Why Sat Is Hard

Re:Why Sat Is Hard by doctor_eval on Sunday February 26, 2023 @04:42AM (#34944299)

The first sentence is literally, “An introductory post about complexity theory” but then goes on to assume we know about complexity theory.

The author has the right to write whatever they want, however they want, and they owe us nothing.

But your outburst when someone simply asks wtf, is nonsensical.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Why Sat Is Hard by jasode on Sunday February 26, 2023 @05:17AM (#34944449)

>The first sentence is literally, “An introductory post about complexity theory” but then goes on to assume we know about complexity theory.

I think the confusion is that the author is using "an introductory post" as a synonym for "my first post". In this meaning, "introductory"=="opening/initial/first".

But some readers interpreted "introductory" as an ExplainLikeIAm5 tutorial from basic principles.

The "this is my first post in a timeline" interpretation makes more sense when you see that all his previous blog posts were not about NP complexity : https://matklad.github.io/

This first introductory post about NP complexity also implies a planned series of future followup posts.

When browsing his past blog posts on other random topics, it seems that many assume the reader has an existing intermediate-to-advanced background on the subject.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Why Sat Is Hard by temporal828 on Sunday February 26, 2023 @04:46AM (#34944319)

I interpreted "introductory post" to mean that it is introductory within the blog and possibly a lead in to further articles as the author hasn't written on the topic before. Not that it is necessarily an introduction to the topic.

People on this site are so full of themselves thinking that random technical bloggers on the internet have to satisfy some unwritten Hacker News style manual.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Why Sat Is Hard by doctor_eval on Sunday February 26, 2023 @05:07AM (#34944402)

Really we are just being curious. I like articles that talk about computational complexity, I wanted to understand it. But there was literally no hook for me to hold onto. I didn’t even know what to search for. SAT is such a common acronym.

The blogger owes us nothing. You’re the one telling us that we should already have known. Maybe instead of criticising us, you could have helped us?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Why Sat Is Hard by groestl on Sunday February 26, 2023 @05:32AM (#34944503)

> But there was literally no hook for me to hold onto

Ahm, from the text: "Boolean satisfiability, or SAT is a decision problem where an input is a boolean formula like [...]"

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Why Sat Is Hard by doctor_eval on Sunday February 26, 2023 @07:57AM (#34945161)

Yeah but it appears ½ way down. I didn’t make it that far because I had no context.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Why Sat Is Hard by temporal828 on Sunday February 26, 2023 @11:43AM (#34946900)

> Maybe instead of criticising us, you could have helped us.

I mean, I did? While the reply was brusque I did name what the topic was about: boolean satisfiability, "It's pretty damn clear from the context of complexity theory that this is about boolean satisfiability."

The comment I replied to on the other hand was not constructive at all.

This is a link aggregator site and not an editorial site, the content linked to is varied and is not going to meet a single standard, or this site will become monotonous very quickly. I don't even click or read the majority of links here because they don't sound that interesting to me, which is fine. Not everything has to be aimed at the beginner or a particular audience.

When slightly less accessible content or just personally uninteresting content is posted I don't see how a content free snarky comment is at all constructive.

[ Parent | on HN ]