Yes, the upside of what's possible has moved higher. No doubt. But the entry level has moved higher as well. Going from knowing nothing to creating an application used to be much, much easier. And that meant a wider berth of people were trying to create software. People used to create web pages or a MySpace page. No one does that anymore.

You think it's age? Ok, so... where are the hot startups? Where are the revolutionary ideas? Where are the wild, crazy new platforms and programming languages? What are people buzzing about? Exactly. Nothing.

I've been on HN from almost its inception. And I've watched it go from a hotbed of exciting topics and startups and ideas -- to an obituary page, the maintenance documentation, of what once was.