I am a technical person but probably (a good deal) older than average here on HN, and to be honest, I cannot fully agree to the statement "[...] seems to value smart, clear, concise, rational arguments, and sees through the BS" (unless the emphasis is on "seems").
Don't get me wrong, my point is certainly not that HN is the opposite of this description - I just don't find it very different here from other interactions I have. If anything, I sometimes get a bit of a "full-of-myself" vibe in some comments here, more than I'm used to.
Getting your point. Maybe the "other interactions" you have are on par with those here on HN and that begs the question, where do those interaction happen?
I've been working in computer science / computational linguistics departments of various universities / research institutes for pretty much all of my career.
I guess the usability of HN depends a lot on your age and where you are physically located. When I used to live in the Bay Area, the significance reduced for me because I was able to have roughly the same coversations with people I would meet on a daily basis.
Coming back to Europe, the same conversations cannot be found. Most of my peers in college dont know where Silicon Valley is located and even if they would, they are more interested in drinking booze and planning on when to do it. The only way I can remotely keep up with the headlines of what matters in the Bay Area is to read HN.
Don't get me wrong, my point is certainly not that HN is the opposite of this description - I just don't find it very different here from other interactions I have. If anything, I sometimes get a bit of a "full-of-myself" vibe in some comments here, more than I'm used to.
That's just a personal opinion, though.