The discussion revolves around the issue of file descriptor limits in various shells, particularly in macOS where the default limit is quite low compared to other systems like Linux. Users have observed that certain integrated terminal environments, such as VSCode, can mask this issue due to their higher default limits. This can lead to development challenges, especially when testing software that may hit these limits in different shell environments. Some comments also highlight the unnecessary nature of these arbitrary limits and share resources for permanently increasing the limit on macOS systems.