It certainly is. I think what's bothering LastTrain, though—and is definitely bothering me—is the kneejerk dismissal of personal projects because they're not sufficiently innovative/useful/etc. As far as I can tell, it wasn't even the VanadiumOS author who shared it here in the first place.
I've noticed, and I'm not the only one, that HN has developed a particular reputation in the tech community. A number of people I know don't actually like having their work show up on "the orange site" because of that Comic-Book-Guy culture.
Just seems counter to the spirit of hacking to judge somebody's experiments through the lens of a VC pitch.
You didn't. But the root comment here was kind of dismissive.
And it's a reaction I've seen on here before, so I guess I'm a little sensitive to it, maybe because my personal projects are the kind that would attract similar criticism if they ever showed up here.
To csilverman in the sibling reply: it's strange that you're reading the original comment as a criticism at all. I don't see anything negative towards the posted work, just a tangential thought spurred by it.
Constructive criticism is good but the gist of the comment I was replying to was basically “this is a stupid waste of time”. I’d like to see less of that it just stifles good conversation.
