Could it be the advert for his book 'Be slightly evil: A playbook for sociopaths' by any chance?
I think this is a non-necessary comment. This shouldn‘t be on HN. You might want to rephrase that.
well, the whole post shouldn't be no HN
<whisper>I’m not going to respond to you</whisper>
If you follow the author on Twitter I think you'll find that he wouldn't entirely disagree with you. He's openly discussed how he sees people as systems to be observed and studied.
Like an anthropologist, or a psychologist...
It’s called Minimum Viable Sociopathy, vgr wrote an essay[0] on it earlier.