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0th-world Problems

Aug 19, 2012

0th-world problems are like first-world problems except only applicable to computerists. (hashtag is #0th) Examples include, but are not limited to:

  • Ending relationships due to a fundamental disagreement over whether arrays should be 0, 1 or open indexed.

  • Losing sleep trying to solve the world’s Hacker News ranking algorithm problem.

  • Fear and loathing over a ruined Star Wars franchise.

  • Agonizing over which PLT-related Twitter novelty account is the best.

  • Decrying the world-wide shortage of essential Raspberry Pi.

  • The existential crisis resulting from finding out that you were really a conservative software developer after all.

  • A fundamental refusal to use software with a price tag.

  • That feeling of inadequacy that comes from loving a programming language that you’re unable to use as resume padding.

  • That Guy Steele can no longer find a job because he spent the past 10-years working in a language no one’s ever heard of.

  • An inability to locate an implement to use in scooping out the deeply recessed life-giving Yan Yan sauce (straddles the line between 0th and 1st world).

  • That exquisite rage felt upon learning that someone’s squatting a sweet domain name.

More?

:F

7 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. sbmassey

    A meme! A meme! A most meritorious meme!

  2. Melissa

    My husband and I never fight. Except, of course, when we talk about the philosophy of free vs. commercial software. You see, turns out I’m a communist hippie, the kind that says “Free as in Speech, not as in Beer” and he works with Microsoft technologies. So, software is basically a forbidden conversation topic around the house…

  3. F_D

    Lamenting that lack of fine-grained output controls in you “compiles to JavaScript” language.

  4. rdm

    Note that some of these examples are reflections of larger issues which inflict 1st and other worlds.

    Other examples just seem silly.

    I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine which examples fit in which set(s).

  5. John

    If “A fundamental refusal to use software with a price tag.” is zero-th world, what is “Fury and rage, followed by a demand for a refund or else ‘I’ll raise a class action’ when the $1.99 App I bought for my iPhone doesn’t work exactly as I think it should” ?

  6. Steve

    Is this like when we can’t use Twitter to complain that Twitter is down?!

  7. bTrain

    “Fear and loathing over a ruined Star Wars franchise.” just got far, far worse. Should someone set up a twilio powered hotline for 0th world panic attacks this news may be inducing?

    http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/JoshWildingNewsAndReviews/news/?a=69442