I had two more scenarios in mind: (1) When handling multiple links at once I had the problem at least twice that I confused them. (2) Working offline made it difficult for me a couple of times to sort my tabs and bookmarks when the browser messed up the page titles or when I managed URLs in text files.
Oh well, maybe it’s just the unusual way how I manage things I read and watch online. It’s just that I realized that it was much easier to sort a couple of reddit and StackOverflow links that were lying about. On the other hand, I don’t think that the HN crowd is exactly the kind of audience one needs to hesitate to present more information to. Quite the contrary HN people can probably benefit a lot more from more information than most other groups.
"maybe it’s just the unusual way how I manage things I read and watch online"
I think it's quite typical actually.
Think about phone numbers pre speed dial and obviously smartphone. Much easier to hit a button now which is a visual indication of who you are calling rather than seeing a list of phone numbers and remembering that a certain sequence is who you want. Definitely less chance for error. And that's even if presented with a list.
I don't think that anyone can argue that for a "normal" user there is less chance of error with something descriptive.
Or take medications. Medication names aren't always easy but whatever they are they are much easier to not make mistakes with because they aren't numbers. For both doctors, patients and pharmacists.
"Viagra" vs. "#348976"
"Nexium" vs. "#2390045"
Not to mention the other obvious example, domain names to solve essentially the issue of remembering IP addresses.
"Hey if you feel differently give this a read:"
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7535606-can_i_delete_my...
At least that is the way I read it.