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

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

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some good subreddits out there. r/experienceddevs springs to mind

I enjoy Reddit, but it's just not designed for smaller communities in my opinion. The tricky thing with reddit is that it's algorithm tuned for a daily churn. A small sub, like the one you mentioned, may only have a couple good posts a week, but you will miss them if you don't check every day. If you only browse the frontpage of your subscribed subreddits, adding any popular subreddits tend to drown out the smaller o…

A couple workarounds for that:

- Multireddits—you could put ‘slow’ subreddits into a multi that you'll check separately.

- RSS feeds, if they still work.

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

#256
The value in HN for me lies in the comments. I mostly don’t read the articles because I feel the comment quality is often a lot higher. Here I have the unique opportunity to read what a significant number of very very bright minds with a lot of experience in tech have to say about a certain topic. Nowhere else in my life do I have the opportunity to hear what a so diverse, experienced, global and intelligent group of people has to say about any given topic and I have to admit that this has given me much more with respect to developing my own thoughts and understanding the world than any exchange with a coworker or any other social media platform.

I have learned new hobbies, new programming languages, I constantly challenge myself and learn new aspects of my work, I had great and interesting political discussions, I found great advice for career and handling bosses and colleagues, I got into new interesting topics, I developed and challenged my view on things in the world, and last but not least, I found my true passion to which I probably otherwise would not have been exposed as much.

I think HN is such a unique opportunity, especially for people like me, who are not from the US tech scene, to engage with and be part of a global community if like-minded, interested, interesting, and rational people. I am so glad I found this place.

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

#259
post #256

The value in HN for me lies in the comments. I mostly don’t read the articles because I feel the comment quality is often a lot higher. Here I have the unique opportunity to read what a significant number of very very bright minds with a lot of experience in tech have to say about a certain topic. Nowhere else in my life do I have the opportunity to hear what a so diverse, experienced, global and intelligent group of…

+1 exactly my thoughts do you have notes of these comments? Just for spaced repetition to make it stay in memory forever.

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

#260
post #242

For me, HN gives a sort of window into the American SF techno views and mindset about the world. It's quite interesting to read their ideas and opinions. It's a bubble like other places but it doesn't mean you won't learn something.

Last I ran the numbers (which was a couple years ago) the HN community was at least 50% outside the US.

But the assumption is that the US userbase is concentrated in the bay area. So its mostly people in or near SF and the like.
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