[HN Gopher] HN "Why Not Simply"
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HN "Why Not Simply"
Author : jgrahamc
Score : 70 points
Date : 2021-06-06 19:46 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (hn.algolia.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (hn.algolia.com)
| mbrd wrote:
| I really like doing this kind of search on Twitter and seeing
| what comes up.
|
| One of my favs is searching "stunning x" to see the sad responses
| to attractive people posting selfies (NSFW if you choose to do
| it)
| willio58 wrote:
| This site is broken on iOS Safari, the top area is overflowing
| and cashing the width of the container to increase wider than the
| rest of the site.
| the-dude wrote:
| Why not simply use Chrome or Firefox?
| cube2222 wrote:
| They use the same webview as Safari on iOS.
| vegancap wrote:
| Why are we like this
| [deleted]
| elliekelly wrote:
| And why don't we just stop?
| rolph wrote:
| when i read "why not simply", this suggest two things
|
| either I have made an overly complicated analysis and provided
| unessecarily complex solution, or someone else has made analysis
| based on incomplete or generalized information with respect to
| the problem.
|
| then comes the task of determining which is the actual case.
| a1369209993 wrote:
| Basically this. And then a lot of people forget that _both_ of
| those possibilities are, well, possible.
| sarsway wrote:
| The worst are always video game discussions. A studio releases a
| product they worked on for 5 years, with thousands of features
| and moving parts, and the comments are usually full of
| suggestions like: It's great, but I don't understand why they
| simply won't do X instead of Y, then it would be perfect!
| Jenk wrote:
| That is usually accompanied with "They need to spend more time
| optimising" or "Clearly they haven't optimised this yet" with a
| clear subtext that many believe game developers just have a
| dial or slider marked "Optimisation" and that the devs were
| just too lazy to crank it.
| mam3 wrote:
| This one is a bit funnier ("this is dumb", mostly starting on
| page 2):
|
| https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
| yosito wrote:
| I recently quit a job and the reasons could be summed up as
| having a boss who asked "why not simply" too often.
| globular-toast wrote:
| Did someone perhaps write "why not simply" to OP recently?
| mkishi wrote:
| What is the point being made here? That all the comments in the
| first six pages are from 7+ years ago?
| for_i_in_range wrote:
| My take: This is the second post I've come upon recently
| wherein it reminds you of the power of _search_ ; i.e.
| filtering on _power phrases_ that may create combinations of
| thoughts and ideas otherwise never had.
|
| The other post of similar essence is this one:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27060816
|
| I've begun keeping a log of such _power phrases_. Does anyone
| know if there's an open public repository for such phrases?
| That'd be useful. If not, I'm happy to set up a Google Doc or
| Github Repo or whatever is best (if there's significant
| interest).
| dredmorbius wrote:
| I'm not familiar with the, er, phrase "power phrase" in this
| context.
|
| I note you're the person using the phrase in both this thread
| and in the comment you link. What's your source of the
| phrase?
| happytoexplain wrote:
| The examples, as I would expect of the phrase in context, have
| a dismissive tone that reframes the question as an assertion.
| It's usually a pretty innocent faux pas, and can feel natural
| to say, so it can be hard to catch oneself in it, but I try not
| to say things like "simply X" or "just X" when explaining or
| asking things, in an effort to keep a neutral tone.
|
| Is that the point being made here? I don't know.
| [deleted]
| dredmorbius wrote:
| A question on the use of this phrase was made earlier today in
| another thread:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27414444
|
| (I didn't submit this item, but suspect jgrahamc may have also
| seen that comment.)
| gitgud wrote:
| They are sorted by popularity, but the API stopped revealing
| comment votes about 7 years ago, so no new comments will ever
| rank in popularity.
| drannex wrote:
| I've always wondered why the Algolia search has always been
| so dependent/focused on older results, always had to sort by
| date.
|
| That makes a bit more sense, thanks.
| rolph wrote:
| "one does not simply"
|
| https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
| dvh wrote:
| I'm proud of both my contributions:
|
| Article: Should social networks tell you if you've been following
| a fake account?
|
| Me: Why not simply delete the fake account?
|
| Article: Show HN: Webpage to PDF Microservice
|
| Me: Why not simply press Ctrl+p and print to PDF
|
| Edit: damn, now there are 3 contributions. I cannot post it here,
| it would cause infinite recursion.
| seoaeu wrote:
| Not sure I follow your first comment. Why would deleting a fake
| account [edit: without also telling its followers] solve the
| issue? Most people probably would never notice that the account
| vanished and would go on believing whatever nonsense it was
| spreading.
| airstrike wrote:
| More effective to delete the account before it spreads said
| nonsense to even more people?
| mgkimsal wrote:
| and it then feeds the persecution complex of "see, BIGTECH
| is SILENCING all the voices THEY don't want YOU to READ!"
| :/
| wussboy wrote:
| Not if we delete that account too....
| aeternum wrote:
| Why not simply do both?
| dredmorbius wrote:
| The practice reduces repeat offences.
|
| Where follower-recruitment is expensive, it increases trust-
| attack costs.
|
| Where account-creation is expensive (through verification,
| reputation, financial costs, validation tokens (e.g., SIMs,
| phone numbers, external vouchers)), it again increases attack
| costs.
|
| Note that _both_ remedies might be more effective than either
| separately: notify the reader of the false data (in the even
| the offending account hadn 't already been removed) _and_
| remove the offending account.
| dvfjsdhgfv wrote:
| > Article: Show HN: Webpage to PDF Microservice
|
| > Me: Why not simply press Ctrl+p and print to PDF
|
| It would be fun observing you do that with my bookmark
| collection.
| sharms wrote:
| There are 935 results out of 2.14 million that match. This leaves
| us with only .00004% of comments, which doesn't appear to be very
| frequent given the perception.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| Mild horror at finding myself at the top of the results set.
|
| Mild relief on realising I was quoting someone else's use of the
| phrase.
|
| That said: _Is there a word or term for this practice?_ I 'm
| leaning to "oversimplification" or "trivialiisation".
| greyface- wrote:
| In the spirit of "whataboutism", I propose "whynotism".
| cblconfederate wrote:
| Why not simply link to the google result filtered by domain?
| sodality2 wrote:
| Algolia is the preferred HN search engine by most users
| rkeene2 wrote:
| TBH, I usually end up having to use Google to find something
| I read in the past on HN; I try the search every time but
| usually it can't find what I want from what I can remember
| atdt wrote:
| To echo a comment I made a couple of months ago: "why not
| simply..." is a way of thinking out loud and providing an opening
| for someone more knowledgeable to explain what is being
| overlooked. It makes for interesting threads.
| buu700 wrote:
| Agreed. I like the use of "why not" as a good faith question
| for this reason; it's a good segue into an interesting
| discussion, and there's also the off chance you'll actually
| produce a novel idea that inspires someone.
| terminalserver wrote:
| Also try "yes, but"
| archildress wrote:
| 37k results... this lived up to my expectations.
| 11235813213455 wrote:
| "why not just" could be aliased
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(page generated 2021-06-06 23:01 UTC)