Comment by mattjaynes | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mattjaynes | Hacker News Reader

This is awesome. I especially love his focus on reducing the complex down to the very simple. He put a lot of work into simplifying the design and the payoff was huge - only 3 shapes make up the whole thing!

From the article: "The three shapes we derived above amount to a remarkable simplification in fabrication and construction. We have decimated the complexity of the dome."

"Decimated" is the perfect word for it.

Here's a related gratuitous simplicity quote from Rich Hickey (of Clojure fame):

"Simplicity is hard work. But, there's a huge payoff. The person who has a genuinely simpler system - a system made out of genuinely simple parts, is going to be able to affect the greatest change with the least work. He's going to kick your ass. He's gonna spend more time simplifying things up front and in the long haul he's gonna wipe the plate with you because he'll have that ability to change things when you're struggling to push elephants around."

http://devopsu.com/blog/simplicity-is-key/

Actually, "decimated" is not the perfect word for it. He's done much better than mere decimation!

(Decimated means "reduced by 1/10th" ... not, as is popularly believed, "reduced to 1/10th")

While that is the origin of the word, to pretend it still only means that is pretty delusional.

Words change meaning based on usage.

sure, I'm being pedantic. But, if it's called out as "the perfect word" I assume the OP would want to know (just like I welcomed the correction when I first learned it).

If we are going to be pedantic I will point out an accepted dictionary definition of 'decimate' is as follows:

> to destroy a great number or proportion of: The population was decimated by a plague.

If the acceptance criteria of for use as 'the perfect word' is that it matches as precisely as possible to its definition then I think the OP was on track.

I think it is interesting trivia that the origins of the word come from the violence of the Roman army, but to assert that is the only way the word is used in modern English is wrong. I blame Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast for the recent surge in smug people 'correcting' the use of this word.

Such as "the value of this conversation has been decimated by pedants"?

Of all the words in the english language, it was the worst. Latin too.

Or even to pretend that that meaning is anything but a remote secondary meaning (except perhaps in the context of Roman history).

To decimate: to spoil or destroy something

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/decim...

p.s. I want to put in a plug for Bob Ware's dictionary gateway site www.onelook.com -- a front end to multiple general and specialized dictionaries, and a great time saver.

Thanks for letting me know! I had no idea, though I probably should have guessed given the word root. Very interesting, that gives me a new perspective on the word :)

It comes from latin or the french verb decimer. If you break it further it becomes cime, which means top (ex: as in top of a mountain). So you're essentially destroying that which is as high as a mountain top - not easily attainable.

I always thought it came from a Roman Army disciplinary practice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(Roman_army)

Stack ranking: Not so new after all.

While we are splitting hairs, it means execute one in ten (determined by fair dice roll).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_%28Roman_army%29

Either meaning is within an order of magnitude, so if we assume a spherical house...

Only if you're the worst rounder in the world.

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