Thanks!

But the world (particularly our corner of it) is full of smarter people saying more interesting things. I feel like the best way I can contribute is not distracting readers from doing.

I think you underestimate yourself. Or overestimate other people :) There are plenty of uninteresting or non-useful comments posted everywhere, including on HN. Yours in this thread are both interesting and useful.

As a counterpoint, I use these distractions to center myself. There likely are smarter people saying more interesting things, but HN's feed also sometimes has things like "Java StringBuffer and StringBuilder performance". I would much rather read about a "TechMBA/TMBA/TemBA/STEMBA" proposal than about performance of utilities of strings in a language I don't use.

I second this! I would love to read a blog post - or a series of them - where you explain your thoughts in more depth.