Because it's the classic definition of a "hack", it's a clever solution to an ugly problem. Not everything on HN has to be about javascript frameworks or making millions on startups. It's called "hacker news" not "san francisco tech startup echo chamber news".

How is this a hack? This is ridiculously old psychology. Here's the same "hack" from the 50's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigsaw_%28teaching_technique%2...

Just because people on the san francisco tech startup echo chamber news site aren't familiar with it doesn't make it novel, clever, etc..

Or should I just post the jigsaw classroom wikipedia link or a link to the original paper and rake in the upvotes?

The jigsaw technique is a cool hack. I'd never heard of it. And yep, you should post it. Random wikipedia articles like that make it to the front page all the time.

If upvotes are what float your boat, and others are interested in the article, then why not?

As for the "it's been done before" bit - hacking is often about applying an idea from one area into another area.

But this is not applying an idea from one area to another area -- it's taking the pre-existing idea and just applying it again. There isn't any novelty here.

yesss! the is innovation beyond the mathematic and engineering....

On behalf of all of HN, I humbly apologize for there being a top news post of an event whose underpinning idea you had already read about and knew would probably work if it was put into effect in a situation like this. To prevent you from becoming emotionally harmed by potentially trite news, we will make sure never to post or upvote any story whose conclusion you might have guessed the outcome of.

We will continue to upvote every new JavaScript framework and tool, of course. After all, we're not unreasonable.

They're breaking (hacking) the established norm, I think it is a perfect fit for this site.

https://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html