A large group of smart people often produce some really dumb ideas, like 'Google Wave' - so I wouldn't personally use 'Proof by Large Group of Smart People' in

A large group of smart people often produce some really dumb ideas, like 'Google Wave' - so I wouldn't personally use 'Proof by Large Group of Smart People' in this case. Hacker News has been the home of many a bad idea by smart folk. Instead, maybe we should all be critiquing the points raised. In my limited experience, most engineers (yes including very smart ones) are more enamoured with their own ideas (and not discounting myself here!) than learning other people's work well. And the critique I read didn't seem unfair in that respect, more so it encouraged me to look deeper at HTTP first before I add something into my apps own protocols. Which to me is a good thing. Especially around content negotiation which I had not looked at beyond a superficial understanding. For the record I ain't no purist :-)