There is a button: the “past” link below the title on this page. The link often works pretty well, but not in this case because the title “work is work” is particularly non-specific. You can easily search for past HN submits and comments using: https://hn.algolia.com/ e.g. https://hn.algolia.com/?query=https%3A%2F%2Fcodahale.com%2F%... or add dashes e.g. search for work-is-work https://hn.algolia.com/?query=work-is-work (Algolia search isn’t parsed like Google so quoting is not useful).

The past button, like you said, doesn't always work like that. And I know how to search. I'm wondering why there isn't a button when people always post comments to achieve the same thing a button could.