It seems to me that the post is more about the former than the latter. It's not like he built an airplane from scratch by himself; he contributed to building tools for internal use at a small company.

"It's not like he built an airplane from scratch by himself"

How true. Amazing what passes off for high fives on HN. Anybody ever watch any documentaries on the real world showing what people with serious jobs build and maintain everyday? (I saw one last night about the complexity of the military supply chain ships near Somalia).

Many of these posts that I see here on HN seem like the equivalent of a kid in elementary school bringing home an art project to show their parents and grandparents who exclaim how wonderful an achievement and how promising they are.

These posts do serve a purpose though. They bring traffic and exposure to the poster's company website (in this example 37signals but there are many others) by highlighting some simple revelation or discovery.

I think this is a really cynical perspective. Nowhere is the author claiming he's making something superior, or matches up to the best of "makers" in our society.

Look around at most of the people you interact with every day. Many of them are stuck in a cycle of not making things, and this guy worked hard enough to break that cycle for himself. He found his calling in writing code. That is inspirational, and something to be proud of.

HN exists as a blog monetization tool