Interesting comparison to Rand. When I read ZAMM I found the author's message to be diametrically opposed to that which I had taken from Rand.

Perhaps this just highlights how much of a work is what the observer brings to it, a la http://sivers.org/you-not-them.

I guess if I'd written this for Hacker News, I'd have included the phrase "hackers aren't wedding planners" somewhere. We don't just program, we think and sweat and worry and ultimately, hopefully, create something inherently beautiful and full of Quality.

"Here was a book in a pastel-green cover about a loony dude in the 1970′s cycling across the midwest to the west coast..."

Motorcycling, surely?