Probably you were downvoted because your comment took the thread on a generic ta...

Probably you were downvoted because your comment took the thread on a generic tangent - indeed into one of the most-trodden areas on HN. Generic tangents are easy to fall into (of course) but make threads less interesting, which is why the site guidelines ask people to avoid them. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Unpredictable/whimsical/curious tangents are still ok. Just not the predictable ones.

More explanations here if anyone wants them:

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...