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Read less HN

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101–110 of 136 posts

Re: Read less HN

#101

Post by ktran03 »

HN has been a blessing for me. It has taught me so much about startups/consulting and everything related. And the comments section is tremendously valuable. As an avid forum reader (self-proclaimed) I have the experience of knowing how to comb through the comments and be able to quickly extract what's important. Only a fool reads everything and interprets it on face value.

Sometimes in the comments what's written isn't important, but the thought process behind that writing could really help excel one's career (if one's able to discern it). I have to pay homage to the tremendously experienced consultants here, in which I've learned so much from, and has helped my career unequivocally.

Re: Read less HN

#102

Post by agrias »

ktran03 wrote: post #101

HN has been a blessing for me. It has taught me so much about startups/consulting and everything related. And the comments section is tremendously valuable. As an avid forum reader (self-proclaimed) I have the experience of knowing how to comb through the comments and be able to quickly extract what's important. Only a fool reads everything and interprets it on face value. Sometimes in the comments what's written isn…

This is such an outstanding point, like all internet resources there is a wealth of knowledge you can obtain from HN. But you have to condition yourself to differentiate between what is sensational and what is actual fact.

I might get burned for this, but I don't know why people even evangelize posts of this kind. For starters they are off topic. And what is the end goal? At one extreme are you trying to lead an exodus? Do you feel like you're helping people because you're telling people how to effectively use their time? There is such a wide range of types here I don't know how this advice can be applied ubiquitously.

I love HN because I get to see so many great early stage products. I get to hear opinions from all ages that reveal the environment we are in (Young and old developers trying to mesh together, new techniques meet old). I don't really know too many other communities that have what HN has.

Re: Read less HN

#103

Post by Sakes »

It depends on how long you've had an HN account. At some point the content seems to get repetitive. It's pretty easy to ignore the content that you've seen before.

But in the beginning it is a wealth of information, giving you insight into what should be expected when trying to start a barebones new company.

So you gorge on the articles until you rarely get new insights from them. Then, naturally, your addiction to HN ends. (Typically this starts the "remember when HN was good?" comments)

Now if you are addicted for other reasons, like you feel socially involved here, that I can not speak to. But if your addiction is content, that will fade once you've had your fill.

Re: Read less HN

#104

Post by idProQuo »

johnmurray_io wrote: post #27
plasma wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awareness. I'm development lead on my startup and just being aware of new tech, other startups, problems with frameworks, algorithms,... all help me be better informed for my job.

Exactly. Even a better reason to read curated content. You need to get awareness with what's going on in the tech community without sinking massive amounts of time. Do you really need to know about some lisp-variant someone implemented in 20 lines of Ruby.

HN doesn't have that much content, I never feel overwhelmed. The front-page turnover rate is really slow, to the point that I pretty quickly get my "fix" and then leave. Over the course of a day I might sink an hour into it, 2 if there's something interesting going on. However, I usually read maybe 3 articles per day at most.

>Do you really need to know about some lisp-variant someone implemented in 20 lines of Ruby.

I find the recent "tiny JS app" craze to be kind of cool. It's neat that a language can be so expressive that you can throw together something so complicated in under a kilobyte. I guess I don't need that kind of stuff, but it usually ends with me learning something new and wastes 5 minutes of my day at most.

Re: Read less HN

#105

Post by Houshalter »

Something I've considered doing is taking HN and/or reddit posts and then applying a machine learning algorithm to figure out what kinds of articles I like/dislike and automatically filter out the ones that are likely to waste my time, or at least improve upon the existing sorting system and make it more personalized.

Re: Read less HN

#106

Post by Houshalter »

Segmentation wrote: post #7

Still not nearly as bad as Reddit. Subreddits have value, but look at the front page of Reddit. Zero value. On any given day, of any week, month, or year. Reddit's front page is 100% wasted time. I demonstrate this by asking to myself: Ten years from now what will Reddit's front page look like? Answer: The exact nonsense memes and image macros posted today.

I don't think anyone has claimed reddit, or at least the default reddits, are a productive way to spend your time. All the default subreddits are pretty much just for entertainment.

Re: Read less HN

#107

Post by mbloom1915 »

I think most people visiting HN choose to read what is relevant to their interests and goals, as well as submitting similar content or submitting something perhaps breaking news in the tech industry for the day

Re: Read less HN

#108

Post by jamesaguilar »

GalacticDomin8r wrote: post #96
jamesaguilar wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus, most of what I see on HN these days is really bad business, political, social, and legal analysis, not any of the things discussed in this article. (This article is a great example of the same.)

> Plus, most of what I see on HN these days is really bad business, political, social, and legal analysis Yeah really bad. It's all crap except my own.

It is possible for this to be true in general (in other words, there will be someone whose comments are more accurate than 99% of other people), but that's not the case for me. I just try to withhold my opinion on stuff that's not obviously true.

Re: Read less HN

#109

Post by jpatte »

I use HN as a kick in the butt. Whenever I feel down or demotivated I just browse to HN's home page, see what amazing work is being done in the tech world while I'm just sitting there, remember that I want to be a part of it, and go back to work with my motivation restored.

Re: Read less HN

#110

Post by codecrusade »

Technology ADD is a issue I have been struggling with for some time. The compulsive urge to chase every new framework is real and I do not know how manage it as it eats through my productive time.
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