As a hacker on Hacker News I'd have to agree with the others that animations are a Very Bad Thing. They are distracting to me, an easily distracted person, who is currently avoiding work by reading Hacker News this afternoon.
Don't get me wrong, I feel like a lot of animation is unnecessary but if you did what Hacker News advised every webpage would look the same in Lynx as it does in Chrome. Animations can serve a purpose - to focus the user's eye, to give them a sense of where something is going to and from, etc. etc.
They're not universally bad, and this is a fascinating library - it deserves more credit than "animations are bad".
Animations for the sake of having animation is really distracting. But if used subtly and with purpose, they could help enhance the user experience.
I think it's the right direction, though; animating to subtly direct user attention to the right place.