That would be the point of contact with the article, yes, but the thing about generic tangents is that they take off from a point and then head in a generic direction, one which is nearly always less interesting than the specifics of the article itself—and which if the topic is divisive at all, usually ends in a flamewar that is just a repetition of previous flamewars. On HN, we're trying to avoid this kind of thing and focus on curious conversation.

Btw I'm quite sure you didn't intend any of what I'm describing here. The point is that it happens unintentionally, and all too easily, so we all need to learn to consciously avoid it.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...