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TOGoSyesterday at 7:47 PM1 replyview on HN

> inadvertently leaky

I think this is the main problem.

I don't mind layers of abstraction when they work well and their components compose nicely. Like a well-designed programming language. These can actually be quite fun to work with.

Layers of abstraction where the boundaries between that layer and those around it are fuzzy to non-existent and where certain cases magically work and everything else is a janky mess because it was never designed to work are what give me headaches and want to throw my work laptop out the window on a regular basis.


Replies

baobunyesterday at 11:27 PM

I concede I had a bit of second thoughts after posting the comment you replied to.

After all, hindsight is 20/20 and at the end of the day a major part of our work is making (appropriate) abstractions. Picking good terminology is sometimes hard. I guess to point out that the message shouldn't be read as "all abstractions bad (stop trying)" but to be more conscious about them and to restrain from piling new "magic" on top of a tower of old apocrypha.