Perhaps they're just independent observations of real phenomena?
Re:The social utility of hacker humor
by JoeAltmaier on Friday September 10, 2010 @10:03AM
(#1678850)
If the phenomena are real, then it becomes very likely more than one author will comment.
Compare: http://www.paulgraham.com/gba.html
> It is greatly to America’s advantage that it is a congenial atmosphere for the right sort of unruliness—that it is a home not just for the smart, but for smart-alecks. And hackers are invariably smart-alecks. If we had a national holiday, it would be April 1st. It says a great deal about our work that we use the same word for a brilliant or a horribly cheesy solution. When we cook one up we’re not always 100% sure which kind it is. But as long as it has the right sort of wrongness, that’s a promising sign. It’s odd that people think of programming as precise and methodical. Computers are precise and methodical. Hacking is something you do with a gleeful laugh.