[q-big]

First: there is of course an incentive not to admit this.

Second: I do believe that many people on HN really deeply care about technology/hacking topics and have detest for office politics. On the other hand, the people that the article discuss are good at office politics/marketing themselves and often don't have such a deep knowledge about programming. Thus, I would indeed assume that the typical HN reader/writer less likely fits into the "highly overrated people" pattern of the article.

[majormajor]

> Second: I do believe that many people on HN really deeply care about technology/hacking topics and have detest for office politics.

I think it's more accurate to say that they have a detest for dealing with people in ways that require persuasion, or more generally situations without an "objective" right answer.

You want to do A, someone else wants to do B, you can't do both, you both think you're right, boom, "politics."

[vinay_ys]

A lot of the time, the person who takes this stance tend to forget that execution matters more than the idea being objectively correct. Good "politics" is about persuading the actual people who have to own and execute that idea. There are bad situations where you find yourself opposite people who add little value that is obvious and yet demand they be persuaded or else they will stand the way of your idea. When the emotional burden of fighting such battles crosses a certain threshold you feel burn-out and give up. This threshold is high for people who can do office politics well and it is low for most self-described techies. This does not mean that latter kind of people don't create the same emotional stress for others through their own political schemings (yes, even without knowing consciously, we are all political animals in our own ways – we wield what powers we have to attain our agenda, in however good or bad ways we do it).

[paulcole]

The average HN reader is highly overrated for other reasons.

> have detest for office politics

The problem is that many people on HN believe any interaction with someone with an MBA, marketing background, manager, etc. is “office politics.”

[GoOnThenDoTell]

Any interaction with another human at work is politics

[q-big]

> The average HN reader is highly overrated for other reasons.

Possibly ... ;-)

[dickersnoodle]

It pretty much is. See https://devhumor.com/content/uploads/images/April2016/how-de....

[serverholic]

Yes because if you look at it objectively those people tend to be lying, manipulative people with big fake smiles on their faces.

People are so accustomed to our messed up society that they don't even realize how amoral "normal" behavior is.

[seattle_spring]

That seems like kind of a strawman, doesn’t it? I’m not convinced anyone really thinks what you are claiming.

[jpmoral]

I think the problem is that people think that all office politics is necessarily bad.

[srcreigh]

Lack of interaction is a strong participation in office politics as well.