[tzs]

Perhaps he has sufficient imagination to come up with two or three possible reasons why someone might do this, and hence is asking so as to find out which is the actual reason.

By asking, he might learn something, especially if the reason turns out to be one he had not thought of.

[coderdude]

You're probably just playing the devil's advocate, but it's plainly obvious that the guy was just being rude. If he was actually interested in an "I can see so many reasons you'd make this" kind of way he wouldn't have been so curt.

[tzs]

I don't see that "why?" is curt. It is succinct.

Perhaps in this particular case the questioner WAS trying to be rude, but that's not relevant to my reply to hvs. Note hvs said he could not understand why this question is asked on HN. He was talking about people in general who ask "why", not this particular questioner.

I'm astonished that anyone would be surprised that on HN, of all places, that people would be curious about why someone is doing something. One of the defining characters of hackers is curiosity.