"Email us a programming task and we'll finish it in 48 hours"
I would say most HN'ers (me included) thought this was done by a beginner web developer and looking for feedback from the community. And based on the comments provided, many of them are quite positive and constructive.
Part of running a business is effectively and efficiently allocating capital. Depending on their goal with this project and how much it cost, this could be an excellent approach for getting low tech MVPs built.
My guess is this dude literally said "make a web form with these inputs that will produce a PDF formatted like this".
First off, congrats to Adam for getting his idea launched and hitting the top of HN with his first project.
Adam came to us with idea, designs, domain, and coding as much as he could. We helped him finish the coding portion, explaining the changes and tools we were making to get the site ready to go. He was involved in every step and learned a lot from the process. I think most coders got some (or a lot) of help when they just start out.
CodeGophers helps people make MVP's as fast as 48 hours over email, and we get all sorts of people writing in. Some are like Adam who are just starting out learning coding, some are designers/marketers who don't know any coding at all and others are more experienced people who just don't have time to build the MVP.
2) He does say "...helping with" - perhaps it was indeed help
What would be the point of showing people your first $THING if you didn’t make it?
I am all about reusing components, but what's original in here to make it a Show HN?
Edit: after thinking about it and trying it I think the main point is about simplicity to generate a PDF with decent default styles, which is a good point. So I retract my previous opinion; it's about a good experience and nice output using pre-made tools. Well done (: