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Ask HN: What has HN given you?

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Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#501
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dropbox had about 60 if I remember right (109 now) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 .

it's a weird metric. Obviously a TOTALLY different league, but I have a small text editor plugin that got < 10 upvotes, and how has 500,000 installs. don't think I ever posted.it anywhere else.

My gut says low number of upvotes are probably indicative of a "thing people don't know they need" opportunity.

Can't imagine there are too many 100+ upvote use cases that don't already have substantial competition.

So 10-100 is probably a sweet spot in terms of "people are interested" and "there's an unfulfilled opportunity."

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#502
post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry if I made you feel bad. I just feel very uncomfortable with the massive invasion of privacy and submission of all the OP's details to the police (which is a record that can hurt him later) and I don't know how to personally reconcile that with his being ok with the outcome. I fully admit I view this through my own clouded lens. I can understand how someone outside would think it's the "right" thing to do but I…

I agree. It is very unsettling to hear that a stranger "stalked the s t out of you" and i would prefer direct help. > Regarding suicidal thoughts, they ARE normal for many people and perfectly rational given their conditions and length of suffering. It's not an attitude problem or something therapy or pills can fix. Sometimes those things can help COPE temporarily but it's not a fix of the root cause. I know it's har…

I wish you all the luck and hope I didn't belittle your situation. I am glad you had the opportunity to turn it around. I am also envious and was surely reacting partially because of that and the frustration of my own life. I have had close friends who were able to dig out of various kinds of holes and the universal truth was they had access to various options...social systems, family, were physically healthy and had the option to change environments etc. Not everyone has the same available paths to recover and I often, maybe unfairly, get frustrated with people imagining it's like that and if "that guy can do it so can you so why aren't you doing it?" and they just refuse to see the confirmation bias.

I don't think there is anything wrong with giving therapy a try if one is depressed or has other issues. My problem is people seem to focus on that and pills rather than the underlying issue...whether that be physical illness, money troubles, no support network whatever. When someone is suicidal people react with this idea the fix is psychiatric care. I disagree with that entirely for the majority of cases. If the boat has a huge hole in it you need to plug the hole before you can effectively bail and dry things out...otherwise it's a losing battle and all the positive attitude, introspection, and coping skills in the world won't keep you above water and you are just avoiding reality while drowning. Some people get through it to the end like that...I have not been able to.

I am frustrated mostly because I know I could at least live out life if the conditions were right. I will never be truly happy or have my dreams fulfilled because my physical health is permanently damaged, but I COULD realistically survive and not feel this terrible if I could only access the conditions that are just on the other side of an ideological, political wall so close I can see them. So it goes for countless people...lest I sound like it's all about me.

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#503
post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate the input dang (your username always makes me chuckle in a good way), but I have said enough already on HN it would be trivial to connect the dots. I need to think about how to proceed. I probably shouldn't have said anything and in the end the OP is better off so that's a win, things seem to poke me a little harder than they probably should anymore and I know my perspective is not some universal truth.

Ok. If there's anything we can do to help, let us know at hn@ycombinator.com.

You're a good person dang...thanks.

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few of my favourites: Low level optimization - nkurz BeeOnRope dragontamer Programming Languages - pcwalton jordwalke chrisseaton Other people who work on well-known things that comment frequently: jblow (The Witness, Braid) phire (The Dolphin Emulator) pizlonator (Webkit/JSC) I made a web app just so I could subscribe and read all their comments via RSS: http://hnblogs.thume.ca/

I would add Radim (Gensim, Data Science) I was pretty excited when he responded to my comment one time

Hadley Wickham (R & beautiful API's for data stuff) once replied to my comment about buying a dead tree copy of his book and recommended the HTML version.

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people I know invested in still talk about it as a currency. We talk transaction rates and all that, but they are still convinced it is the "money of the future." So I think a lot still luck out. There are clear market manipulations. But that's why I still stay out. I do not see it as a missed opportunity.

I take issue with the term 'invest' being used here. When somebody invests in something, they expect returns to come in the form of dividends, interest, or something of the sort. When somebody buys something because they expect to sell it later at a higher price, they aren't investing, they're speculating

> When somebody buys something because they expect to sell it later at a higher price

I guess I should dump my AMZN, GOOG, and FB stock. I can't believe what I could have been thinking when I put money in such a speculative product like Amazon. Add in Berkshire Hathaway, and 4 of the top 10 largest companies in the world don't pay out. Between the 4 of them, they account for more than 10% of the S&P500, and they are just 4 of the nearly 100 companies in the S&P500 that don't pay dividends.

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#506
post #224
post #14

I've been through a lot of web communities. HN is easily the most intellectual, respectful, and diverse. The simple reason is that we like to be here! In the same way that it takes a village to raise a child, your understanding of the world around you is drastically deepened by various points of view. I don't expect to find a better village anytime soon.

I remember when I first joined that I really liked how people who disagree here do not downvote but rather challenge you through a comment. It was a nice change from reddit... But times have changed and people love to downvote here these days.

Honest question: how do you know? There doesn't seem to be any public voting data available. Is this just an impression you have?

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#508
I have been reading HN regularly for 10 years. It has taught me everything I needed to know to get started. I applied to YC 4 times, got rejected 3 times, crashed one startup and ultimately found my current cofounder through the YC community.

HN is not perfect, but I am incredibly grateful for everything it has given me. Like so many here, I couldn’t have done it without Hacker News :)

To this day, the advice I give anyone who wants to get into technology or starting a company is to read everything on HN for 3 months and to look up all the things you don’t understand.

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#509

Saved a life. About 5 years ago a friend was kidnapped by Indian police on behalf of their parents who were trying to gain custody of them, in India, on a Friday evening. By the time they landed in Delhi on Saturday, HN had helped me and another prominent user here find a lawyer to take the case. When the case was heard first thing Monday morning the lawyer demolished it and this friend regained their freedom (and ha…

Sounds familiar. Thank you Daniel, for all you've done.

In case anybody is wondering about what this refers to:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4739649

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#510
post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could make a throwaway account. It's legit to do that when there's sensitive information in a post, and many people have reached out to the community that way when in a hard spot. tevlon didn't do it that way, which is fine too of course, but you could.

I appreciate the input dang (your username always makes me chuckle in a good way), but I have said enough already on HN it would be trivial to connect the dots. I need to think about how to proceed. I probably shouldn't have said anything and in the end the OP is better off so that's a win, things seem to poke me a little harder than they probably should anymore and I know my perspective is not some universal truth.

If I can help in any way feel free to mail me.
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