HN added this comment based on my submission. I simply filled out the form that was provided for making new submissions. Sounds like if users don’t want comments like this that HN should change their submission form.
What alarms me is that students are tying up a large portion of their future income to self-teach from MOOCs and other freely available online sources. If I have the gumption to learn on my own, is a little bit of cash really what's holding me back?