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Ask HN: What has HN given you?

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Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#331

Post by tevlon »

stealthcat wrote: post #316
tevlon wrote: post #297

1,5 years ago, i was suicidal ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13051611 ). 1 week after posting this. I got a visit from the police. Apparently, someone gave them the ip and it took them a week to locate me. They wanted to take me to the hospital to check if i had mental problems. Of course they couldn't force me to go. I assured them that i would fix my problems and make a therapy. It was a wakeup call for me.…

What happened to bioinformatics?

I finished my master and left the field. If you want to have a career in bioinformatics, there is no way you can get a good position without a PhD. I realized that a PhD is not the best option for me at that time.

So i took a regular coding job. Sometimes i miss the "research" part. But i am still active in r/bioinformatics on reddit and read occasionally a paper from BioArxiv(https://www.biorxiv.org/)

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#332

Post by pvaldes »

tevlon wrote: post #297

1,5 years ago, i was suicidal ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13051611 ). 1 week after posting this. I got a visit from the police. Apparently, someone gave them the ip and it took them a week to locate me. They wanted to take me to the hospital to check if i had mental problems. Of course they couldn't force me to go. I assured them that i would fix my problems and make a therapy. It was a wakeup call for me.…

I'm not your stranger, but your history made my day. I'm happy to hear that you are alive and kicking again.

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#333

Post by tevlon »

MrJagil wrote: post #323
tevlon wrote: post #297

1,5 years ago, i was suicidal ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13051611 ). 1 week after posting this. I got a visit from the police. Apparently, someone gave them the ip and it took them a week to locate me. They wanted to take me to the hospital to check if i had mental problems. Of course they couldn't force me to go. I assured them that i would fix my problems and make a therapy. It was a wakeup call for me.…

What a story! Though I am not depressed, I find myself extremely frustrated with a performance-obsessed society at the moment. I go to one of the most prestigious schools in my country. That should feel like an accomplishment, but I am now surrounded by people "better" than me. It's inspiring, but it also demolishes your ego, from time to time. Last night I had a dream of becoming true friends with a colleague that i…

I feel you man. I was a student at the swiss federal institute of technology (ETH Zürich). I was fine 2 years ago. Had a nice swiss girlfriend but my mind was obsessed with becoming a prestigious scientist.

I worried too much and lost her. It was one defining factor of my depression. You should give her a hug and tell her how happy she makes you ;)

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#334

Post by Cthulhu_ »

Daily distraction from work, :p. But at the same time, I learn something new - probably several somethings - every day; new technologies, expertises, etc. Not much I'd use in my day to day job, but it's enough for me to have a basic understanding of a broad range of subjects. Keeps me up to date, so to speak.

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#335

Post by sah2ed »

hycaria wrote: post #293
arkis22 wrote: post #14

I've been through a lot of web communities. HN is easily the most intellectual, respectful, and diverse. The simple reason is that we like to be here! In the same way that it takes a village to raise a child, your understanding of the world around you is drastically deepened by various points of view. I don't expect to find a better village anytime soon.

I would not say diverse though. This community is hugely biased towards an american, transhumanist point of view. There's an "european" minority who does not seems as egocentric (and libertarian maybe ?) as the majority, which is a bit reassuring. Anyways as much as I like HN and its often insightful comments, this has proven me that I would have a hard time living/working in the US as we don't share the same values…

> This community is hugely biased towards an american, transhumanist point of view.

I used to think this too, but after thinking about it a little more, I've come to the conclusion that the perception of bias towards a certain viewpoint in any thread is colored by the day of week (some old-timers frequent on weekends), the time of day (US lunch breaks and close of business), and the members who are drawn to the topics that you are interested in.

In other words, my perception of the "prevailing" bias tends to fluctuate with the time of day (I don't have a fixed schedule for visiting HN) or topics I currently have open.

Sometimes, out of curiosity, I click on a random thread (typically high comments/upvotes) with a title that I would ordinarily have not clicked on, just to get a sense of what the community is yapping about :).

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#336

Post by eeZah7Ux »

sureaboutthis wrote: post #26

Next to nothing. I scan for links and sometimes find one or two to my interest. I might scan the comments to see if the link is being revered or dissed before I visit. If I'm bored, I've made a few comments. Otherwise HN is nothing more than a link list to me.

Same here. The discussion rarely add something really useful to the topic compared to what you would find by skimming through a book, an article, or by doing your own investigation.

But it gave me a good, if sad, insight about crowd behavior. Write something that people want to hear and you get upvotes regardless on how true or insightful it is. Write something people don't want to hear and you get downvotes.

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#337

Post by nottorp »

All right... all right... but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what have the Romans done for us?

Sorry, it was the only thing i could think of when I saw the question...

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#338

Post by antirez »

HN is the nearest thing to a tech community you can have if you live in a place where there is no much IT scene. This site allowed me during half of my career to have somebody interested in the things I care, to talk, exchange ideas, and read very smart things from random nicknames that often I wish I could know in person.

Re: Ask HN: What has HN given you?

#340

Post by ex_amazon_sde »

innocentoldguy wrote: post #180
PaulStatezny wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this sarcasm? If not, can you elaborate why? I’m genuinely curious.

HN is an echo chamber, to some extent. For example, try making valid criticisms against Go or JavaScript and you will be downvoted without explanation. I think HN would be better if it required an explanation in order to downvote something. At least then it would be clear to everyone reading whether the negativity was legitimate or not.

Also make a pointless, positive statement about a popular technology and you get upvotes.

Point out that a clever solution is not that useful or applicable and you get a lot of downvotes.

I wish I could have a comment ranking system not based on sheer popularity.

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