The goal of the article was to raise awareness of some blind spots that smart people face. Just being aware of them is already a good first step. Hacker News is a place where so many smart people hang out and I thought people here will relate to one or more items in the list.
Blind spots are hard to see and probably that's why they are called "blind" spots. I have found time and again that discussions with my mentors brings forth some blind spots to the forefront. Mentors have an uncanny ability to notice things that we should be noticing. They may not have all the answers but the probing questions they ask can make us aware of at least some of the blind spots.
Yes of course. Your questions are valid. I will add more context to it soon. For a quick summary:
a) Ongoing mini-research is part of my next book which will come out only next year or the year after.
b) The intermediate findings are being written as short blog posts as people don't have time to read long ones.
c) How I know the problem exists - it comes out during my interviews and discussions. The focus of the research is centered around smart people. I am not going to interview people with pre-conceived notions about certain problems existing or non-existing.
Having said that, your points are valid and I plan to include responses to that and more in the final version of the book. It is too much to add to the blog posts.
Your argument is so right that it would be foolish to argue against it. You make a very good point and I will discuss this with my team to get this fixed. THANKS.
The problems referred in the article are those problems that people should have or could have solved but have not solved them. I thought it was obvious but it looks like I have to explicitly state it. Will make a note for next time.
Yes "implementation" is hard work and that part adds to the complexity of solving one's problems. You cannot stop at advice but have to follow through with following that advice :)
Thanks for the great feedback here. Noted it and will act on it. Unfortunately I can't do that until Monday as the person who can fix it won't be available until then :(
Thanks for the comments. The "C'est la vie" comment was specifically about another comment which focussed on things totally outside the article - like newsletter sign up etc.
I will definitely think about your comment and discuss it with my mentors. There are people who I take advise when it comes to these aspects ( blogging, writing ).
Thanks for the clarification. Looking at the discussion here itself is a validation for the article at some level. It is a simple article presenting conclusions from a series of interviews with reasonably smart people.
The conclusions are being over-analyzed which is the characteristic of very smart people. HN is a community of such smart people and I am not at all surprised that it is being over-analyzed here :)