Could also be a form of effort justification. [1]
reply> The effect is most likely to occur when there are no obvious reasons for performing the task. Because expending effort to perform a useless or unenjoyable task, or experiencing unpleasant consequences in doing so, is cognitively inconsistent (see cognitive dissonance), people are assumed to shift their evaluations of the task in a positive direction to restore consistency.
replyI’m not following you.
It's not limited to physical effort. Wikipedia's example has embarassment in place of effort; presumably, money could also work.
replyI interpreted to mean that using a search engine is “useless or unenjoyable, or experiencing unpleasant consequences...”, with attention given to the last two feelings. And I can't figure out what that has to do with people who like Kagi and why it’s wrong or irritating for them to do so.
replyGranted I’ve been annoyed by similar occurrences with other services, but not to the point of suspecting collusion between the service and the public like the GP comment did.
Searching on the web takes effort. I don’t think this sentiment is controversial. Especially not on HN.
But do you think that because/if searching on the web takes effort and because people have to pay for Kagi, they are compelled to exaggerate its usefulness in public to justify the cost?
TIL about effort justification! I think signing up for Kagi is not particularly effort-intensive however.
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