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Ask HN: Is anyone else tired of reading the same articles?

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Ask HN: Is anyone else tired of reading the same articles?

#1

Post by emilepetrone »

I have spent the last hour reading articles from HN I've saved over the last few weeks. They are all the same. Lean startup this, A/B test that, Design is important, I failed, Build a community then revenues, etc.

After years of reading the same articles, I have learned very little. Everyone is repeating the same stories/advice, and, as a community, I don't see any progress.

Are we doomed to continuously repeat the same sad stories over and over again? Can we finally kick this habit? I don't know- but I am tired of reading the same articles written with slightly different adjectives.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else tired of reading the same articles?

#2

Post by spooneybarger »

There is a lot of articles on the same themes... which is reasonable, people aren't so unique that there won't be tons of overlap. You can choose to not keep reading A/B articules et al. Spend the time you have wasted reading the same things over and over again learning a new skill...

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else tired of reading the same articles?

#3

Post by emilepetrone »

spooneybarger wrote: post #2

There is a lot of articles on the same themes... which is reasonable, people aren't so unique that there won't be tons of overlap. You can choose to not keep reading A/B articules et al. Spend the time you have wasted reading the same things over and over again learning a new skill...

I think you are hitting at exactly what I'm so frustrated with - the goal of these articles is to help people learn a new skill/ learn from their mistake. However every few weeks, the same meme reappears. The Startup version of Groundhog Day.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else tired of reading the same articles?

#4

Post by wccrawford »

This site isn't set up to preserve knowledge. A newcomer hasn't really got anywhere to go to see all the accumulated knowledge, and they can't tell which old stories they should read to get that knowledge quickly.

As such, things will continue to be reposted over and over.

So yeah, the site is doomed to that scenario.

Instead of reading every story, read the first few comments. They'll tell you if anything new or interesting has been posted.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else tired of reading the same articles?

#8

Post by stcredzero »

emilepetrone wrote: post #3
spooneybarger wrote: post #2

There is a lot of articles on the same themes... which is reasonable, people aren't so unique that there won't be tons of overlap. You can choose to not keep reading A/B articules et al. Spend the time you have wasted reading the same things over and over again learning a new skill...

I think you are hitting at exactly what I'm so frustrated with - the goal of these articles is to help people learn a new skill/ learn from their mistake. However every few weeks, the same meme reappears. The Startup version of Groundhog Day.

Yes, but isn't the Startup world rather "Groundhog Day" by its very nature?

A founder might make some egregious mistakes the first time around. The next time, s/he can bring some of the experience forward to make things smoother. The 4th or 5th time around, a newcomer might marvel at their prescience.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else tired of reading the same articles?

#9

Post by macrael »

emilepetrone wrote: post #3
spooneybarger wrote: post #2

There is a lot of articles on the same themes... which is reasonable, people aren't so unique that there won't be tons of overlap. You can choose to not keep reading A/B articules et al. Spend the time you have wasted reading the same things over and over again learning a new skill...

I think you are hitting at exactly what I'm so frustrated with - the goal of these articles is to help people learn a new skill/ learn from their mistake. However every few weeks, the same meme reappears. The Startup version of Groundhog Day.

Merlin Mann got very frustrated with this same problem as it pertains to the GTD/Lifehack community. (where he felt that he was part of the problem.) He wrote this essay about it: http://www.merlinmann.com/better

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else tired of reading the same articles?

#10

Post by JayNeely »

I think you're suffering from confirmation bias. Certainly there's a lot of repeating content, but there's tons of new stuff on HN constantly.

An unfortunate habit I once noticed in myself was skipping over articles whose titles I didn't understand, even though if I want to learn about new things that's almost certainly the wrong way to go about it. You'll notice (and remember) what you're familiar with much more than what you're not.

If you really want to increase the diversity of content on HN, spend more time on the new page. There are ~25 links submitted in the past couple of hours (on a Sunday). Probably 80% of submitted links receive fewer than 5 upvotes, but there's tons of great stuff in there that simply doesn't get upvoted quickly enough to get a front-page vote-boost.

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