I did notice the same pattern: best people I worked with either don't write at all or write very little. Probably because, despite having better thoughts, smart people also have a much higher threshold for releasing their thoughts into the wild. And people who write a lot often tend to be talkers and not doers (there are exceptions of course, but they are incredibly rare).

You'd think that the most truthful content is going to win the public. But the reality is that the most viral content wins. A lot of software development "best practices" are popular not because they are producing value (their value is often negative), but because they make us feel good.

Very similar to religions, it's not necessarily the most utilitarian religions that are dominating the world. It's the most viral ones.

This is certainly true.

However, consider that the 99% who don't contribute on Reddit, may be contributing elsewhere.

I never post on Reddit, only browse. But I comment here.

Maybe that's the case with most people. That the majority contribute somewhere, but just not all in the same place.

This would invalidate the hypothesis that the internet is written by insane people. It's just that any one site only includes 1% of the people, evenly distributed across all the sites.

I feel like there’s a level of irony to linking to a Reddit post given the subject.

Interesting. I disagree with #5 based on personal experience. Some of the best thinkers I know have at times been visible in the comments. In fact, meeting challenges to their reasoning is how they refine their thinking.