I don't know what that means. The statement just wasn't useful and comes across as sassy and arrogant.

the most important thing though, is that that statement is true and verifiably so.

I am one of those persons that learned something by reading that comment.

assuming arrogance and sassyness in an otherwise neutral exposition of a true fact, to me means that, as usually happens, arrogance and sassyness are in the eye of the beholder.

Is the most important thing in communication that each statement is true, or that true information is successfully conveyed? If I prefaced this comment with true facts about how bad your life in particular is, I doubt you'd be ready to read the rest of it :)

  arrogance and sassyness are in the eye of the beholder

very true - but true of all aspects of communication, I think

> Is the most important thing in communication that each statement is true, or that true information is successfully conveyed?

the former.

I, for example, am not native English speaker, so, for example, in this case should you learn Italian to the point where you are able to successfully convey the information to me, which could be "never"?

> f I prefaced this comment with true facts about how bad your life in particular is, I doubt you'd be ready to read the rest of it :)

you can try, but be ready to fail miserably. Also: I am very well aware how bad my life is, I would say that only an arrogant can think to know it better than me to the point that I will be surprised or shocked.

Do you think it's belittling to point out that someone may not have scientific knowledge? Ie, is the statement something beyond mere fact? What makes having scientific knowledge good, that you may infer that someone may think not having it is bad?

My first reading of the sentence in question was that it was patronising

In and of itself no. But in the context of responding to someone saying “your comment reminded me that some people don’t have a scientific background” can be read in a similar way to saying “your comment reminded me that not everyone on Hacker News is a genius”, even if that wasn’t the author’s intention.

I agree with you. I took it exactly the same way and thought it was unnecessary.