The news is Google layoffs and is interesting to many how the culture of such a large and influential tech company has changed. The person laid off is also a known OSS author (Subversion). If you don’t find it interesting you can just move on you know? Many others find these posts interesting and that’s enough according to HN guidelines.
I think the comment you're replying to is quite literal. A lot of Googlers and ex-Googlers read this site and they are more likely to upvote these kinds of posts.
