One thing I've noticed is that the type of hacker-person one often finds on HN - the kind of person who looks at the world in terms of what is technically possi

One thing I've noticed is that the type of hacker-person one often finds on HN - the kind of person who looks at the world in terms of what is technically possible - has a gaping blind spot when it comes to the distinction between "anyone could do this" and "everyone can do this". The infamous Dropbox announcement thread is instructive - your average hacker type poo poos it because it's trivial, but its existence still changes the world in meaningful ways. There is a huge qualitative difference between "anyone could put a gun on a quadcopter" and "everyone can buy a quadcopter with a gun on it".