I'm sure that Patrick didn't "invent" email marketing, SEO or A/B testing, nor it was my intention to undermine the contributions of all the people involved in the field. I myself have an academic background in most of what is now called "Data Science", so I kind of understand how some areas of knowledge, already applied in industry, can be "rediscovered" and "rebranded" giving the impresion of a "new field"
Maybie I should have been more specific. I meant the influence in the HN microcosm, which sometimes seems to work as a "collective unconscious". Of course this is all gut feeling and maybie I shouldn't had brought it up, but I do get the impresion that either Patrick "gets" some upcoming "trends" beforehand and applies/writes about them in his blog, or he triggers the trends himself (the popularity of HN is no secret).
Maybie I should have been more specific. I meant the influence in the HN microcosm, which sometimes seems to work as a "collective unconscious". Of course this is all gut feeling and maybie I shouldn't had brought it up, but I do get the impresion that either Patrick "gets" some upcoming "trends" beforehand and applies/writes about them in his blog, or he triggers the trends himself (the popularity of HN is no secret).