Yes, it is basically entirely about being not only a cog but a good little cog. Honestly, to anyone reading this stuff and looking for direction or advice on life, don't take from HN. If you listen to anyone on HN at all about life issues, just listen to the ones that tell you not to listen. This crowd is too biased toward one direction that it's going to bias in advice toward that ideal lifestyle. If you really want to be a healthy, skinny, hipster whose goal in life is to increase the share value of the company he works for and make his managers happy then a lot of stuff would probably be very useful; it sounds like a dreadful bore to me. :)