I couldn't submit a PR, so I got hired and fixed it myself

Story and hiring angle

• Many found the “get hired to fix the bug” angle amusing and meme-worthy, likening it to long-running jokes about joining a company just to patch one annoyance and then leaving.
• Some thought the post underplayed the hiring/acquihire aspect, which they saw as the most interesting part.
• A few shared similar anecdotes: getting hired at big companies (e.g., Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook) and finally getting long-standing personal issues unblocked internally.

Code, documentation, and tests

• One thread debated whether “code is the best documentation”:
  • Pro: having source lets you fix what bothers you locally, even if upstream ignores you.
  • Con: code explains what happens but often not why or what the original intent was.
• Commit messages, comments, and naming were cited as partial “why,” but seen as unreliable in practice.
• Tests were framed as the practical way to encode “why” for most developers, though people noted that tests often continue to pass even when the underlying business reason has expired.

Search UX and technical fix

• Several commenters dislike search-as-you-type and auto-applying filters, especially when each keystroke triggers server queries, UI jitter, or even billable searches.
• Others described mitigation strategies:
  • Debouncing with a small delay before firing a request.
  • Limiting results and starting after N characters.
  • Ensuring only the latest response updates UI, or filtering older results client-side.
• Some argued the article’s use of AbortController addresses stale results but doesn’t stop wasted backend work unless servers honor disconnects/cancellations.

Open source friction and corporate constraints

• Multiple people complained about upstream contribution barriers (e.g., ignored mailing lists, unreviewed patches for years).
• Others described corporate IP/legal policies making it effectively impossible to submit PRs, turning them into “free QA” by reporting exact inputs and locations instead of code.

Ethics and legality of “plant” employees

• A subthread explored whether companies could legally embed employees into other firms to make changes beneficial to their real employer.
• Consensus: largely a matter of contracts, conflicts of interest, and civil law; becomes criminal only when coupled with fraud, deception, or espionage.

Big-tech UX papercuts and “join to fix” fantasies

• The story triggered long lists of “if X hired me I’d finally fix…” complaints, especially about:
  • Google Maps (units, currency, offline routing, navigation behavior, language/currency sticking).
  • Apple Wallet, autocorrect quirks, voicemail UX.
  • Discord visual quirks (e.g., giant standalone emojis).
• Many expressed cynicism that such issues never get prioritized because they don’t improve key metrics, reflecting a broader sense that core products are in slow UX decline.