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What I've Learned from Hacker News

paulgraham.com

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Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News

#71

Post by pg »

homme wrote: post #25

What effect has it had on you as far as going from just posting an essay to posting an essay and having it deconstructed? Has instant criticism made you more reticent in what you say, or even annoyed?

Everything I've posted online has been examined pretty thoroughly since about 2001, first on Slashdot, then Reddit, and now here. So I take it for granted now.

I think it's good actually. Now when I'm about to publish something, it's second nature to go through and look at each sentence and ask "Is this false? Is this the sentence that someone is going to tear apart and make me look stupid?"

That's why when someone is dissing me in vague terms in a comment thread, I'll occasionally ask them to quote a specific sentence or passage from the essay they believe is false. Because I've already checked.

Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News

#72

Post by kwamenum86 »

kwamenum86 wrote: post #19
aneesh wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I guess my point is that Hacker News is being gamed the way reddit and digg are." Only if you think the "game" is to accumulate karma. For me, the submissions are merely seeds around which insightful discussions grow.

There is a tangible reward for people who have the most karma though.

I remember reading that top karma earners get invited to startup school...I can't find that anywhere.

But here is something close: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=136837

Karma is taken into account when you apply. That is incentive enough to attempt to game HN.

Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News

#73

Post by mattchew »

I'm pleased to hear that you're interested in the problem of attractive/addictive distractions. Important, interesting problem. I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts.

Here's a relevant thread from Overcoming Bias. It is more about modeling the problem than looking for fixes, but you might find it interesting:

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2009/01/a-tale-of-two-tradeoff...

Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News

#74

Post by davidw »

davi wrote: post #10

What a disaster that would be, to attract thousands of smart people to a site that caused them to waste lots of time. I wish I could be 100% sure that's not a description of HN. The reason HN is so addictive is because it is filled with things we think might be useful someday. We're like pack rats at a flea market. The question is, what utility do we get out of what we find here? Idea: maybe there could be a second c…

I live in the middle of the Tirolean Alps and don't speak the local language. HN has been my outlet for 'geek talk'. Hopefully when we're back in Italy (next week! yay!) I'll have a bit more contact with various friends and contacts.

Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News

#75

Post by gills »

dcurtis wrote: post #42

I think a lot of the growth problems might have to do with the devaluation of karma. The solution to this might actually raise the quality of comments and front page stories. When I posted a comment here a year and a half ago, I felt like each vote was a real, actual smart person praising or agreeing with what I had said. Each point had a lot of meaning, and back then 5 points was considered a pretty good score. Now…

Wow. Maybe karma needs to be more meaningful...perhaps a reflection of who voted for you and what percentage of page views voted for you. It's not that I want to see social stratification edified on HN; but if your comment is voted for by users who have earned more karma through their own comments, shouldn't that predict that your contribution is more meaningful to the community? It might be easier to just say 'a sort of collaborative filter for karma weighting.' Even something as simple as a Pearson correlation might be fun to play with.

Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News

#79

Post by snprbob86 »

davi wrote: post #10

What a disaster that would be, to attract thousands of smart people to a site that caused them to waste lots of time. I wish I could be 100% sure that's not a description of HN. The reason HN is so addictive is because it is filled with things we think might be useful someday. We're like pack rats at a flea market. The question is, what utility do we get out of what we find here? Idea: maybe there could be a second c…

Despite all the time I have wasted here, I can tell you (with 100% confidence) that it was worth it.

My co-founder is nearly 3000 miles away. Hacker News single-handedly keeps my head in the startup game. Bootstrapping would be impossible without this site to act as a virtual startup town square. The stories and comments I read here motivate me better than anything ever has. I used to start projects and forget about them on a nearly daily basis. Hacker News has focused my efforts and sharpened my mind. Sure, you can fritter away hours here, but hey, you need to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

A big thank you to PG and to each and every one of you smart people!

Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News

#80

Post by poub »

I found absolutely spot on in your article to submit an article with different headers on whatever “community” you target (e.g. Reddit or HN or even Digg)

However it’s not only the “tag line” which need to be rewritten but also the content.

Which mean one version of the article for HN users, another for Reddit and yet another for Digg.

Which can translate into three levels:

- advanced (readers able to understand abstractions),

- intermediate (readers who want to understand “how to control”)

- and beginners (readers who just want to find a solution to their problem through a simple step by step process).

This force onself to write with a specific audience in mind. And I think it’s the key point of Paul Graham article: understanding your users.

Last but not least: having the comments section on where you found the link but not on the page where is displayed the article.

I found HN comments with Stackoverflow are so far the only sites where proper discussions can really happen with very inspiring thoughts.

However those Karma thingies, I absolutely don’t care. Also the triangle button (upvote), I use it only as a bookmark button.

Also what’s really rewarding is when you check the “New” page and see few hours after it hits the home page. You feel you’re not only following.

Have a good day and thanks for your work. Thibault

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