I think you're right, but I 100% reject this article. Maybe it is good advice for small- or middle-scale products, apps., etc., but it will never hold for a project whose goal is to make a global impact.

I'm actually thinking about Fabrice Bellard, who was featured in a article that was met with success here two months ago[1].

> Bellard made it seem natural to pull together his mathematical insight, broad experience at instruction-level coding, and careful engineering to advance the field this way

When you look at his achievements[2], I have trouble finding one that would have succeeded with OP's "advice". Between an app for coffee-lovers and QEMU, I think the careful thinking and engineering crushes the hype of "let's do it". Sure it sounds good, but that is not the way you will achieve something meaningful.

I may sound like an ass while it is not my goal, but

- I'm kind of surprised to see the success of this article (50 votes for 2 hours) given the low level and amount of content it offers

- I distrust analogies, and this gamma-correction one is definitely unsound (not to say dumb)

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5187585

2: http://bellard.org/