. So in no particular order,
wisdom from the archives -

enobrev 673 days ago on 'The self-hating web developer':

> _I 've always been a fan of collecting money for solving problems and
> letting others worry about whether what I'm doing qualifies as "real"
> programming. Knowing how to listen to potential clients has gotten me a lot
> further than worrying whether PHP is a real programming language._

\- \- -

kingsidharth 2356 days ago on 'Evernote makes $800,000 per Month':

> _This is the biggest mistake most of the people make. If it worked that way,
> every weekend app released here would be making tons of money. (We have
> better apps here as weekend projects than out there in market).But this is
> NOT app v /s app game. This is business v/s app. And you can't take down a
> business with an app. You need to create a business._

\- \- -

knob 1217 days ago on Your best passive income? (2014):

ozh: > _" Do some freelancing during office hours & double the income."_

viach: > _This would not be passive._

knob: > _You have to think bigger man. Outsource the outsourcement... Interact
with top-level outsourcer once per week... he interacts with low-level
outsourcer daily. Profit._

\- \- -

mcphage 653 days ago on Japanese mini Segway “WalkCar”:

> _" Can you remember the Segway?"_

> _Yeah._

> _" And how we all thought of it as the new way of human transportation?"_

> _No, I don 't remember that bit._

\- \- -

cableshaft 619 days ago on '‘Give Away Your Legos’ and Other Commandments for
Scaling Startups':

pbreit: > _I dunno, hopping on board the rocket ship still seems a lot easier
than building the rocket ship._

cableshaft: > _But building the rocket ship is more fun. Especially if you
know it 's going to explode midair once it's launched and you don't have to be
in it when it does._

\- \- -

graycat 760 days ago on First Round Capital Open Application for Startups:

> _Can a solo founder of an IT startup hope to be successful without equity
> funding? Should be: All across the US, cross roads to the largest cities,
> solo founders do well mowing grass, selling pizza or hamburgers, pumping
> gas, paving driveways, ..., big-truck, little-truck distribution businesses,
> etc. without equity funding. IT should be an advantage._

\- \- -

puranjay 838 days ago on 'Why Learning to Code Is So Damn Hard':

> _I have the same issue (find the time). I 've set aside 10pm-2am every
> weekday to learn how to code, plus entire Saturdays and Sunday mornings. I
> can, at most, manage 20-25 hours, usually when I'm already bogged down. I've
> been toying with the idea of quitting everything and going all-in for 3-6
> months. Would that be 100% retarded or just about 70% retarded? I can live
> with 70%._

\- \- -

And my favorite:

blake8086 1962 days ago on 'How Trello is different':

spolsky: > _We wouldn 't provide that kind of support, nor would be it be
expected, for a free and easy-to-use product._

blake8086: > _I think you deeply underestimate the sense of entitlement people
get about products they enter lots of text into._

------
tristanho
I really love this comment on finding a job at a startup by patio11:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11118880](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11118880)

So much so that the comment and surrounding discussion is much more valuable
than the actual article it's on! Has helped me and many people I know
interview at phenomenal companies.

------
wallflower
Failure by fiaz

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=121413](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=121413)

------
no1youknowz
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14225059](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14225059)

This one for me, it's so apt for HN.

Edit. I'm laughing, didn't take long for the down vote!

Come on guys, take a joke will ya!

------
olalonde
This one, about recursion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14396692](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14396692)

~~~
devy
How did you do it? Put some text in first get the id and edit the comment to
retroactively add the link to itself?

~~~
throwaway91111
Yup, that's the easiest way.

------
nether
From user smacktoward:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7314434](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7314434)

> For all the intellectual firepower of people in the tech community, there is
> a curious strain of anti-intellectualism that comes forth in projects like
> this; an eagerness to discount the expertise of people who have studied a
> subject for their entire lives, just because they weren't CS majors. It's
> like trying to send a man to the moon without working with any aerospace
> engineers. I honestly do not understand it.

