While I can resonate with the author's sentiment, his thoughts on the matter seem callow and slim. What he calls 'intellectual loneliness' smells simply of a craving for socializing with like-minded ones. Whether intellectual or not. Our (author, HN demographic) idea of fulfilling discourse might tend to gravitate toward the intellectual, but whether the convo revolves around intellectual or philistine ideas, I think that feeling of loneliness or alienation is shared and common to all unable to engage with like-minded denizens.