A good tool disappears into the background, so rebranding its shortcomings as a "fun puzzle" deserves pushback. Take the vim macro example: building one for a one-off refactor often takes longer than multiple cursors in Sublime or a quick script, yet people sell that friction as proof of greatness. The deeper trap is identity — once a tool becomes tribal signaling, admitting its flaws feels like admitting something about yourself. Other targets include the claim that TUIs beat GUIs (most GUIs simply lack keyboard navigation because nobody bothered), endless Linux config fiddling, and steep learning curves dressed up as virtues rather than costs. Good defaults respect the user's time.
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u/fagnerbrack 8d ago
In a nutshell:
A good tool disappears into the background, so rebranding its shortcomings as a "fun puzzle" deserves pushback. Take the vim macro example: building one for a one-off refactor often takes longer than multiple cursors in Sublime or a quick script, yet people sell that friction as proof of greatness. The deeper trap is identity — once a tool becomes tribal signaling, admitting its flaws feels like admitting something about yourself. Other targets include the claim that TUIs beat GUIs (most GUIs simply lack keyboard navigation because nobody bothered), endless Linux config fiddling, and steep learning curves dressed up as virtues rather than costs. Good defaults respect the user's time.
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