You can try rationalizing, but the name immediately raises very unfavorable emotions and associations.

The very first thing I thought about when I saw the headline was Hans Reiser's crime. The first thing I then expected in the comments was a lengthy discussion about that. I am fairly certain that this is fully in line with how most people react.

I don't see how your proposed hypothetical following a name change would take hold. I don't think a name change would be perceived as "concealing", just understandably moving away from a name that has become unfortunate. I think people are more surprised that they haven't.

>Why? That’s just a name.

is it really that difficult to attempt empathy?

imagine being one of his kids, growing up to become a developer, and then having to work on code that intersects with reiserfs.

It seems his kids are named Reiser too, so presumably they encounter the name quite often? (https://www.mercurynews.com/2012/07/17/jury-awards-hans-reis...)

His kids probably bear that same name though, don't they?

>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser#Reiser_pleads_not_...

since kids are in Russia i highly doubt that.

I don't see the relation between the country where they live and them changing their names. I couldn't find any news to that effect either. Seems like a bit of a stretch.

>Imagine we spent all of our energy avoiding already unlikely situations that might marginally harm ~2 out of 7.5 billion people on earth.

false dichotomy. this isn't a choice between not doing it and doing it absolutely always. i'm not claiming we need to spend all of our energy.

i think today we spend very little of our energy optimizing for any kind of empathy let alone marginal. so any increase is still well within manageable (in terms of cost).

In my experience, autistics are very empathic. Sometimes in different ways than neurotypicals, and how it's displayed might be different as well.

Googling something like "quora autistic empathy" will give you plenty of informed posts about the subject. I recommend reading the ones written by actual autistics.

Here are a few examples:

- https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-think-autistic-people-deal-...

- https://www.quora.com/Can-autistic-people-be-empathetic

- https://www.quora.com/Can-people-with-ASD-Asperger-Syndrome-...

Thank you, the last link shows it was utterly wrong to use autism as an example.

So... how changing a name averts that situation? By hoping that the kid never finds out? And should current developers rather abstain from continuing development as they obviously behave as insensitive egoistic jerks that instead should drink some brain bleach, bury the project, and move on? Come one, that’s ridiculous. It’s more irrational than blaming the gun for the murder: it’s like blaming the word for that and pretending that if you call it something else then it did not happen.

you're still not making the attempt; it requires imagining being that person. my point is very simple and obvious: having to constantly be presented with the name of your abuser is painful.

If you have to imagine it then this is concern trolling.

i don't understand what you're getting at? that's the definition of empathy:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/sympathy-empat...

the implication is that even though i haven't had my mother murdered i can simulate the experience and thereby relate (to an extent) to someone that has and make decisions with those insights in mind.

Edit: I just realized that what you probably meant is that if it's never happened to me then I can't genuinely be concerned. I didn't even know that that was something people believed. Interesting. Why would anyone pretend to be concerned for someone else's wellbeing?

I'm posting from a throwaway. What is the incentive for me to signal anything?

Makes no sense - signals have to have objects. If I wanted to feel better than others I just would

Ah... "virtue signaling". What the sociopaths among us have branded empathy they cannot feel or understand in others. Just because it is not an emotion you have, does not mean it is not real for others.

Is concern trolling newspeak for expressing empathy?