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Comment by a_square_peg | Hacker News Reader

I think this is as meaningful as the question "what's the best food you've ever eaten?", which is to say, it's not a very meaningful question.

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Sure, but for the rest of us it might suggest a food we had not yet tried.

Fair enough. I feel like I've been seeing a lot of questions on Reddit along this line that comes off as very low effort to generate engagements so that's really the reason behind my comment but I see how my response also comes off as snarky.

I know what you're saying. It must work though — it engagad both of us for different reasons, rose to front page of HN. (Perhaps you would rather it did not though.)

You're absolutely right on both accounts - it did work to engage us and that I would rather that such posts don't get upvoted.

Thanks for your understanding. :)

It is a low effort method to generate engagement, but it does generate really good engagement.

Likewise, your other example of “what’s the best food you’ve ever eaten” is a lazy question… but I bet the answers would be really interesting.

Funny thing is, despite being an avid reader, I can't really say what my "best" book is. But I can easily describe the best meal I've ever had: we were on a tour in Chengdu, and they took us to a restaurant without any introduction. The meal was good but nothing special, until halfway through, when that nagging feeling that the flavor wasn't quite right made me realize that this is the Buddhist fake meat I'd heard about. And I only realized because I'd lived in China and eaten lots of meals so I knew what things were supposed to taste like. I have to say, the fish soup was incredible, the fish even flaked properly. To be so good that it took me halfway through a formal meal (which involves multiple courses) to recognize it speaks to how well it was done.

Steak and eggs made by my grandfather.

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