For me, reading HN is like reading the paper or reading books about subjects that matter to me: it's not time strictly spent on the job I have to do, but it's part of a healthy information diet. Crunching code without taking a look at what's currently happening and being discussed in your professional community is hardly a recipe for self improvement. (It's a thin red line between healthy consumption and abuse, I kno…
Hacker News is the place where I come to learn about new technologies and to see where the industry itself is moving. There is something here for everyone, from CEOs to C++ programmers. Over the years, it has been a very valuable source of news. If you ignore the first 9 links about any new JS framework, it shouldn't take more than than 10min/day just to keep up with what is happening. Or is this just not true in you…
On an average workday though, I look at 3-5 posts and skim the articles. I often find more value in HN's discussion than the article itself.