You're obviously using the hyperbole at the start of the article to score points. You go on to impugn the character of the author, while not directly addressing the thesis at any point in your responses. You're relying on people to yield so as not to offend you -- but that's crap, they really shouldn't care. "hurtful" indeed...

What they can argue is that because of a bit of hyperbole at the start, you've implied the article can't make any valid points. It must be entirely wrong. Nice rhetorical trick, but quite insane -- and I argue much more disgusting than what is frankly an understandable gaff by the author at the start.

On the other hand, he was not afraid to say it over the phone, so the situation is not 100% like it was in the USSR (then I guess he would have been really afraid to say it anywhere anyone could have overheard him). But in some important ways it is similar.

So this guy thinks that getting emails from recruiters means that he has what it takes to be an entrepreneur? He thinks that a degree you get from a University teaches you something about running a business. Oh, and by the way, he would be fabulously successful at it if he wanted to. Yeah, I could dunk over Shaq too, it's just that I don't have any interest in playing basketball.

Being an entrepreneur has so little to do with skills (you can always learn those). It's about decision-making, ability to learn and pivot, and guts. Frankly, I find this guys ivory-tower preaching to be grating. He doesn't know jack about entrepreneurship and yet he's willing to take a dump all over someone who happened to be starting their first business in a market segment that was hit terribly hard by the recession.

Is it really any surprise that you can make lots of money if you use cheap labour, if you're okay with releasing - and perhaps even selling, though I hope not - garbage software ("Release a really crappy version", "I don't spend money on design"), and if you're content without innovating or trying to break new ground?

The world is full of people who do that, and yes, many of them get by just fine, and some make lots of money. But there's far more to life, and work, than that.

For me, that's what's so great about HN: it is full of inspirations for a web developer like myself. Inspirational companies and inspirational people who don't rest until they get it right. Who push the envelope. Who care deeply about the experience of using their software.

This post contains nothing inspirational like that. I've worked for people like this before. Never again.