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Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

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Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#61

Post by EnderMB »

quaunaut wrote: post #2

This honestly makes me pretty curious. I thought the 25-34 range would be larger, especially compared to other sites that seem to have a much less professional atmosphere(Reddit, etc). Hacker News certainly isn't some bastion of intelligent thought and discourse, but it's definitely above average in that, which makes me wonder if the 18-24 year olds are just keeping quiet in the comments, if they're really that smart…

I think it is an accurate portrayal of HN and the results made me think "Yeah, I thought so".

HN's issue appears to be that it promotes what younger people view as an aspirational life style. College grads and young techie types will read stories about life at Google, joining startups that become large businesses like Facebook and will think to themselves "Yeah, I want a piece of that!"

In reality, HN can be poor for tech discussion and there are some absolutely insane comments on here, to the point where parody accounts like "Shit HN Says" have become very popular. It's an aspirational community with the best intentions, which is fine, but it won't bring the best in business or battle-hardened sysadmins to the table. You're far more likely to see a 22 year old college dropout gushing about how MongoDB is the future than someone that has succeeded in the environment that many people here aspire to join.

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#62

Post by lutusp »

Volpe wrote: post #56
lutusp wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I mean is that there aren't many 60+ year old people that think "Hey, you know what, I'm going to develop an Android application." It just doesn't come up. Only because you're so sure of yourself, I have to correct you. 1. I'm 67. Here's my Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lutus 2. Here is a list of my recent Android apps: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=paul+lutus&c=apps 3. I was proba…

Aren't you proving the parents point? He was saying the only 60+ developers have always been developers... Also, having a wikipedia page that you wrote yourself, doesn't really say anything...

> Also, having a wikipedia page that you wrote yourself, doesn't really say anything...

I didn't write the Wikipedia page. If you think otherwise, locate evidence to the contrary, like a responsible adult. And if you cannot locate evidence to the contrary, ask yourself whether you really want to go on record saying what you have just said about a named person.

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#63

Post by maigret »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #23
astrodust wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the average 60+ year old male still thinks Facebook is about the entire extent of the internet apart from online banking and Amazon, yes. The only 50+ developers are those that have always been developers.

That's a pretty out-of-touch statement. The Web has been around 20 years now. There's plenty of 60+ years olds in many far-reaching corners. Smart startups would be thinking about that.

Agree. That is why Google has Vint Cerf working for them. It probably more than paid off.

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#65

Post by [deleted] »

Volpe wrote: post #56
lutusp wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I mean is that there aren't many 60+ year old people that think "Hey, you know what, I'm going to develop an Android application." It just doesn't come up. Only because you're so sure of yourself, I have to correct you. 1. I'm 67. Here's my Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lutus 2. Here is a list of my recent Android apps: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=paul+lutus&c=apps 3. I was proba…

Aren't you proving the parents point? He was saying the only 60+ developers have always been developers... Also, having a wikipedia page that you wrote yourself, doesn't really say anything...

[deleted]

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#66

Post by Zenst »

99.99999% of surveys upon social userbase outlets fashion towards 50% of all users being under 24 year's of age. My reasearch for this is based upon a finger in the air and no other hard facts beyond recalling a recent G+ survey.

Given this what % of user lie about there age (sexual equality has led males to stay 21 for longer), gender etc. What % keep it private. Do lurkers count and many other details that distract from the reliability % of any result.

You never know, maybe in 100 years or so people might look at % based surveys as people most look upon horoscopes today.

I would also perhaps argue that any age based grouping in anything other than age itself is ignoring the fact that some people do and can act older or younger than their actual age on many levels. It is perhaps the definition of the areana that the survey is based upon that should be weighted against the user. If somebody had written a program to analyis users posts to guage there age and gender to then come up with some %, then that would of been Hacker News.

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#67

Post by zerostar07 »

Volpe wrote: post #56
lutusp wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I mean is that there aren't many 60+ year old people that think "Hey, you know what, I'm going to develop an Android application." It just doesn't come up. Only because you're so sure of yourself, I have to correct you. 1. I'm 67. Here's my Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lutus 2. Here is a list of my recent Android apps: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=paul+lutus&c=apps 3. I was proba…

Aren't you proving the parents point? He was saying the only 60+ developers have always been developers... Also, having a wikipedia page that you wrote yourself, doesn't really say anything...

No, he hasn't always been an android developer, plus the guy hasn't always been a developer (designed electronics for NASA before). You really believe anyone can write their wikipedia page and not have it deleted within 10 seconds? Personally i think there's a lot more to learn from seasoned developers who have literally seen it all, rather than the next-instagram-wannabe boys that frequent here.

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#68

Post by smoyer »

lutusp wrote: post #55
astrodust wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I mean is that there aren't many 60+ year old people that think "Hey, you know what, I'm going to develop an Android application." It just doesn't come up. The adoption rate of technology is always slower in older age groups. The way technology is used between 20-40 and 40-60 is enormous. Between 40-60 and 60-80 is even more dramatic.

> What I mean is that there aren't many 60+ year old people that think "Hey, you know what, I'm going to develop an Android application." It just doesn't come up. Only because you're so sure of yourself, I have to correct you. 1. I'm 67. Here's my Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lutus 2. Here is a list of my recent Android apps: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=paul+lutus&c=apps 3. I was proba…

I was feeling pretty old and unappreciated ... thanks!

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#69

Post by dpritchett »

lutusp wrote: post #55
astrodust wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I mean is that there aren't many 60+ year old people that think "Hey, you know what, I'm going to develop an Android application." It just doesn't come up. The adoption rate of technology is always slower in older age groups. The way technology is used between 20-40 and 40-60 is enormous. Between 40-60 and 60-80 is even more dramatic.

> What I mean is that there aren't many 60+ year old people that think "Hey, you know what, I'm going to develop an Android application." It just doesn't come up. Only because you're so sure of yourself, I have to correct you. 1. I'm 67. Here's my Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lutus 2. Here is a list of my recent Android apps: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=paul+lutus&c=apps 3. I was proba…

Sure, but did you win the Putnam?

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#70

Post by stitchy »

I'm interested in what type of articles the 18-24 year olds submit/read versus other age groups. For instance, I'm in the 25-34 age range, and I almost never care about the JavaScript, CoffeeScript, or other client-side language articles. I tend to read the software methodology, software tool tips/tricks, and gee-wiz-look-how-fast-tech-is-moving articles.
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