I think 1% of the USA is generous. We're talking about mostly programmers and software engineers here. I doubt the level 2 tech support at Comcast is reading HN, much less any significant percentage all IT workers.
FWIW I'm closer to the L2 Comcast tech than programmer and I was introduced to HN by my dad, a DBA. I thought HN was for the intellectually curoius, not just the coders and programmers of the Valley?
I was homeless for nearly 6 years and an active participant. I'm also not a programmer, though I have a Certificate in GIS and, these, days, make part of my money as a "webmaster."
There are a lot of IT people here. This, unfortunately, sometimes convinces some individuals that that's all there is here, which is an inaccurate assumption.