Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin
Shiny Object Syndrome (wikipedia.org)
66 points by janisz 1 day ago | hide | past | favorite | 23 comments
 help



This is just a rebranding of novelty bias to make it seem like a new idea

There's a meta-recursion there that's kinda funny innit

Yes, Should probably be a sub-section or a single sentence in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novelty_bias

Novelty bias is soooo 2025

cant wait till fads are retro again

Not just making it seem like a new idea, but a shiny and trendy one.

Good one.

The earliest reference on Wikipedia is 2011, but I was saying "Shiny Object Syndrome" and even specifically abbreviating it "SOS" by at least 2005.

I know that I first heard it from somewhere else, but I do not remember where. I'm pretty sure it was a TV show.

Does any one remember where it originated from?


And its strategic use through "nerd sniping".

"Shiny object syndrome is the situation ..."

'The situation'? Can't help but feel this is very imprecise and unserious language.


Like Magpie developers? It may be somewhat humorous but that’s what these analogies look like from the outside. People chasing new things or trends for its own sake is a thing.

I call it Toddler Soccer Syndrome. Ball's over there? Let's all chase it. Oh, moved over here now? Everyone run the other way.

I know it as dogs-with-ball syndrome, and rather used that analogy to teach my son what not to do when learning to play football.

They're just letting anyone make a Wikipedia page these days huh

Why is such a small article being upvoted? It's basically just a definition page.

If anything, there's so much new stuff these days that I don't even get the FOMO to try it all.. building it myself is easy too.

In boardgame communities, it’s called “Cult of the New”.

I wonder if this has any relevance at all to a bunch of new stuff that people on HN seem very obsessed over these days.

No no, this is a genuinely new and unrelated thing few people have seen so far.

An aspect of this I find interesting is that previously effort was a reasonably good barrier to making something new. If a feature/library existed someone cared enough to put the work in to make it exist.

Now it’s just a question of tokens. The presentation/feature list is no sign of effort or caring. So we get limitless new shiny things to try and filter through


Pretty sure bringing up tokens immediately is itself an example of this.

It’s possibly a good thing in disguise. Maybe it will make software dev finally more inclined to focus on tested and true technologies rather than chasing trendy novelty stuff.

(Oh, who am I kidding, it’s AI that do tech decisions now and they choose whatever stuff that’s overrepresented in their training data, or just NIH stuff, which has inexplicably become a virtue, like measuring progress by lines of code spent has become. )


It's the Eternal September of open source software projects.



Consider applying for YC's Winter 2027 batch! Applications are open till November 2.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: