Marco is just posting stuff on his own blog. Its not Marco trolling, its aaronbrethorst karmawhoring by posting irrelevant-to-HN-links by highprofile HN celebrities…

Look at it from a usability perspective. I see a pretty direct parallel to software. Especially in terms of making the most common operations simple to execute, and in reducing the "number of clicks" to make a timer change happen (although admittedly we know enjoyment > number of clicks).