[jeffreyrogers]

The smartest people I know are generally smart no matter what field you put them in. But everyone has blind spots/biases.

I do know a couple of very successful people who aren't that smart but are good at selling themselves/their ideas. Some people look down on this, but it is a good skill to have.

HN has a problem where the people who comment are often not that knowledgable but can sound like they know what they're talking about. This is particularly bad in posts asking for advice. Allowing downvoting (HN didn't always have it IIRC) actually makes this problem worse. Also for some emotionally charged topics people will downvote true things that make them feel bad.

[theyx]

You are right about HN folks. I asked this question prompted by a topic discussed here during the past week, in which many people were commenting and sounding like experts. But because I knew deeply about it (having written my Master’s thesis on it), I noticed how mistaken they were — despite making their opinions sound like facts.

It makes me wonder: should this make us disregard many more discussions? Because what if the comments on those are as “untrustworthy” as the comments shown in that thread I know about?

[WelcomeShorty]

The desired way would be that you correct them as domain expert and give us all a change to learn.

Did you?

[theyx]

The desired yeah, but unfortunately from my experience people don't like being corrected online, for -- as far as they know -- I may as well know nothing about what I am talking about. Plus, devoting the time to type out so many replies is not in most people's priority list.