Just curious about the economics of karma. For me, it takes so much mental energy just to even read a typical link shared on HN, so I usually skim through it and read the comments. So naturally got curious how much time do people spend if they have active discussions about topics here.
Ask HN: For users with 10k+ karma, how much time do you spend on HN?
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Re: Ask HN: For users with 10k+ karma, how much time do you spend on HN?
#2For me it's not like an "investment" but a hobby, and then points just add up but idc much.
Re: Ask HN: For users with 10k+ karma, how much time do you spend on HN?
#3Depends. When I’m working in a language a that doesn’t compile or a project with fast tests, very little time. When I’m working in Java or Swift, ages.
Re: Ask HN: For users with 10k+ karma, how much time do you spend on HN?
#4FYI: 10000 karma / (365 * 5 years) = 5.4 karma per day
Re: Ask HN: For users with 10k+ karma, how much time do you spend on HN?
#5When I was back in college it was something like 2-3 hours a day (one can only pay so much attention to their professor’s wildly incorrect understanding of how C works…). I have more places to split my time these days so I probably average 10-30 minutes, with high variance depending on how busy I am on any given day.
Re: Ask HN: For users with 10k+ karma, how much time do you spend on HN?
#6I just buy my karma from dang. YC is obviously having some hard times at the moment so it's a win-win really.
Re: Ask HN: For users with 10k+ karma, how much time do you spend on HN?
#7I didn’t pay attention to karma for a while then started using it as a proxy for whether I have comment replies (like Reddit’s orangered mail icon).
I haven’t counted my comments, but I expect that I spend 20-60 minutes per day and maybe read 25 articles and comment on 10 a day.
I cut out next about 5 years ago and spend much less time on Reddit now that they got rid of their old mobile site. So this serves as my news substitute and “community” and market research for work (to learn about new data and tech software and companies to try out). And I don’t use any social media.
It does take mental energy to read and discuss, but that’s where I choose to focus and think it’s worthwhile. I find it better for mood and would just get angry after using social media or reading rage news, so this is a way to charge up and learn not only from the topics but from the thoughtful comments.
I first used the internet in 1994 and was a bit late for the well and early online communities, but I like the idea of people connected together working on a common good. HN isn’t that or anything but I feel like there are others with a similar mindset.
Re: Ask HN: For users with 10k+ karma, how much time do you spend on HN?
#8Hardly any. I dip in from time to time.
I tend to only comment on things I'm knowledgeable about or have reflected on, or that overlap to my experience. As such the comments tend to be relevant and to some degree insightful, and they get upvotes.
I'm not really aware of karma until someone IRL knows the site and is shocked by the number being high.
There's little worth in the karma. This morning I read a really insightful comment by someone with barely 600 karma (noticed as I was trying to figure out what they might be working on it interested in that gave them the perspective/experience). High karma doesn't feel valuable to game.
Re: Ask HN: For users with 10k+ karma, how much time do you spend on HN?
#9Between 20-45 minutes per day; although I am still waiting for an offer to redeem my karma for Silicon Valley VC big bucks ;)
Re: Ask HN: For users with 10k+ karma, how much time do you spend on HN?
#10The first rule of karma: don’t care about karma ;)
That said I got around 14k and I’m not spending an awful lot of time on HN on a regular basis (less than an hour daily, passive, reading). Posting, like now, is something I maybe do weekly.
But I’ve been here for years. Small upvotes over time do count.