I did this with Reddit years ago when much of the front page was programming/computer-related. I realized it was an awesome subject, spent a lot of time trying to figure out what they were talking about, and eventually changed my major to software engineering.
Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it
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Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it
#12I did this with Reddit years ago when much of the front page was programming/computer-related. I realized it was an awesome subject, spent a lot of time trying to figure out what they were talking about, and eventually changed my major to software engineering.
I hope this site wont become reddit ;-)
The issue is that the communities are open and when it reaches a critical point, it all becomes like reddit/slashdot/whatnot as it will follow the majority of people's interest.
So let's hope, this site doesn't grow too much ;-)
Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it
#13Eternal September.
Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it
#14I think this is why I love listening to Build and Analyze by Marco - http://5by5.tv/buildanalyze
Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it
#15And even when you understand a lot about these technologies -- it can be a great reminder of things to dabble in and see if they fit your model of how you work. This week I jumped into using Less (a CSS tech like Sass) after noticing a post on it.
How happy I am -- Less (or a similar tech) is now going to be a permanent fixture in my webdev world!
Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it
#16Two years ago, when I started reading HN, I was a php programmer who didn't even know what functional programming was.
Now most of my personal projects are written in my new favorite language, Erlang. Sponge learning is awesome, specially when you supplement it with lots of hard work. Thanks HN.
Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it
#17Totally agree - I'm a complete newbie when it comes to tech but I am learning at a fast clip because of HN :)
Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it
#18Sponge learning is awesome, but you must always remember to act upon it. Knowing that CoffeeScript is hot in the web dev scene is great, but in the end it amounts to little more than industry gossip. True understanding comes from actually trying to do it yourself, technologies stop being buzzwords and they become tools. That said, kudos to the OP for trying to Learn Python the Hard Way!
Totally. Figuring out what to spend time on is definitely one of the hardest parts since there's so much out there. But reading and hacking on 4 chapters of the django book in a day taught me more than reading for a year.
Looking into diving into Django as well -- what Django book are you referring to, if I may ask?
Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it
#19Eternal September.
Are you really going to criticize someone for acknowledging that they're new and have stuff to learn?
Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it
#20Alex, thanks for the post. This is definitely how I read HN and the links to the learning resources has helped accelerate learning new material.