The "I did this cool thing" posts get way more upvotes than the "let's be startuppy" posts. I don't think the "hacker" population is as rare as you're suggesting.

I don't think "shiny new thing" posts getting more upvotes indicate anything about the hacker population.

I think he's refering to posts like this[0] rather than the shiny new tool people usually get excited about.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30803589

Correct.