You're right in that your second sentence was unnecesarily harsh. However, the third one didn't strike me as so brutal, but I also agree that the beginning cou

You're right in that your second sentence was unnecesarily harsh. However, the third one didn't strike me as so brutal, but I also agree that the beginning could have been worded better. This reminds me of several discussions on how many people with some characteristics of aspergers/autism are bad communicators because they're worried about being right and not about the other people's feelings - and believe that saying what they consider to be the truth doesn't offend. (I'm searching for some interesting articles on the subject, but I didn't save the links and now can't find them). I have very bad communication skills myself, that's why I found Carnegie's points about other people's feelings so important (others might find it obvious). Edit: I also think that most people in Hacker News are more inured to criticism, or able to take it better, and so might be harsher themselves - or not think it wrong when someone else is harsh like in your case.