Honestly, it seems like people on HN so often assess things based on their raw usefulness. It makes sense, given that HN is read by many people who think like engineers, but in another recent thread on /r/math, people are talking about how the reason mathematicians study mathematics is not because it is useful, but because it possesses an inherent beauty/logic/whatever that makes the people who study it want to keep studying it. I'm doubling in math and CS and I have to say that the reason I am studying math is not because of any potential applicability to work I might do in software later in life, but because it has an allure for me that is unmatched by almost anything else.