I enjoyed this +1 but sadly and inevitably there are replies saying essentially "no no, all man hours are not equal". Why doesn't the intertube get satire/sarcasm/irony ?
Text is a bad way of conveying tone, though there was the smiley at the end. I interpreted it the same as you, but I can see how a lot of people would miss the tone.
Poe's Law is why the internet doesn't get sarcasm - that without additional information, it's impossible to differentiate between an extreme position and one mocking it.
The comment we're talking about was skillfully constructed, there's only one way of interpreting it. On a phone so quoting from memory, but the second paragraph starting "that's why I am spending the time perusing HN..." is just an elegant way of saying that the first paragraph was tongue in cheek.
Poe's Law is why the internet doesn't get sarcasm - that without additional information, it's impossible to differentiate between an extreme position and one mocking it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law