You know what's wrong and mean? Getting "You're submitting too fast. Please slow down. Thanks." the moment you fall under the radar of the same moderator who encourages users to downvote dissenting opinions.
I kid, I kid. Down with the toxic, up with the awesome (with the definitions up to the people in power)!
"Hacking" isn't exclusive to computers and software.
Also, at the time of writing this, the #1 article on Hacker News is "Most types of cancer not due to “bad luck” [pdf]" which has little to do with computers or software.
I'm a developer of 20+ years and have no idea how to patch most open source software and have it "just work".
Software has progressed to the point where the complexity and interconnectedness is far beyond what any one developer can do. Everyone just knows a few subsections.
That is both wrong and mean. Non-programmers are 100% welcome on Hacker News. The only criterion is willingness to follow the site guidelines.
The mandate of HN is "stories for the intellectually curious", not "exclusive programmer tribe".