HN user
They're similar in quantifiable traits (language, currency, same federal government). Culture, how individuals (often businesses) interact are much different.
The south as a whole is much different than the west coast, and somewhat the midwest.
I think it ha a lot to do with almost all of the software being open source. Instead of having management and organized teams we have.. binary based distributions, package management, and other tools like configuration management.
In that context we're really just solving a management problem with engineering! Machines are pretty great at following procedure and ensuring consistency after all.
Saying that system administration is trivial is like saying your site being up/down is trivial.
Your level of concern can become more trivial when you pay someone else to worry about it.
this is almost exatcly how I learn. It is certainly the reason why I read hn, and associate with people who are generally much more experienced than I am (they're great friends of primarily).
I am still very much learning about programming in general, but the beat advice I ever got was this: just write programs any way you can, and learn what you did 'wrong'. there are always different ways to solve problems but the best way to get better is through practice.
its cool to see someone else (and by the comments, many others) doing the same thing I do.