More and more I'm trying to take those at face value - a statement that translates as: "I have opinions on this, but before I give them let me explain why I th

More and more I'm trying to take those at face value - a statement that translates as: "I have opinions on this, but before I give them let me explain why I think I am qualified to do so. For most, perhaps it's a bit of both. And is that a bad thing? Is there something wrong with asserting your right to wield a technical opinion while also showing off a thing that you're proud of having done? On the other hand, if I had prefaced that opinion with the following , it would be been a bit over the top: I've been reading comments for years. Not just on HN, but all over the Internet. In fact, once I spent 60 hours in a week, just reading comments.