Unfortunately yes - this view isn't so out there that it's not inconceivable that someone would genuinely express it.

You always have to /s here. I figure there are enough people reading HN who have different backgrounds in how they understand English that it's necessary.

Also important to label jokes.

also a tech startup incubator, where there is a non-trivial portion of the population is, or is trying very hard to be, something like that CEO.

in other words, for some people here it's not sarcasm.

Honestly yeah I had to read it a couple times, I didn't notice the joke right away, cause there are people out there who justify CEO salaries, I just can't remember the justification offhand.

Maybe if you'd referenced Chernobyl I would have picked it up sooner. Or THERAC, that's a classic.

No you didn't. :P

on the internet, ALWAYS

Nope, sarcasm was pretty obvious from the "iceberg jumping at the boat" part.

that was the give-away

Poe's Law[0] applies.

Unfortunately, nowadays, unless you're among a group of people who already know your general opinions on things, it's nearly impossible to state an absurd position on some issue that a nontrivial number of people would actually, unironically, advocate for, until you get into the absolutely batshit stuff like "we should literally sacrifice poor people to the devil, then eat their flesh, to keep the rest of us from getting poor."

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

Carry on. I for one laughed at the obviousness of the iceberg jumping out. We definitely should be encouraging more careful reading than hinting and reading everything as if they are words only. Your comment is about as obvious as it gets. Unless... the icebergs are alive. But then we have a bigger problem. Global warming is their revenge!