Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I hate headlines like this pieces's full one - omitted here on HN so far - which is "Why Intuitive Troubleshooting Has Stopped Working For You".

For me? Excuse me no, because I design systems to be supportable in production. Tsk.

"For some"? "For many"? Sure! But please don't annoy me before I even start reading with this kind of headline.



Why the hate? This headline makes the audience clear, and it’s not you! Enjoy the freedom this gives you to skip reading the post.


Ha fair enough a strong term. Forgive me I am just venting a bit about a wider pattern of these sort of headlines: "Why YOU aren't saving enough for retirement", "Why YOU need to eat fewer avocados", etc.

It's not just an audience indicator it's a challenge designed to engage, but it just winds me up. A stylistic technique I really dislike, that's all! :-)


A/B testing has destroyed headlines and I hate it.


Yeah. But, fortunately, it's a dynamic system! Learn to ignore the headlines that are written this way, because the noise is high.

Some folks have to use ad blockers to avoid seeing ads, while others train themselves to just ignore ads entirely. Personally, I don't even see them most of the time. If you're in the latter camp, training yourself to ignore headlines like these doesn't seem much harder!




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

Search: