Yep, that all makes sense - good explanation, thanks! I mostly commented because HN (and other online forums) have a tendency to assume that the only possible

Yep, that all makes sense - good explanation, thanks! I mostly commented because HN (and other online forums) have a tendency to assume that the only possible explanation is the most cynical one. That's not always (or even often) true, and it tends to lead people to believe they can't do anything extraordinary, because "obviously anyone who does has hidden cheating advantages I can't match". So I thought it's worth at least considering the possibility that he might be telling the truth :) Thanks again for the detailed explanation - I learned quite a lot from that.