> I think think the vast majority of the HN community is employed by someone else.
I don't think so. HN is YC is full of real entrepreneurs and risk takers. Most on HN are tech founders or at least employed but with having side projects and ambitions to get real founders. The OP is working at Facebook, proud of being an employee and having no side projects (otherwise he wouldn't blog about Gowalla years later).
I'm not. I'm here because I find the scene fascinating and thoroughly enjoy the breadth of intelligent discussion on topics ranging from design to programming to personal productivity to social effects on tech to etc.
I think it's incredibly unwise to play the elitism card and try to drive people like myself away from HN. You risk suffocating the community and producing an echo chamber of certain discussion points, eventually reducing to stale repetition. It runs absolutely counter to the mandate of 'anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiousity'.
I've seen experts in niche topics wade in and provide fantastic insight and wisdom on information I'd never have thought to find here as it has nothing to do with startups and hacking. I've tried to contribute myself (e.g.: there was a discussion on spider's silk stopping a train and someone asked about the structure of the train, the designing of which is my day job) and hope that through doing so I can encourage others to return the favour.
The OP has experiences and insights directly related to the central pillar of HN. His sharing them through blog posts or HN comments can be to the benefit of the community. Rejecting them to fulfill some stupid sense of elitism for the 'true entrepreneurs' is daft.
I don't think so. HN is YC is full of real entrepreneurs and risk takers. Most on HN are tech founders or at least employed but with having side projects and ambitions to get real founders. The OP is working at Facebook, proud of being an employee and having no side projects (otherwise he wouldn't blog about Gowalla years later).