This is one of the most truly balanced, well-written, pragmatic articles I've read on HN. Instead of the typical dogmatic spew that is nearly epidemic in blog posts, it reads more like a scientific paper, but without all the dryness.
I know a lot of blog posts that read like this, but they usually don't get modded up because there is apparently nothing exciting about learning something. Much better if you start some sort of flamewar...
I have personally observed that "Why I hate xxx" often gets many more views than "Why I like yyy". (They both attract the same amount of hate, however. When I say "I hate Java", I get comments like "DIE IN A FIRE RTARD". When I say "I like Perl", I am told that I am "the dumbest person alive".)
>> When I say "I like Perl", I am told that I am "the dumbest person alive"
Not the dumbest person alive, that would be a Perl maintainer, more like the second dumbest person alive.
Joking.
I think it is probably related to the whole bicycle shed issue it is easy to rag on and have an opinion on "hate' and "like" because they themselves are opinion statements. Factual stuff like the above is infinitely more interesting than "I like beans" but it also provides less emotional reaction rating, commenting, etc.
I am inescapably drawn to the conclusion that the internet is telling you that you should die in a fire, you dumbest person alive. Don't dare to like something else or it'll just add another clause to your doom.
Don't feel bad. The internet pretty much says that to us all, at least those of us who post anything. Ever. On any topic whatsoever.
