Many people do those things simply to get a phone call or email back, and have no leverage at all in the actual technical interview process. And there is no shortage of technical interviews in programming, very common for a job seeker to do 12 - 15 interviews at different companies during their interview cycle.
So again, standing out to recruiters is not really worthwhile. Although recruiters that do look for those things will swear by finding candidates with public github contributions, but thats how they avoid living in tents, but its not an objective reality.
The quality of his content, I can't attest to, but he certainly put himself out there and someone was bound to notice - especially with TC's viewership.
Nice.
There are times, when things are in one of their gross phases here, that that is literally the only reason I stick around.
Nice.
Arg, I was going to engage, but just... whatever. Ok yeah, it's impossible to live in the bay, HN is gross and only valuable for money, the world sucks.
Sorry, it's not even you. It's just this running joke of dissing on HN in passing (not even a solid critique or actionable complaint) that's getting a bit old. It seems like a common sentiment, but I know this is just randomness/selection bias doing its thing.
But it's slightly frustrating when the disses are sandwiched around the substance, so there's no way to even respond to them without by definition being off-topic. So you end up getting a free, cheap shot.
Anecdotally, the mods work their butts off, so if there's something specific that you're hoping will change, they're more than willing to listen. Especially if the community starts collectively nodding in agreement. Though usually it's better to express this in a tangentially-related topic.
As for the latter, I edited it before your reply because I didn't really feel like getting into it because it's late--but I will be straight with you, if there's a "running joke" out there I certainly wasn't participating in its spread. Those critiques--and I'm happy to shoot the shit about them, my email is in my profile and you're welcome to say hey--don't belong in this thread.
Can anyone tell me how common is it in the Bay Area to get opportunities based on your online presence? In India, I have seen that being well connected on LinkedIn is the most significant factor in getting contacted by technical recruiters. Although, blogs and projects are nice to have, but doesn't necessarily mean you'll have more offers on hand.