Ask HN: What tangible benefits did you get from spending time on HN?

Like many others, I launched my startup here, and yes we got tons of traffic that week. There is another benefit, which is the validation that comes with having been at the top of HN.

It is very powerful to be able to say: “my Show HN post was at #1 for over 12 hours”. [1] It tells potential funders/partners that your idea is very popular in a community that they respect.

I have also found a couple important partners through HN. In December, I was deep in a thread when I saw a comment mentioning an extensible iOS browser that a YC company was soon to launch. [2] I reached out and they’re now one of our partners. Ditto for a popular podcast website. [3]

HN has a lot of visitors who are willing to embrace new things, and who are fast-moving. This can be very valuable if you’re looking for early adopters and partners.

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6335784

2: https://www.insightbrowser.com

3: https://programaudioseries.com

I was cured of a decade long chronic pain by reading a comment on Hacker news about TMS and Dr.John Sarno. Then a few people who read my comment also commented the same happened to them as they too had been cured of debilitating illness and chronic pains (one HNer said he was contemplating suicide because how bad his pains were but was cured just reading about it in the book).

I generally don't like to post about it anymore but since you want to know if HN got you money, power, etc. All I can say is reading HN got me my health and life back.

I've only got 1/3rd the HN Internet Points. But I write a lot of comments here.

I feel like a lot of people actually read the comments here, and consider them, and may change their mind. I've seen enough conversations where someone says something, another person argues something different, and the first person agrees and thanks; and ocassionally, I see that person bringing it up with the new state of mind in future threads.

So, while "someone on the internet is wrong, I must correct them" is generally a fruitless endeavor, it seems somewhat fruitful here. I get good vibes from helping other people in that way.

Also, I am sometimes corrected and I get good vibes from learning new things. Ocassionally, you can rant about something related and say it doesn't make sense or isn't documented, and someone will point you at the documentation.

Do I spend too much time here? Probably. But it's a better time suck than many other places. I try to stay out of the political threads, although not always successfully (rule of thumb, it it's 100+ posts and not connected to my technical experience, don't click, or if you do click, just skim for current events knowledge)

Also: HN loads fast almost always, and has the best chance of loading in poor conditions compared to anyother site I might want to look at.

My Show HN[0] got to the front-page and I received amazing feedback from HN users. I also made several sales from that post and I received an outstanding exit offer (I didn't accept it).

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24746921

If you're looking for money, fame, or love - so-called "tangible benefits" - you're in the wrong place.

It's a stimulating way to spend some reading time, with intellectual debate, tech news, snippets of insider information from those in-the-know.. Plenty of fluff but occasional and consistent inspiration and thoughts from genuine people deep in their niche domains.