This whole post is depressing. Far from lighthearted fun, these comments all have an undercurrent of hostility ("wannabe-academic"). The mosaic formed by these comments imply pg has harmed the world by creating HN. But that couldn't be further from the truth.
Imagine where you'd be forced to go if HN didn't exist, for example.
> Imagine where you'd be forced to go if HN didn't exist, for example.
A better HN. It is possible: HN was such a place a couple years ago. And it can only get worse if the community keeps taking itself too seriously to allow even light-hearted criticism.
If the reference took some non-trivial research to find, it is of course welcome and useful. The too-obvious Wikipedia link is an attempt to imitate references of the useful variety with the intent of appearing sophisticated.
If you're saying that, I think you're actually part of the problem. Don't get your news and discussions from only one place on the web. There are lots more and it doesn't cost you anything visiting other places and reading comments from other people. The only risk is reading elsewhere something that didn't get to HN's frontpage.
Outside, maybe?