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Comment by georgieporgie | Hacker News Reader

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this was uninteresting for the same reason that the Stack Exchange Podcast is uninteresting: it was just a guy talking about himself (SE Podcast occasionally has interesting shows, sooo much of it is just them ruminating about themselves, with a bunch of background racket). I didn't learn anything from this post, except that a Nerd Celebrity is leaving somewhere, with no technical information, no insight, nothing.

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It's his personal blog, I'm not sure what rules you are applying on what he is allowed to post to it.

In any case, I thought there was content in there for everyone. Reflecting on what 'success' means, where your priorities ought to lie... it's all interesting stuff.

There's no rule that he can't post to his blog. I flagged it because it's not relevant hacker news. Just like downvotes, I explain my flags.

Highly visible hacker/entrepreneur stepping down from running a resource that almost every hacker that reads HN probably uses on a nearly daily basis. Seems pretty relevant to me.

There are a couple Show HN's and a hacker meetup around the second half of the front page, while this is at the top. I very much disagree with your assessment of its relevance.

I think it's inarguable that Atwood, through both Stack Overflow and his own personal blog, have had vastly greater impacts than either those Show HNs or that meetup will.

You think that Atwood leaving SO has more impact on HNers than HNer projects and networking events? I think that's ridiculous.

I think that this is utterly not in keeping with what should be promoted on HN. This isn't /r/programming.

HNers believe Atwood leaving SO has more impact on HNers than HN projects and networking events. That is, in fact, why it has so many more votes. Where do you expect this argument to go?

Argument? What argument? Every person to comment in this thread has been different. All I did was explain why I flagged the article, and defended myself from rather silly attacks from a series of people who are jumping on a bandwagon.

HNers believe Atwood leaving SO has more impact on HNers than HN projects and networking events. That is, in fact, why it has so many more votes.

That's a false assertion, by the way. There are a variety of reasons why people may have upvoted the article.

How many people are going to attend that meetup?

How many people use StackOverflow every day, and are interested in the people behind it's success?

How did you feel about the news of Jobs's passing showing up high on HN?

There is absolutely no comparison between Steve Jobs -- a man who carved a sizable niche in a market, created another market that never existed before (app store), built a massive company, and whose direct oversight impacted all sorts of people -- dying, and Atwood simply leaving SO.

There is, by the logic you've set out here. Both were personal events that had no direct consequence to the HN crowd.

No, Steve Jobs dying had a very real potential effect on many parts of the industry. When the person generally credited with being the driving force behind Apple dies, it's got potential ramifications everywhere. When Atwood simply leaves a website which has already reached critical mass an matured, it doesn't.

For me, Steve Jobs passing had the opposite effect.

I had convinced myself that my comfortable lifestyle web dev business was all I really needed. That pursuing startup ideas were not worth sacrificing time with family, friends, and hobbies away from the computer.

When Steve Jobs passed, I took stock of his accomplishments, watched the Standford address, and was generally inspired. It loosened me from my comfortable rut just enough to start bootstrapping a startup I had on paper for about a year. So far, 4 months in, the sacrifice has been little to none. Who knows though, I still may regret this down the line.

Have you even read the article? He is leaving so he can spend quality time with his wife & kids. And mearly the fact that he is leaving is big news (if you ware stabbing at why is this here).

That isn't relevant hacker news. I explain when I downvote, and I explain when I flag articles.

Why is this comment being downvoted?

I don't agree with this user either, but it's so much more constructive to explain why you're downvoting things than it is to just downvote them and not say anything.

As for you georgieporgie, good on you. I for one appreciate it when people explain why they're downvoting me.

I think it meets 2 criteria: 1) It's of interest to startup people or people who want to be. 2) It's of interest to developers (at least ones who use Stack Overflow).

Exactly. Is he taking 6 months off to do nothing? How is he doing that? Did he cash out something during the last investment round? Retainer? Sell some SE stock? How's he paying the bills?

What is this celebrity gossip channel?

I was just looking for a little more practical insight. If he's in the bay area, with a family, surely it takes significant personal capital to take a mini-retirement. PG has written before about startups being a compressed career, so I see Jeff executing that here and it's something in the back of my mind too as I toil away at day job and personal/startup projects.

Knowing Jeff, he would have posted those details on his blog if he wanted to share them with everyone. If he hasn't, let's assume that he is not interested in discussing his financials and respect that choice.

I am sure we will hear from him whenever he is back with his new adventure.

Likely the ads on his blog.

Seriously, why shouldn't a guy with years of programming career behind him be able to take 6 months off? It's only basic financial wisdom not to live on 99% of your earning and always save so you have something to fall back to.

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