[rdtsc]

There is another level to this anecdote, and that is how HN readers respond to it. It seems that some of them identify with Charles, and some with Alan. Some identify because they are or act like Alan and Charles, or they choose the opposite because they had a bad experience with someone like one of them.

In other words, in this case the reader identified with Alan because that best describes how that reader works and acts, and they are just instinctively defending their position, even though, clearly, the parable portrays Charles as the better of the two. (Of course, that could be my bias, as I identify with Charles).