It's weird that most of “Hacker” news is dominated by business news • Hacker News Board

Re: It's weird that most of “Hacker” news is dominated by business news

#251

Post by onethought » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 12:07 PM UTC

tomhoward wrote: post #233

onethought wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I agree with the GP here. A lot of discussion is US centric. Even to the point where people will bring up esoteric Prop-xx legal references and be upvoted as if that is at all relevant in a global context. I don’t believe the 10% number of SV participation. If it really is 10% I want to know the percentage of contributing commenters. For instance, I have seen very little Melbourne centric content at all here.…

> there should be a time period where Australian content dominates There is absolutely a time window when you’re more likely to see articles about Australia here; late afternoon and evening when people in the US should be asleep (notwithstanding the number of insomniac hackers likely to exist in a country of 330M people). Recently there have been big discussions about the Vic earthquake, the Vic/NSW pandemic response…

A second point, there is a huge Asian tech scene that feels very under represented here. I’m going to guess that’s more to do with there probably being cooler Chinese language versions of HN out there… but I don’t know.

There is just as much tech/innovation/startups happening in China… but you wouldn’t know reading HN.

Re: It's weird that most of “Hacker” news is dominated by business news

#252

Post by gandutraveler » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 12:52 PM UTC

Engineering especially software just like DJing used to be for geeks. That's no longer the case, now it's become hip. Thanks to how easy it is to pick up coding these days. Look at the founders background at YC companies shift over the years. The issue is when there is lack of forums for geeks, we as a society stop innovating.

Re: It's weird that most of “Hacker” news is dominated by business news

#253

Post by Pick-A-Hill2019 » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 1:08 PM UTC

onethought wrote: post #251

tomhoward wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there should be a time period where Australian content dominates There is absolutely a time window when you’re more likely to see articles about Australia here; late afternoon and evening when people in the US should be asleep (notwithstanding the number of insomniac hackers likely to exist in a country of 330M people). Recently there have been big discussions about the Vic earthquake, the Vic/NSW pandemic response…

A second point, there is a huge Asian tech scene that feels very under represented here. I’m going to guess that’s more to do with there probably being cooler Chinese language versions of HN out there… but I don’t know. There is just as much tech/innovation/startups happening in China… but you wouldn’t know reading HN.

Why not be the change you want to see? Submitting articles is free and really easy.

Re: It's weird that most of “Hacker” news is dominated by business news

#254

Post by xyzzy21 » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 1:19 PM UTC

It's not really surprising.

Engineering (which most programming is) is the economic application of scientific knowledge for human value/advantage.

Thus that implies several things:

• the core engineering is defined by economics, psychology, sociology, etc. at least 50% with technical/scientific knowledge/skills being the other 50%

• the money engineering generates is subject to human need and preference which is why the above liberal arts areas matter

• competitive value to the customer defines all projects, all hires and all salaries and decisions are only partially rational even with rational R&D, buying and selling processes

• factors that define the negotiation of value for price involve soft sciences which are messy but completely unavoidable. Those of us who "excel" in those areas have realized this and learned skills related.

• all of this is what "business" actually is!

• thus if you do software seriously, you also should be serious about business - this is analogous to Alan Kay's quote: "people who are serious about software should build their own hardware".

If you want "purity", become a scientist - nominally they don't care about anything but the purity/attainment of knowledge. But that alone does NOT pay well. That's why there are 200+ PhDs in physics waiting for each US tenured university position but companies doing engineering can't get enough and pay for that.

Science is only 100 years old as a profession. Engineering is many 1000s of years old because it has practical application which everyone else in society can easily agree to fund.

Re: It's weird that most of “Hacker” news is dominated by business news

#255

Post by vultour » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 1:48 PM UTC

errantmind wrote: post #78

It is obvious to anyone who has been here for a while that this community is in decline, in the sense that it has less depth, less quirkiness, and less 'real' diversity of opinion (although dang does a good job of stemming the tide). The 'hivemind' has emerged here to squash contrasting positions. The funny thing is, no one thinks they are a part of this emergent 'hivemind' but the end result is the same.

I noticed an increasing number of flagged comments that do not violate any guidelines lately. I feel like it's slowly approaching the state of Reddit where unwelcome opinions are quickly removed. One would expect this to happen in polarising discussions such as politics, but interestingly it's happening on random tech topics as well.

Re: It's weird that most of “Hacker” news is dominated by business news

#256

Post by emerged » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 1:50 PM UTC

newsbinator wrote: post #156

errantmind wrote: post #78

It is obvious to anyone who has been here for a while that this community is in decline, in the sense that it has less depth, less quirkiness, and less 'real' diversity of opinion (although dang does a good job of stemming the tide). The 'hivemind' has emerged here to squash contrasting positions. The funny thing is, no one thinks they are a part of this emergent 'hivemind' but the end result is the same.

I’m guessing the hive mind largely lurks and doesn’t post or comment.

I read daily but rarely feel compelled to comment. Those relatively rare comments also rarely receive an up or down vote. I’m generally amazed how often the more prolific posters comment.

Re: It's weird that most of “Hacker” news is dominated by business news

#257

Post by ksec » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 1:54 PM UTC

hobofan wrote: post #231

ksec wrote: post #19

This is strange, are we even reading the same front page? ( I am pretty sure HN dont have personalised front page ) I just ran through the first 100 Front page times and there are barely any business related news. I also dont see how the community here sometimes tilts more towards business than technology. Other than some rare news on another Unicorn, Public Listing, earning from FAANG. There has rarely been any busi…

You are right, as of the moment of writing this, there is next to no "business news" on the FP right now. Anecdotally, I would claim that there is a lot more non-tech content during the week, and mostly tech content on the weekends (see for yourself via the "past" link at the top).

I think it is fair to say, non-tech / business / economics / stocks ( and as well as politics ) etc tends to get more during the week because that is how the news and PR cycle works. i.e Business aren't going to publish their quarterly results during weekends, economics forecast etc get there by mid week ( Monday is never a good to start PR ).

So may be if you only ever go on HN during weekdays, the amount of business entries could be a little higher, but generally speaking I still believe HN aren't anywhere business focus at all. ( If it was I wouldn't have to rant about Supply Chain and Operation management every time the topic comes up )

Re: It's weird that most of “Hacker” news is dominated by business news

#258

Post by dotancohen » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 2:02 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #216

dotancohen wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say that. He pulled his country out of the very abusive Versaille treaty, had he stopped there he would today be regarded a hero by all sides. I'll leave it at that!

He didn't stop there.

Right, that is why I had to word my comment very carefully.

Re: It's weird that most of “Hacker” news is dominated by business news

#259

Post by tomhoward » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 2:04 PM UTC

onethought wrote: post #251

tomhoward wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there should be a time period where Australian content dominates There is absolutely a time window when you’re more likely to see articles about Australia here; late afternoon and evening when people in the US should be asleep (notwithstanding the number of insomniac hackers likely to exist in a country of 330M people). Recently there have been big discussions about the Vic earthquake, the Vic/NSW pandemic response…

A second point, there is a huge Asian tech scene that feels very under represented here. I’m going to guess that’s more to do with there probably being cooler Chinese language versions of HN out there… but I don’t know. There is just as much tech/innovation/startups happening in China… but you wouldn’t know reading HN.

There's been loads of discussion about the China's tech ecosystem on HN over many years. Of course a lot of it is politically charged, due largely to the actions of national governments and a few people's over-enthusiasm to get caught up in political battles (and it doesn't help that HN is blocked by China's firewall, along with language and cultural barriers). But there's also been plenty of discussion here between ordinary people about what's going on there.

And there are always plenty of Show HNs and other discussions from elsewhere in Asia, particularly India of course, but also Japan and Singapore.

Much of it you may not be aware of, as it's often not explicitly stated in titles or intros.

Re: It's weird that most of “Hacker” news is dominated by business news

#260

Post by Phileosopher » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 2:28 PM UTC

corobo wrote: post #238

beowulfey wrote: post #221

Perhaps this goes against most commenters here, but I find HN to be an appropriate mix of both that has not changed much with time. Reading that link of Hacker News from 15 years ago feels little different from what it is today. This contrasts dramatically with the Reddit of 10-15 years ago vs what it is like today. Discussion here is also still very high quality. I find it remarkable.

This sounds bad but mild shame helps keep a community working Any time someone hits out with a pun or whatever comment someone will say "this isn't reddit" and the comment is made hard to read - over time I have to imagine that has helped keep it from becoming reddit Of course I am also burying the lede a bit. Paid and dedicated (I think?) moderators is an absolute key factor too

Paid, not sure, but I've lurked around here enough to verify the dedication. The mods not only curate and consolidate multiple links (e.g., 3+ things that said Facebook was down this last week), but they also openly communicate what they did.