The only observation I think I can add to the previous discussion of status (although no one mentioned it in an evolutionary context), is simply the fact that commenters on LW are not having face to face conversations. Because it takes hours for someone to respond to a comment, actually discussing the problem as thoroughly as you could in five minutes of conversation would take weeks on LW! So, I think the people who actually try to consider, then solve the problem likely do it on their own, sitting in front of the computer monitor, before typing up their post.
The only observation I think I can add to the previous discussion of status (although no one mentioned it in an evolutionary context), is simply the fact that commenters on LW are not having face to face conversations. Because it takes hours for someone to respond to a comment, actually discussing the problem as thoroughly as you could in five minutes of conversation would take weeks on LW! So, I think the people who actually try to consider, then solve the problem likely do it on their own, sitting in front of the computer monitor, before typing up their post.