I've seen this sentiment expressed elsewhere too, something to the effect of "echo chamber collapses when exposed to the real world". I wonder how many internet forums that thrive today, only because of this isolation from the real world. Sometimes I feel this is true for HN, to a certain extent.
HN has foundations in math and engineering so I don't think it would collapse as easily. In real life it would be more akin to a developer convention. There would be purpose and connection to the shared reality. It wouldn't survive in the streets of normal people per se but it would be capable of standing on its own foundation, at least significantly better than lets say a star wars convention. It will look pretty silly if someone claiming to be a jedi master went on camera to be interviewed, but not so much if a machine learning expert did.
