Tinker to Learn: Balance, Practice, and Taste

The author champions tinkering as essential, playful practice that builds skill and taste. They urge a balance between purposeful work and exploratory, throwaway experiments, maintaining a solid baseline of tooling competence. By trying many things and keeping only what resonates, you sharpen your ability to distinguish mediocrity from excellence.

Key Points

• Tinkering—curious, goal-optional experimentation—is a powerful way to learn and should be frequent and exploratory.
• A balanced approach mixes purposeful work with playful trials; throwaway experiments still count as valuable practice.
• Raise your baseline tooling competence (terminal, vim bindings, CLI) without getting lost in endless configuration.
• Broad exposure to different technologies deepens understanding; no time spent learning is wasted.
• Good taste is cultivated through repeated experimentation, selection, and rejection—question the status quo and keep iterating.

Sentiment

Overall, the sentiment of the Hacker News discussion is mixed to slightly critical. While there's agreement on the learning benefits of tinkering and personal customization, significant debate arises around the definition and perceived importance of 'taste,' the article's tone, and the irony of its challenging website aesthetic.

In Agreement

• Tinkering is how one learns and understands how things work, and no learning time is wasted, regardless of age.
• Customizing one's environment (e.g., dotfiles, fonts) is a form of tinkering that leads to long-term comfort and efficiency, making work more pleasant and productive.
• Challenging defaults and experimenting, even if 'throwaway,' is essential for improvement; nothing gets better by accepting the status quo.
• Tinkering is closely related to curiosity and a desire for deep exploration, contrasting with those who only seek 'right answers' or delegate problem-solving.
• The author's definition of taste as subjective discernment is valid; differing opinions on aesthetics still demonstrate a personal taste.

Opposed

• Developing 'taste' can paradoxically ruin simple enjoyment, making one unable to appreciate common or basic items (e.g., expensive coffee/headphones vs. basic ones).
• The definition of 'taste' is contentious, with some arguing it's merely the degree to which two people value the same things, rather than an objective quality.
• Prioritizing 'aesthetic experience' or 'taste' in tools and workflows is secondary to usefulness; tools should be judged primarily by their utility.
• Tinkering can become an obsession, leading to 'Rube Goldberg machine' scenarios where people create problems just to use new tools, introducing unnecessary complexity.
• The article's tone is perceived as judgmental, a 'humblebrag,' or dismissive of those who don't tinker, leading to critiques of the author's perspective and writing style.
• Many found the article's website design difficult to read due to flickering and pixelated fonts, ironically demonstrating a perceived lack of 'good taste' in presentation.
• Some argue that tinkering with minor aspects like fonts and colors is less impactful than pursuing larger life goals, and that the value of tinkering may decrease with age and competing responsibilities.