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Ask HN: What is your content discovery daily routine?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your content discovery daily routine?

#41

Post by coldtea »

jazoom wrote: post #23
stefek99 wrote: post #18

OFFTOPIC: avoid it at all cost. Energy, time, attention, focus = the most valuable resources out there. Valuable content will find you anyway.

I don't know how valuable content would find me if I didn't have a routine for looking for it. Am I doing something wrong?

Yes, probably expecting too much content to find you, all being valuable.

Valuable content will be a very small minority of content.

What the parent means, is that you really need to know, will end up rising from the pile.

Take React as an example. A fine technology, which some might have known about them from 2015 or so, by reading HN every day etc.

But you really don't have too catch them that early -- nor is there that much of a benefit in doing so.

Even with cursory and rare glimpses on technology news sites, or conversations with colleagues, you'll end up learning about React at some point or another.

The "routine looking for valuable content" on the other hand, would just bring in tons of noise (short term fads that die off, useless fanboyism, etc).

Re: Ask HN: What is your content discovery daily routine?

#42

Post by Bobbleoxs »

Echo most what mentioned - add:

The Economist audio version - to cover a broad view of world affairs for general awareness but not in-depth analysis

Pocket - I use Pocket app which recommends based on articles I saved into it. Their AI seems good for relevancy.

Google/trends - hit and miss but occassionally useful stuff Medium digest - even less hit and miss but occassionally Project Syndicate - again, occassionally https://www.project-syndicate.org/

+HN of course - this is daily must

Re: Ask HN: What is your content discovery daily routine?

#44

Post by _delirium »

pjc50 wrote: post #27
stefek99 wrote: post #18

OFFTOPIC: avoid it at all cost. Energy, time, attention, focus = the most valuable resources out there. Valuable content will find you anyway.

Valueless content finds you. Worthwhile content you really have to go looking for, or have a good social network funneling stuff to you. My own answer is mostly HN, Twitter (including a couple of people/bots who are great link sources), and a mailing list of some old friends for this purpose. The latter is very good and low volume; eg latest post was from 18 July on org structure for software projects and lists https…

I agree you need to seek out worthwhile content, but I think it's a mistake (one I admittedly often make) to have a daily routine of browsing stuff like Twitter/HN/etc. to idly seek out such content. It's easy to feel this is productive when it wastes huge amounts of time and turns up a lot of low-quality content. Imo the low-volume mailing list you mention, and maybe a weekly routine of seeking out other information, is a better approach. Also, I've started going to the library at least once a week, and have been very happy with this new addition.

A good book is weirdly refreshing after reading a lot of the kind of quasi-technical blogs linked on HN. There's so much info! Going back to a Medium post feels like someone found one piece of information from a book (maybe two) and is drip-drip feeding it to you painfully slowly with a clickbait title. At least in the two areas where I most often read books (computer science, and tech history).

Re: Ask HN: What is your content discovery daily routine?

#45

Post by lettergram »

This is going to come off like a plug, but I really enjoy the webapp I wrote:

https://projectpiglet.com/

Im developing it for investing, and am about to release the first version of the robo-financial advisor.

However, in the process of developing it, I added the feature to follow topics. Then it sends users email updates of top news articles when either:

(A) Opinions on those topics change

(B) A spike in discussion occurs

That is to say, if bitcoins price goes up, the sentiment will be positive, but if the sentiment was already positive I wouldn't get notified. However, if for instance there was a recent coin split - I'd get notified because the sentiment would change.

Think of it as automated and accurate news curation.

To get the most recent news I used to visit HN every day, subreddits, and I follow blogs on Feedly. Now, the system I described actually targets my interest and sends me topics super well, so I don't have to scan HN or Reddit. Better than I thought it would, actually. I still visit HN obviously and will visit Reddit, but much less so and only when the topics I'm interested aren't changing (i.e. I'm not receiving an email of curated content).

The only pattern that hasn't changed are specific blogs such as loweringthebar.net which is still content I'm interested in, but not one that the piglet app I wrote can identify as interesting for me.

Re: Ask HN: What is your content discovery daily routine?

#46

Post by mjleino »

I read the Economist on paper to keep up with the world. There are multiple upsides I like about this approach.

- There's only so much to read per week, I can't unhealthily binge news through night. - There's a delay, most of the news are at least a couple of days old when the paper comes. I find it's a calming influence in the hectic world. Also, the reporting tends to be a bit more balanced vs. minute-by-minute live coverage. - It's on paper. There won't be any notification on it. I can throw the paper away, once done with it.

Re: Ask HN: What is your content discovery daily routine?

#47

Post by mrleinad »

deepakkarki wrote: post #11

I had the same problem of finding interesting blogs to read, so made a side project - https://www.discoverdev.io Curated and tagged list of top engineering blog articles everyday! Do check it out :)

Looks like a really nice project, but since you've been running it for a month now, I'd recommend switching to a weekly post. Otherwise, I think you might get burned or start skipping some days. Weekly is much more manageable in the long run.

Re: Ask HN: What is your content discovery daily routine?

#48

Post by coldtea »

boardmad wrote: post #33
stefek99 wrote: post #18

OFFTOPIC: avoid it at all cost. Energy, time, attention, focus = the most valuable resources out there. Valuable content will find you anyway.

Rubbish confirmation bias. Your experience does not represent a trend

That "energy, time, attention, focus" are the most valuable resources out there is not really arguable -- nor does it have anything to do with confirmation bias.

Nor is there much doubt that valuable content tends to trump shorter term fads and trends and find you in the end, even if you don't actively look for it. In fact, that's almost by definition, valuable content = stuff that endures over time, not the latest fad or nth "interesting" article that one can do without.

Re: Ask HN: What is your content discovery daily routine?

#49

Post by thefreedomfight »

Obligatory: HN, Reddit

I also use a Discord chatroom with me and a couple of my mates where we all post links from our various feeds. I introduced a Discord chatroom at work too and everyone seems to love it so it might be a good idea for you as well.

Also I do another music discovery / link discovery chatroom on https://www.jqbx.fm.

Long story short, I just realized I'm not very productive...

Re: Ask HN: What is your content discovery daily routine?

#50

Post by jazoom »

coldtea wrote: post #41
jazoom wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how valuable content would find me if I didn't have a routine for looking for it. Am I doing something wrong?

Yes, probably expecting too much content to find you, all being valuable. Valuable content will be a very small minority of content. What the parent means, is that you really need to know, will end up rising from the pile. Take React as an example. A fine technology, which some might have known about them from 2015 or so, by reading HN every day etc. But you really don't have too catch them that early -- nor is there…

Maybe I have a different life to you, but content doesn't just find me in this way. Would you believe, I have never actually met another serious programmer since I started coding about 5 years ago? I don't have "colleagues" to have conversations with.

I feel ridiculous even writing that.

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