Comforting to here someone else react to these "alienated" commenters. I feel they made this the most depressing HN thread I have ever read.

What's jarring to me is the author's characterization of car repair as "poor-people skills". Knowing how to use tools can be part of being poor, or it can be part of being an engineer who designs things that can actually be manufactured and assembled.

Either that or I'm a lot poorer than I think I am!