Hacker News Reader

This is another pointless diagnosis of a cluster of issues centered on an activity. Instead of, you know, centered on the disease. Kind of like diagnosing bad software with "HeadUpButt Developer Syndrome". Cute, a cocktail party line, but not the same as medicine.

View on HN

It's not a disease, though.

It's a condition; one that results from a specific type of activity (extended close work, which is not what our eyes are intended to do).

Thanks; I agonized over what word to use. 'Condition' sounds right.

Lots of human activity boils down to finding patterns and labeling them. Don't you think there could be some benefit to having a label on this cluster of issues, such as making it more efficient to find useful remedies?

I do agree though that there's a danger with this kind of thing to think of it as some kind of single agent and oversimplify. I think we need to be careful to keep in mind the underlying nature of the meaning of these terms.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com