That’s a bit strong. It’s a bit cryptic maybe..

I honestly thought it would be about not being an asshole to people doing their jobs, and instead how much better asking nicely is. Both for treating them as people, but also for getting what you want.

So I'd say it's pretty misleading.

But with the top comment making it clear what the context is, I'm fine with it after all.

Philosophic words have been a part of programmers life sometimes but not misleading. Go in depth and you would get the meaning. I must say it is cleaver use of words.

HN loves contextless titles, I'm not sure why really

HN just prefers the original title to avoid clickbait. The drawback is that sometimes context gets lost. On the bright side this sometimes will make you discover interesting articles which you wouldn't have checked out otherwise.

It provokes curiosity, I guess. It's like good ol' clickbait in that regard: ask a question with the promise of an answer, except the question is usually not explicit, just assumed by the user. Every time I see a contextless title I wonder "Hmm, what could this be about?" and click.