October 28, 2025
Taste Wars: Thock vs Get-It-Done
If you don't tinker, you don't have taste
Commenters clash: tinkering snobs vs get-it-done crew
TLDR: A viral essay says tinkering builds “taste,” sparking a split between craft-loving experimenters and results-first pragmatists. Commenters mocked mouse sensitivity as a secret handshake, roasted the font, and called “taste” elitist—turning a niche tech rant into a culture clash over process versus outcome.
The essay argues: if you don’t tinker, you don’t have taste—as in a trained eye for what’s good. Tinkering, the author says, is fiddling for fun: adjusting game mouse sensitivity, customizing computer setups, even rebuilding a keyboard for that perfect “thock.” They spent a week sampling everything: a graphics shader, code‑that‑writes‑code in Rust, some template‑heavy C++, a mini Swift app, and a speedy new text editor, claiming no time spent learning is wasted.
Comments? A circus. The loudest camp calls taste snobbery and wants usefulness over vibes. “I despise the word ‘taste’,” one wrote, while another mocked the mouse‑settings test as the “shibboleth” (secret handshake) of the in‑crowd. Design drama exploded too: multiple readers roasted the article’s font—“my eyes!”—and someone jabbed at “Reddit‑style feigned offence.” The kicker: “irony alert—an essay about taste with none.”
Still, a quieter crowd nodded at the idea of curiosity as practice: experiment, toss it, learn. But the thread’s energy was pure drama—process‑lovers vs outcome‑hunters, keyboard “thock” vs “get it done.” The vibe: playful gatekeeping meets practical pragmatism, with plenty of jokes. Whether you see tinkering as craft or procrastination, this comment section turned a niche essay into a meme‑worthy taste war.
Key Points
- •The author advocates frequent tinkering as a core learning method and key to developing personal taste in software.
- •Tinkering is defined through practical examples like customizing Linux setups, tweaking tools, and hardware modifications.
- •The author encourages a balance between exploration and productivity, avoiding constant configuration churn.
- •Recent experiments included GLSL shaders, a Rust procedural macro, C++ templates, a Swift app, and trying the Helix editor.
- •Taste is portrayed as the subjective ability to discern quality, developed by trying many tools and keeping what works.