This is the exact sentiment I hold as well. I think the demographics of hacker news may be slightly swayed towards people who already have established networks and industry experience.
Also the HN audience is far more remote-oriented than I’ve encountered among my coworkers over the course of my career, including > 4 years working full-remote.
Anonymity probably accounts for a decent portion of the discrepancy (meaning some of your co-workers would probably be anti-WFH in person, and pro-WFH anonymously)
We’ll, I can’t prove or disprove that claim, but most of my coworkers have always been very candid with their preferences. I find it difficult to believe that there’s a large number of people who regularly say one thing while secretly believing the opposite.
I think you'd be surprised by how many people don't really engage in outside-of-work anonymous programming forums, vs their personal contacts/friends/coworkers/ex-coworkers.
The handful of Reddit programming communities I've seen are also very uninterested in returning to work. I have to wonder if the difference isn't so much "established career" vs "newbie" and is more simply self-selection, with people who are comfortable working remotely more likely to engage frequently in online communities, and those more interested in in-person work less represented.
Also anyone who has been earning a FAANG salary for 5-10 years should have enough FU money to feel a lot less pressure to conform to unreasonable employer demands.
Also the HN audience is far more remote-oriented than I’ve encountered among my coworkers over the course of my career, including > 4 years working full-remote.