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Ask HN: What is the best thing you learnt or got out of Hacker News?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you learnt or got out of Hacker News?

#51

Post by raldi »

interestica wrote: post #30
raldi wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. Living in SF, where self-driving cars are a constant daily sight, I recently went back and read a HN thread from five years ago with comments like, “I work in the industry. There’s no way you’re going to be seeing them in 5-10 years.” Someone should do a roundup of these kind of posts: the Dropbox announcement, etc

There was a comment 10 years ago about Facebook's acquisition of Instagram comparing it to Google/Youtube which was especially notable because it asked readers to "check back in 2022". ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3818055 ) > This is not going to be one of the best tech acquisitions of the next decade. > Instagram is a photo service in a sea of other photo services. The interesting thing to me was their com…

Both the YouTube and Instagram acquisitions gave me a feeling of, “This is either going to be the best acquisition of its generation or the worst.”

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you learnt or got out of Hacker News?

#52

Post by [deleted] »

dontcontactme wrote: post #31
PreInternet01 wrote: post #23

If you're always disagreeing with everyone about everything , first check (and if necessary install) the CO2 detectors in your primary living space. If symptoms persist, talk to a mental health professional -- even if you're in a locale that doesn't value such things, this tends to be surprisingly affordable. And, in the end, also surprisingly helpful.

my friend, CO2 is a natural part of the atmosphere and is emitted from your mouth with every breath you take. Carbon monoxide (CO) is the dangerous gas that you are thinking of.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you learnt or got out of Hacker News?

#54

Post by TRiG_Ireland »

arbitrage wrote: post #39
TRiG_Ireland wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self-driving cars are still a terrible idea; and there's a reason why SF has famously terrible urban design.

> and there's a reason why SF has famously terrible urban design. ... which is?

Mostly, a lack of imagination due to severe car brain.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you learnt or got out of Hacker News?

#55

Post by __rito__ »

The learning resources people share here are fantastic and leveled me up by a lot.

Whether it is SICP, Conway's Game of Life book, great MOOCs in Coursera or whatever!

My life has been changed by the gems of learning resources shared as submissions and comments.

And not only text or text-like material, the amount of good books I have found in the comments here are better than all other communities combines. I cannot put up a complete list- I found about Neal Stephenson from HN, and Cryptonomicon is in my top-5 novels. I also loved Diamond Age. I learned to meditate with Culadasa's book which I came to know about in HN comments. Not exaggerating, my life has taken a good turn because of meditation. I can spend at least the next five years reading great fiction and nonfiction recommended here.

I also come to know about many mental models, methods, etc. which have made me better.

I was born in a middle class family, and never was poor. But these were all unknown to me. HN has been an equalizer for me.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you learnt or got out of Hacker News?

#56

Post by checkyoursudo »

solardev wrote: post #48
checkyoursudo wrote: post #24

That I could do a Ph.D. even though I am over 40. Then I went for it. No regrets.

Good for you!! Was there a particular thread that discussed this?

I don't remember a specific one, or a specific tipping point. And of course it wasn't just people here that influenced me. But this place, with so many curious people, motivated people, was a pretty good positive reinforcement for me. There have been discussions over the years about people getting PhDs in their later years or even in retirement, people changing careers at late ages, starting companies even though no longer childless and carefree, things like that, that helped motivate me.

It wasn't so much about why any of them did it. That is really personal to each individual and not motivating, I think. More that people have succeeded in doing it was what I needed to see.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you learnt or got out of Hacker News?

#57

Post by TacticalCoder »

dirtybirdnj wrote: post #10

It provides me with a sense of community that I lack in my life. I am driven by technology but not a lot of other people in my life are interested in these things. It's often providing me with "restore faith in humanity" experiences when I see exchanges in the comments where the worst impulses of humanity are expressed, and someone will respond with an eloquent and well articulated rebuttal to the insanity that socie…

> It provides me with a sense of community that I lack in my life. I am driven by technology but not a lot of other people in my life are interested in these things.

You should try to find meet ups and/or hacker spaces if you live near an actual city. I've been to several countries and have always been able to find those (well, ok, except when I was in rural France with the closest real city a 1h30+ min drive or so).

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you learnt or got out of Hacker News?

#58

Post by JohnnyIrish1956 »

In 2015 I stumbled upon the empathic reaction of Iranians on 9/11. From the article that had photos and cites from credible international newspapers to back it up, I browsed more on the blog and was fascinated by the photos. This was really an eye opening experience for me, understanding that we should not base our full view on news programs on TV, and I started to read more travel blogs to learn from travellers about foreign countries. The original article was this one: https://theotheriran.com/2015/09/12/irans-exceptional-reacti... I can recommend everyone to skim the photos, covering many aspect of Iranians lives that we cannot imagine.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you learnt or got out of Hacker News?

#59

Post by cyberge99 »

zingababba wrote: post #14

I have HN showing up in it's own tab in Feedly. Just click on the stuff that's interesting. It gives a /decent/ pulse on what's going on. There are sometimes nuggets of gold in the comments. For actual technical content Lobste.rs is a superior source though IMO.

Is that still invite only? Anyone have an invite to share?

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you learnt or got out of Hacker News?

#60

Post by Gibbon1 »

JohnnyIrish1956 wrote: post #58

In 2015 I stumbled upon the empathic reaction of Iranians on 9/11. From the article that had photos and cites from credible international newspapers to back it up, I browsed more on the blog and was fascinated by the photos. This was really an eye opening experience for me, understanding that we should not base our full view on news programs on TV, and I started to read more travel blogs to learn from travellers abou…

I had a Iranian girl sitting next to me in one of my classes during the Iranian hostage crisis. I can not not think of her sitting there in class as students would go off about what they wanted to do to Iran.

Drove home to me that the small groups of people that run all the various countries have their agendas and spats with each other that have little to do with the interests of the populous.

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