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Ask HN: What has HN given you?

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51–60 of 602 posts

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#54
While I don't have any direct benefits to enlist, I'm sure there are multiple indirect benefits. I come here, when I am lost without knowing what to do. I'm one of those who reads the comments first and then the articles. So HN acts as a 2 layer curation filter. I came across Andrew Ng's course here on HN and that was an eye-opener, changed my career trajectory. I've learned a lot about parenting, entrepreneurship and startups. I don't live in Silicon Valley, so for an outsider, HN is a good window into SV as well.

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#55
post #53

A reading list that I'll never be able to get through. Is there a service that turns reading lists to mp3s?

On the Mac there's already a service that will read texts and PDF's etc. You may have to install similar things on your UX or Windoze computer.

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#56
A place to hang out (as it were) on the internet that is...

...connected to the tech scene

...ad-free

...not a "social network" in the usual data-harvesting sense

...slim, fast-loading, not riddled with bloat and bullshit

...not plagued quite so badly as the rest of the society "out there" by certain degenerate tendencies in what passes for discourse

...more interested in ideas and substance than in what color car the ideas and substance drove up in (and other black magic)

That's really it - that's enough. I didn't get anything cool like a job, but I know there's loads of info here for that too!

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#58

HackerNews gives me the freedom to say contrarian things without instantly being down-voted to hell. HackerNews also encourages me to be level-headed and polite. The mods here are mature and are relatively unbiased. I like this one intellectual feed over Reddit's many frivolous subreddits. Does the subreddit differentiation tend to attract low quality mods and users? Probably. But Idk.

If contrarian debate includes technical debate, I learned that I enjoy reading the counter arguments for programming solutions that I'd probably not learn about, if for any reason I am by experience or knowledge or style or ability, the longer in tooth or lesser as is inevitable in this Cambrian explosion of the web, if I'm going to instinctively assume that I would take another approach to the similar goal. Learning about the depth and even shallowness of the industry that touches large database installations has been most eye opening, in a good way, to this fifth decade enterprise maven. This, and comparing my experience with start-up in the early nineties, and generally the sheer variety of voices, keeps me returning

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#59
The YC seed accelerator model remains the most effective blueprint for generating startups from ideas. Pay heed to the lessons contained herein. And the keys to the kingdom will lie well within your grasp ;)

Also. HN is a phenomenal user experience on Mobile Web (Android/Chrome). Superlative readability. Lowest possible bandwith to informational value ratio. And a never-ending well of mental stimulation and ethical provocation.

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#60
post #31

It gave me a job, a company, and a sense of purpose. In 2012 I did a Show HN for GitLab.com https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4428278 Today we are 1800 contributors and a company of 220 on a mission to ensure that everyone can contribute.

You have definitely constructed a great piece of software. GitLab has been a godsend for development workflows at our organization, and I’ve been watching it since that same Show HN so congratulations! That’s a very inspiring example.
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