[in9]

I think you can strike lines between technical and fictional books. In doing so, I would expect a difference in quality since the avg HN lurker is a technical person.

[evgen]

Pretty much this. The average HN lurker will be reasonably sophisticated when it comes to technical subjects, but they are incredibly naive when it comes to all of those humanities subjects they skipped in university. When it comes to politics, economics, philosophy and other such subjects the average HN response vacillates between the extremes of either outright dismissal or arrogant pronouncements that are such a caricature of the Dunning-Kruger effect that you initially assume it to be satire.

[pinkfoot]

> …incredibly naive [about] those humanities subjects they skipped in university.

Yip, but not nearly a naive as the humanity students are about technical subjects.

If we are going to fix anything, we need to force our arty friends to finish with some understanding of how the world works.

And by "how the world works" I mean the things that would remain unchanged even if every human vanished.

Like, to be topical, exponential growth.