Kmart lied to me, so I hacked their lamp [video]

I hear you! but I would still call it generic in HN's sense of the word (which I admit is a little specialized - is that ironic?). "Generic tangent" means something like swapping out a specific/curious topic (USB-C rules) for a larger/more-general one (rule of law in a specific country). This almost always goes along with increasing indignation levels too.

Interestingly, we had two such hops in this thread—the comment you were replying to had already done a version of the same move, going from a more specific/curious topic (hacking a lamp) to a larger/more-general one (USB-C rules).

I hope it's clear how threads tend to get less interesting as discussion moves in this direction! If there's one point I've been trying to get across for years here, and never quite feeling like it lands, it's that one.

Sometimes I describe these 'hops' as the thread getting pulled by the gravity of larger and larger masses (like topic planets!) and ultimately into the black hole of one of the major flamewars. I'd say "the current general state of rule of law in the US" is either one of these black holes or one hop away from one; a dangerous place to fly.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...