[HN Gopher] Substitute certain overhyped programming terms with ...
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       Substitute certain overhyped programming terms with more accurate
       replacements
        
       Author : huijzer
       Score  : 50 points
       Date   : 2022-10-26 10:44 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (addons.mozilla.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (addons.mozilla.org)
        
       | cercatrova wrote:
       | Reminds me of several years ago when the extension Cloud to Butt
       | was popular, which (predictably) replaces mentions of the "cloud"
       | with "butt" [0]. It created at least a few funny stories [1].
       | 
       | I guess when the cloud hype blew over, new hypes emerged only to
       | be tackled by extensions like these.
       | 
       | [0] https://github.com/panicsteve/cloud-to-butt
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://old.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/3zdnoh/tifu_by_forget...
        
         | Twirrim wrote:
         | I remember when some AWS employees had that extension installed
         | in their browser and unintentionally wrecked havoc on the
         | internal wiki with it. There were these various trails of
         | devastation until the word got out that maybe this extension is
         | a bad idea when you work for a cloud.
        
           | Verdex wrote:
           | The existence of cloud->butt is kind of humorous. "Look, this
           | thing is overhyped by people who don't understand it. What if
           | we :s/cloud/butt/g, but like in an addon?" Yeah, I get it.
           | Very clever.
           | 
           | I don't understand actually using it though. I mean, I sort
           | of get it. Perhaps, deep down, everyone is easy to amuse;
           | it's just a question of what domain are they easily amused
           | by. But do you really want to give yourself programmatic word
           | aphasia?
           | 
           | Doing it a second time, years later, feels more strange. Like
           | watching a child who copies a joke made by an adult without
           | understanding the structure or semantics of the joke, I find
           | myself nervously smiling at the presentation before me.
           | 
           | And then you come along, "AWS employees ... extension
           | installed ... wrecked havoc ...". Yes, that seems like a
           | predictable result. Thank you for your anecdote, I kind of
           | expected that to be the case and it at least feels good to
           | hear that my understanding of the world matches someone's
           | experience.
        
             | vlunkr wrote:
             | The fun thing about cloud->butt for me was that is showed
             | up infrequently enough that I would forget about it and
             | occasionally be really confused. Like when a company called
             | cloudplugs showed up on tech news sites. Everyone needs a
             | little chaos in their work day.
        
             | LanceH wrote:
             | Placeholder text will find a way into production -- make it
             | safe. Lorem ipsum exists for a reason.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | >I don't understand actually using it though.
             | 
             | Why not? Some people can "Yeah, I get it. Very Clever."
             | just from the description. Some people _CAN 'T_. The proof
             | of this is in math class where people struggle with word
             | problems. You are in the category of people that get it
             | from description only. Have empathy for the people that
             | need to see it in action.
             | 
             | Also, you know, it's fun. Don't ruin it for others because
             | you can't/won't/don't
        
               | Verdex wrote:
               | > Have empathy for the people that need to see it in
               | action.
               | 
               | With the full context of my comment, I feel that I've
               | given sufficient empathy for people who aren't me.
               | 
               | > I mean, I sort of get it. Perhaps, deep down, everyone
               | is easy to amuse; it's just a question of what domain are
               | they easily amused by.
               | 
               | Is this not an allowance?
               | 
               | > Also, you know, it's fun. Don't ruin it for others
               | because you can't/won't/don't
               | 
               | I hope I wasn't ruining anyone's fun by being unable to
               | properly comprehend how they choose to have it and
               | verbalizing that incomprehension. Although, if speaking
               | with uncertainty about a topic is enough to ruin
               | someone's fun, then I feel I should note that I find fun
               | in making overly wordy comments about how I don't
               | understand other people. I implore you not to ruin _my_
               | fun because you can 't/won't/don't.
               | 
               | Although, I suspect my fun has never wrecked an internal
               | wiki. I'll leave it to historians to judge between my fun
               | and theirs.
        
             | notfish wrote:
             | I like to play a game with my future self by laying down
             | little traps I know I'll fall into and be confused by. I
             | call it singleplayer pranking, it's great!
        
           | regular wrote:
           | The term is WREAKED havoc, FYI.
        
         | dooglius wrote:
         | Did the "cloud hype" really "blow over"? Seems to be a pretty
         | big thing nowadays.
        
           | Cthulhu_ wrote:
           | It's passed through the hype cycle to now be mainstream -
           | whether that's a good or a bad thing is left up as an
           | exercise to the reader. All major companies I've worked with
           | / for are in the cloud now.
        
             | jerf wrote:
             | Some of the hype has disappeared too. I remember when there
             | was a general idea that cloud would "eliminate" your need
             | to have ops teams, because you won't need them, Amazon just
             | takes care of it for you! Now everybody knows that's not
             | true. It might reduce it vs. a datacenter but certainly you
             | need people setting up cloud resources and diagnosing
             | problems. I also remember when the idea was floating around
             | that simply being in the cloud made your software
             | resilient, period. Now I think there's a greater
             | understanding you still need to do some things to get that
             | result, even if it's easier than doing it all yourself.
             | 
             | Also haven't heard as much about it being cheap. Again, it
             | might still be cheaper than some other options, but it
             | certainly isn't the case that it's just magically cheaper.
             | The thriving field of companies who help you reduce your
             | cloud spend is evidence of that....
        
               | ollifi wrote:
               | I remember it was also that cloud as a term was pure
               | marketing hype. Unnecessary rebranding of a thing we
               | already had a good name for, servers. And also to pick
               | such a irrational name "cloud" which didn't relate to
               | technology at all. You could hear everyone use it in
               | nonsense high flying keynotes. All the hands-on computer
               | people laughed at it and I think cloud to butt was part
               | of that.
               | 
               | In the end it's actually really good word for newish
               | concept and using it does not feel silly to me anymore.
        
             | intelVISA wrote:
             | AWS must be laughing, those sly dogs.
        
         | Semaphor wrote:
         | TFA:
         | 
         | > Inspired by and adapted from the infamous [cloud-to-
         | butt](https://github.com/panicsteve/cloud-to-butt) extension,
         | as originally released under the WTFPL (here BSD0)
        
           | cercatrova wrote:
           | Ah I didn't see the About this Extension part, just read the
           | description underneath the title.
        
       | watashiato wrote:
       | Relevant XKCD
       | 
       | https://xkcd.com/1288/ https://xkcd.com/1625/
       | https://xkcd.com/1679/
       | 
       | This is one of those things you'd better do with a userscript
       | instead of yet another addon. Way more flexible too.
        
         | sp332 wrote:
         | Or more specificaly https://xkcd.com/1838/
        
         | enriquto wrote:
         | You forgot this one: https://xkcd.com/1031/
        
           | jshprentz wrote:
           | And this one: https://xkcd.com/2304/
        
       | theknocker wrote:
        
       | eimrine wrote:
       | > Substitute certain overhyped programming terms, such as "Deep
       | Learning", and "Machine Learning", and "Artificial Intelligence"
       | with more accurate replacements such as "Linear Algebra", "IF
       | Statements", and "BS That Doesn't Exist Yet", respectively.
       | 
       | There was an article that NNs are just a decision trees, sounds
       | better then "if statements".
        
         | wolfium3 wrote:
         | If you expand a NN to decision trees, the resulting decision
         | tree(s) can take up orders of magnitude more space and take
         | orders of magnitude more time to run than the original NN.
         | 
         | The paper is discussed here:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_okxGdHM5b8
        
           | titzer wrote:
           | So...compressed decision trees?
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | sigstoat wrote:
             | at that point most things are compressed decision trees.
        
               | TeMPOraL wrote:
               | Possibly related: learning is isomorphic to compression,
               | and the two may be in fact fundamentally the same thing.
        
               | mncharity wrote:
               | Oh, wow. I'd long thought of my own learning as "when
               | reality surprises, isn't merely what you'd expect, isn't
               | "obvious", then fix that, with emphasis on simplicity and
               | generality". I'd not recognized that as compression.
        
           | m3047 wrote:
           | Counter argument: For every trainable NN, there exists an
           | equivalent, sparser [edit] trained NN.
           | 
           | https://numenta.com/blog/2019/08/30/case-for-sparsity-in-
           | neu...
           | 
           | https://web.archive.org/web/20211130211241/https://www.bhaut.
           | ..
           | 
           | https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.03635
        
         | jnwatson wrote:
         | NNs are decision trees only if all the activation functions are
         | step functions, which makes sense intuitively.
        
       | ClassyJacket wrote:
       | A generalization of Cloud-to-Butt!
       | 
       | >Substitute certain overhyped programming terms, such as "Deep
       | Learning", and "Machine Learning", and "Artificial Intelligence"
       | with more accurate replacements such as "Linear Algebra", "IF
       | Statements", and "BS That Doesn't Exist Yet", respectively.
       | 
       | Wouldn't deep learning be more accurately described as
       | "calculus"?
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | Is deep learning focused on calculating the area under curves?
        
         | sdenton4 wrote:
         | Galaxy brain: Calculus is also linear algebra.
        
       | nathias wrote:
       | how aggressively idiotic
        
         | smcin wrote:
         | You haven't seen the extravagant claims marketing, bloggers and
         | futurists have been peddling in the name of ML, 'AI', or its
         | even more wish-object cousin, 'AGI'.
         | 
         | I've had to sit through some excruciating sessions.
        
       | entwife wrote:
       | I look forward to citing this in formal writing. Thanks.
        
       | hallqv wrote:
       | Machine learning = if statements? Now that is some proper BS
        
         | TeMPOraL wrote:
         | Full form should be "if statements with extra steps" :).
         | 
         | (Personally, I feel "linear regression" is a better substitute
         | phrase.)
        
       | hdjjhhvvhga wrote:
       | While I agree these terms are abused, the author exaggerates in
       | the opposite direction. Granted, AI understood as AGI is "BS that
       | doesn't exist" (yet?). But DL and ML are working quite well and
       | delivering decent results. It's true they're overhyped by
       | unscrupulous marketers and greedy CEOs trying to grab more money
       | from VC, but thanks to these technologies you can have pretty
       | accurate text recognition, for example (and, to a lesser degree,
       | although still impressive, also speech recognition).
        
       | [deleted]
        
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       (page generated 2022-10-26 23:01 UTC)