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Ask HN: What are your heuristics for deciding which HN links to click on?

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Re: Ask HN: What are your heuristics for deciding which HN links to click on?

#31

Post by xd1936 »

mettamage wrote: post #7

Hacker News is basically slowly but surely converting me more into a technical person. When I came here first, I mostly looked at the psychological articles and some web articles. But when I felt a bit more focused and bold I'd go for more technical articles. I have been doing this ever since and I have noticed there are two types of technical articles I really like: 1. any computer graphics reverse engineer article,…

100% this. Steeping your brain in high-level and advanced thinking slowly but surely teaches you how to think in new ways, even if you don't absorb and comprehend it all at a detailed level.

Re: Ask HN: What are your heuristics for deciding which HN links to click on?

#33

Post by shawn »

mettamage wrote: post #7

Hacker News is basically slowly but surely converting me more into a technical person. When I came here first, I mostly looked at the psychological articles and some web articles. But when I felt a bit more focused and bold I'd go for more technical articles. I have been doing this ever since and I have noticed there are two types of technical articles I really like: 1. any computer graphics reverse engineer article,…

You'd like this then: https://medium.com/webmr/n64-vr-with-javascript-e188de42ced5

N64 games in VR with JS.

Re: Ask HN: What are your heuristics for deciding which HN links to click on?

#34

Post by danso »

stephengillie wrote: post #26

I start by scanning through the front page and clicking "HIDE" on: Betterridge Headlines Articles with a (YEAR) Articles with a [PDF] "Do X in Language" Blockchain-related Mac-related "Ask HN: List things" Hiring notices - Specific domains: All newspapers All longform sites All clickbait sites All health information Medium Github Wikipedia Stratechery This usually clears out all the time-sinks, ads, "Github spam" and…

> Articles with a (YEAR)

Why do you consider content from the past to be clickbait?

Re: Ask HN: What are your heuristics for deciding which HN links to click on?

#35

Post by stephengillie »

alexandercrohde wrote: post #30
stephengillie wrote: post #26

I start by scanning through the front page and clicking "HIDE" on: Betterridge Headlines Articles with a (YEAR) Articles with a [PDF] "Do X in Language" Blockchain-related Mac-related "Ask HN: List things" Hiring notices - Specific domains: All newspapers All longform sites All clickbait sites All health information Medium Github Wikipedia Stratechery This usually clears out all the time-sinks, ads, "Github spam" and…

I HIDE: "X" the good parts "X" driven design Building a toy "X" in toy language "Y" in Z minutes How to interview [another random internet opinion] Anything that's crawling with cp-grey types. Anecdote about hallucinogen curing every psychological problem 2-week Microstudy on nootropic improving attention

> Anything that's crawling with cp-grey types.

Is this like CGP Grey?

Re: Ask HN: What are your heuristics for deciding which HN links to click on?

#37

Post by stephengillie »

danso wrote: post #34
stephengillie wrote: post #26

I start by scanning through the front page and clicking "HIDE" on: Betterridge Headlines Articles with a (YEAR) Articles with a [PDF] "Do X in Language" Blockchain-related Mac-related "Ask HN: List things" Hiring notices - Specific domains: All newspapers All longform sites All clickbait sites All health information Medium Github Wikipedia Stratechery This usually clears out all the time-sinks, ads, "Github spam" and…

> Articles with a (YEAR) Why do you consider content from the past to be clickbait?

Not clickbait, but a rabbit-hole like longform articles. Consuming information dumps can too easily become a form of procrastination.

Re: Ask HN: What are your heuristics for deciding which HN links to click on?

#39

Post by mindcrime »

I almost never click through on the source link initially. The only times I do are if the topic is something very specifically related to my personal interests / work, and/or from a reputable domain, and possibly only if it has a lot of upvotes. I'd say that links to github.com, and arxiv.org are among the top ones that I'm likely to click through to immediately.

OTOH, anything that looks even vaguely interesting gets an upvote, since that is the easiest way to "save" a HN link for later (the "favorite" feature requires you to at least click through to the discussion page first, which is just enough friction that I mostly don't bother).

Anything in between those two extremes, my heuristic is to click through to the discussion page, spend some time reading the comments, and then decide if the source article is worth reading or not. I feel like you can usually tell a lot about the quality of the underlying article based on what kind of discussion it generates.

Re: Ask HN: What are your heuristics for deciding which HN links to click on?

#40

Post by deeg »

AlexCoventry wrote: post #36

I check the comments for any link which looks vaguely interesting. If the top few comments aren't slamming it, I take a closer look.

I'm pretty similar. I especially do this when the title has a click-baity title.

I will usually open a topic if it has a lot of comments, even if it's something I normally have no interest in. I've learned more than a few things from fellow Hackers.

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