Thanks for the kind words. I certainly admire 'tptacek's commenting style (and to be explicit, I'm not 'tptacek, nor am I 'dang, which has come up in the past).

Thanks for the kind words. I certainly admire 'tptacek's commenting style (and to be explicit, I'm not 'tptacek, nor am I 'dang, which has come up in the past). I hack Clojure a bit (and find little use for Twitter), so when I noticed the ' prefix used here, I happily picked that up. I've read HN for quite a while but this is my first account. Over the past couple of years I've been increasingly concerned about the severe political and cultural polarization (in general, not just on HN) and the increasing role the internet plays in people's social lives. I think it's really important that we figure out how to resolve the first and how to healthily integrate the second. HN is a great place to look at both, and one I value. It's also more tractable than others (for example, I recognize your handle as well :). I also think that the community should play a role in maintaining itself. By far members here do want to participate in good discussion and we're only held back by our own human psychology. Often we just need to take a step back and a breath and observe what's going on. If we can help each other do that, I think we'll be in a much better position to resolving all kinds of human issues (if you'll permit a bit of naïve grandiosity). So, that's why you see the comments from me that you do.