HN is the water cooler of the startup and Silicon Valley world. Sam Altman was, and still is, an influential part of that community, being the president of Y Co

HN is the water cooler of the startup and Silicon Valley world. Sam Altman was, and still is, an influential part of that community, being the president of Y Combinator from 2014 to 2019 [0] in addition to having personal interactions with many of founders of a wide variety of startups ( * ). HN is open to a wider community (I'm not in SF or a startup founder) but HN is focused on startup and Silicon Valley news. I wouldn't be surprised if most of the users on HN with 10k+ karma are affiliated with Y Combinator, either as alum or more directly, in some way. So, in my opinion, this is the office gossip talk of people who's everyday lives revolve around startup culture and Silicon Valley news. I think the news about OpenAI and Sam Altman's departure is relevant and interesting but the outsized weight on HN is most likely because of the communities attention to the niche domain of interest (SV/SF area tech news, startup culture, cult of personalities within that culture, etc.). (*) With most having overwhelmingly positive things to say about their interaction. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Altman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Altman