I budget 60mins a day max to HN and other sources. I dont have to use it but I can spend at most 60m on it. Either contiguous or spread out. Also, take every thing I read from these sources with adequate doses of salt.
Ask HN: Do you consider Hacker News to be a positive/useful use of your time?
21–30 of 105 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you consider Hacker News to be a positive/useful use of your time?
#22When I started reading Hacker News I learned a lot from the articles I read on here. At one point when I launched my freelance career (around 2012), I got a great freelance gig here with a startup that was really good experience.
These days I still check HN every day, but for some reason I find most of the content dull or uninspiring, and the seeking job/freelancer postings are less interesting. Moderation is still awesome though.
Re: Ask HN: Do you consider Hacker News to be a positive/useful use of your time?
#23The big danger with HN is that it's pretty one-sided, and reading it affects you even if you are aware of that fact. So while it's good to keep on top of tech news and tech politics, there's little beyond that. Our world is so rich, and I feel that by reading HN only you miss out on a lot.
You guys got any recommendations about useful/interesting knowledge about other topics that are good reads?
Re: Ask HN: Do you consider Hacker News to be a positive/useful use of your time?
#24It keeps me informed but it definitely has a few negative qualities. - I seem to spend too much time on it. Obsessively checking it. Reading the comments. I recognize the behavior from when I was frequenting Slashdot back in the day. It definitely has some addictive qualities and I need to force myself to stop reading it so often. - The debate is a lot less fun than Slashdot used to be. I kind of miss the silliness.…
You should see the Blind community. HN is way better, but yes... everything you mention is true.
Re: Ask HN: Do you consider Hacker News to be a positive/useful use of your time?
#25No.
Re: Ask HN: Do you consider Hacker News to be a positive/useful use of your time?
#26No, it's time wasting. But it's not as bad as Reddit is.
Re: Ask HN: Do you consider Hacker News to be a positive/useful use of your time?
#27Yes.
1. I sometimes stumble upon random strangers who do something related to what I'm researching or working on and usually you can just comment and they will reply. This level of accessibility to the actual tech people is rare. Imagine trying to reach a Google software engineer through their end-user support channel. Won't happen. But you might e-meet the same person here.
2. It's great for conversation topics with peers, especially if all of you check the headlines in the morning.
3. I just love the long-term prediction articles and especially their discussions. Of course, the predictions will most likely turn out wrong. But understanding how people reached those predictions can be very valuable for making sense of the arguably messy tech landscape affecting all of us.
Re: Ask HN: Do you consider Hacker News to be a positive/useful use of your time?
#28I skim in the morning for "News".
I avoid otherwise because of the "Hacker" (i.e. tech bro) vibes.
Re: Ask HN: Do you consider Hacker News to be a positive/useful use of your time?
#29Of all the developer sites I go to that are not pure Q&A, HN has the best signal to noise ratio: Lots of folks with interesting backgrounds often add insights, explanations, and rebuttals in generally polite and informative comments.
I also check the 'new' postings (see top of the page). Often times, there are interesting posts in there that for one reason or another don't get enough traction early to make it to the first couple of pages. But they have interesting content. It's also, in a small way, a service to the community to get in there and upvote worthwhile content.
Re: Ask HN: Do you consider Hacker News to be a positive/useful use of your time?
#30Almost every sufficiently small unit of time here is a complete waste. However, over a longer timescale I find it useful. I kinda look at it like a webring for discovering points of view I wouldn't otherwise stumble across. And some comments are insightful.
My biggest gripes are the endless "rewriting X in Y" stories and the comments from people who are smart in their own field who think that any other field is amenable to their armchair reasoning.