9 ms·

Hacker News Highlights: January 2017

160 points by craigcannon 10y ago

minimaxir 10y ago
> Two MDs who are HN users discover they agree. HN users agreeing is indeed cause for celebration. :P
- mholmes680 10y ago
  is that true? I'd like to see one of your awesome infograms to prove/disprove.
  - seanp2k2 10y ago
    Let me just jump in and play devil's advocate here.
- jazoom 10y ago
  I agree
saycheese 10y ago
Might be wrong, but this is more like HN comment highlights. Here's the top stories for January 2017: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=&sort=byPopularity&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=custom&type=story&dateStart=1483228800&dateEnd=1485907200 https://hn.algolia.com/?query=&sort=byPopularity&prefix=fals... Also, feels strange to be highlight comments/posts that now in some cases locked; that is further comments/votes are not possible.
- makmanalp 10y ago
  To be honest the rare and in-between in depth and/or insightful comments are the main reason I come to HN.
strgrd 10y ago
I'm still trying to get BoHN off the ground... reddit.com/r/BoHN
- vmorgulis 10y ago
  I'm doing something similar on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmorgulys https://twitter.com/vmorgulys We should try something in common. What do you think of a formatted markdown file? Like: #title - excerpt/remark/subtitle - tags - hn link - reddit link
WA 10y ago
If I tell people about HN, I always say something like this: "HN is this news aggregator. If someone posts a link to a story about the mars rover, or a breakthrough in fusion reactors, or anything like that, you can be sure to read a comment from someone on the inside with additional insight, like 'yup, I've been on that team and this is what really happened ...'" The comments are the beauty of HN (most of the time). That's why I keep coming back. Thanks HN!
- wallabie 10y ago
  Agreed - time and time again I'm surprised by the people that read HN. It seems to comprise of people who did some cool stuff 10,000 years ago, people who are doing cool stuff today, and everyone in between. Alas, all good communities are doomed to become shit as time goes on...
  - sthatipamala 10y ago
    There _was_ a time where it seemed HN was becoming a hateful, negative place but since HN became its own autonomous unit of YC, they've put a lot of effort into turning it into a constructive forum.
  - Scarbutt 10y ago
    Alas, all good communities are doomed to become shit as time goes on... "visual studio code 1.9" getting the most time (in the front page), upvotes and comments for the day is a prove of this happening.
  - GuiA 10y ago
    > Alas, all good communities are doomed to become shit as time goes on... I see that your account is roughly 4 months old. From https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html: "If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a common semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills" I've been on HN for almost 6 years, and I don't think it's gotten quantifiably worse. The tone has changed, but it's hard to say much beyond that. In fact, the moderation has gotten much better; and 'pg not commenting anymore has (in my very subjective opinion) improved things (any of his comments would dominate a thread's discussion).
tabeth 10y ago
I love HN, but it really is bittersweet for me. One one hand you have some really interesting and intelligent people talking about complex issues. Issues I would either fail to know about, understand, or realize the gravity of without their insight. On the other hand, being on here is almost abusive: for those of us who aren't in the before mentioned group, hanging around here is akin to being an inner city kid from Harlem going to MIT studying physics. "You might be good, but you're not going to know what hit you." Needless to say, inferiority complex ad nauseum.
- niftich 10y ago
  That's not really my read at all. As someone in a similar boat, it's really inspiring to see that this place is both a great watercooler and a great equalizer. While some might lack the behind-the-scenes scoop or the battle-hardened wisdom of years of subject matter expertise, their words and ideas stand on their merits and share the company of greats. And in turn, one day, they might become the provider of unexpected insight. And all the while, there are parallel discussions going on where the same people converse and debate about more mundane topics. I find this really refreshing, because it's a reminder that we're more than the sum of our professional accomplishments. We're people from all walks of life -- from students to executives, amateurs to experts, laypeople to decision-makers -- congregating around a shared interest, in ways it rarely happens face-to-face today, and this is what makes HN thrive.
- buzzybee 10y ago
  That depends a bit on whether you're more characteristically interested in rhetorical dominance and being "in it to win it", or are just asking questions and intent on knowing what you don't know. For the former group HN is a very challenging environment, for the latter it can be helpful. (As it is, I rarely pay any attention to my reply inbox on here because I do get emotionally charged by seeing those, even if they're positive. If I'm interested in a reply I go back to the thread later in the day instead. Reddit stops me from behaving in the same way because of that darn red envelope.)
- andyjohnson0 10y ago
  A couple of years ago I went to a party at a neighbour's house. We ate pancakes and drank beer. Unlike me, most of the other people there were physicists or similar academics, so there was a lot of interesting talk going on. I'm not a particularly gregarious person - certainly not in a large group of people - so I mainly listened. One of the people there was a Nobel Laureate. A cool, very down-to-earth guy - but there's not really much I can say thats going to be useful in the conversations he was having. But just being in the same room probably made me (temporarily) smarter. And I found some people who I could talk with about things like 3D printing, which I kind of get. And thats kind of how I think of HN. Most people here may be cleverer than me, some enormously so, but I can still listen and learn and occasionally contribute something useful.
andyjohnson0 10y ago
I get a weekly HN retrospective email from Kale Davis's excellent Hacker Newsletter [1]. It often points me to interesting stuff that I missed. Recommended. [1] http://www.hackernewsletter.com/ http://www.hackernewsletter.com/
- hyperdunc 10y ago
  Nice! I made a simple site a while ago that performs a similar function. [1] The difference is that it goes by the number of upvotes rather than being curated by a person. [1] https://hotonhn.com/ https://hotonhn.com/
  - tedmiston 10y ago
    Thanks for sharing. Added both to my list of HN Apps & Tools [1]. [1]: https://pinboard.in/u:tedmiston/t:hacker-news/ https://pinboard.in/u:tedmiston/t:hacker-news/

160 points by craigcannon 10y ago

minimaxir 10y ago

> Two MDs who are HN users discover they agree. HN users agreeing is indeed cause for celebration. :P

mholmes680 10y ago
is that true? I'd like to see one of your awesome infograms to prove/disprove.
- seanp2k2 10y ago
  Let me just jump in and play devil's advocate here.
jazoom 10y ago
I agree

saycheese 10y ago

Might be wrong, but this is more like HN comment highlights. Here's the top stories for January 2017: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=&sort=byPopularity&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=custom&type=story&dateStart=1483228800&dateEnd=1485907200 https://hn.algolia.com/?query=&sort=byPopularity&prefix=fals... Also, feels strange to be highlight comments/posts that now in some cases locked; that is further comments/votes are not possible.

makmanalp 10y ago
To be honest the rare and in-between in depth and/or insightful comments are the main reason I come to HN.

strgrd 10y ago

I'm still trying to get BoHN off the ground... reddit.com/r/BoHN

vmorgulis 10y ago
I'm doing something similar on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmorgulys https://twitter.com/vmorgulys We should try something in common. What do you think of a formatted markdown file? Like: #title - excerpt/remark/subtitle - tags - hn link - reddit link

WA 10y ago

If I tell people about HN, I always say something like this: "HN is this news aggregator. If someone posts a link to a story about the mars rover, or a breakthrough in fusion reactors, or anything like that, you can be sure to read a comment from someone on the inside with additional insight, like 'yup, I've been on that team and this is what really happened ...'" The comments are the beauty of HN (most of the time). That's why I keep coming back. Thanks HN!

wallabie 10y ago
Agreed - time and time again I'm surprised by the people that read HN. It seems to comprise of people who did some cool stuff 10,000 years ago, people who are doing cool stuff today, and everyone in between. Alas, all good communities are doomed to become shit as time goes on...
- sthatipamala 10y ago
  There _was_ a time where it seemed HN was becoming a hateful, negative place but since HN became its own autonomous unit of YC, they've put a lot of effort into turning it into a constructive forum.
- Scarbutt 10y ago
  Alas, all good communities are doomed to become shit as time goes on... "visual studio code 1.9" getting the most time (in the front page), upvotes and comments for the day is a prove of this happening.
- GuiA 10y ago
  > Alas, all good communities are doomed to become shit as time goes on... I see that your account is roughly 4 months old. From https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html: "If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a common semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills" I've been on HN for almost 6 years, and I don't think it's gotten quantifiably worse. The tone has changed, but it's hard to say much beyond that. In fact, the moderation has gotten much better; and 'pg not commenting anymore has (in my very subjective opinion) improved things (any of his comments would dominate a thread's discussion).

tabeth 10y ago

I love HN, but it really is bittersweet for me. One one hand you have some really interesting and intelligent people talking about complex issues. Issues I would either fail to know about, understand, or realize the gravity of without their insight. On the other hand, being on here is almost abusive: for those of us who aren't in the before mentioned group, hanging around here is akin to being an inner city kid from Harlem going to MIT studying physics. "You might be good, but you're not going to know what hit you." Needless to say, inferiority complex ad nauseum.

niftich 10y ago
That's not really my read at all. As someone in a similar boat, it's really inspiring to see that this place is both a great watercooler and a great equalizer. While some might lack the behind-the-scenes scoop or the battle-hardened wisdom of years of subject matter expertise, their words and ideas stand on their merits and share the company of greats. And in turn, one day, they might become the provider of unexpected insight. And all the while, there are parallel discussions going on where the same people converse and debate about more mundane topics. I find this really refreshing, because it's a reminder that we're more than the sum of our professional accomplishments. We're people from all walks of life -- from students to executives, amateurs to experts, laypeople to decision-makers -- congregating around a shared interest, in ways it rarely happens face-to-face today, and this is what makes HN thrive.
buzzybee 10y ago
That depends a bit on whether you're more characteristically interested in rhetorical dominance and being "in it to win it", or are just asking questions and intent on knowing what you don't know. For the former group HN is a very challenging environment, for the latter it can be helpful. (As it is, I rarely pay any attention to my reply inbox on here because I do get emotionally charged by seeing those, even if they're positive. If I'm interested in a reply I go back to the thread later in the day instead. Reddit stops me from behaving in the same way because of that darn red envelope.)
andyjohnson0 10y ago
A couple of years ago I went to a party at a neighbour's house. We ate pancakes and drank beer. Unlike me, most of the other people there were physicists or similar academics, so there was a lot of interesting talk going on. I'm not a particularly gregarious person - certainly not in a large group of people - so I mainly listened. One of the people there was a Nobel Laureate. A cool, very down-to-earth guy - but there's not really much I can say thats going to be useful in the conversations he was having. But just being in the same room probably made me (temporarily) smarter. And I found some people who I could talk with about things like 3D printing, which I kind of get. And thats kind of how I think of HN. Most people here may be cleverer than me, some enormously so, but I can still listen and learn and occasionally contribute something useful.

andyjohnson0 10y ago

I get a weekly HN retrospective email from Kale Davis's excellent Hacker Newsletter [1]. It often points me to interesting stuff that I missed. Recommended. [1] http://www.hackernewsletter.com/ http://www.hackernewsletter.com/

hyperdunc 10y ago
Nice! I made a simple site a while ago that performs a similar function. [1] The difference is that it goes by the number of upvotes rather than being curated by a person. [1] https://hotonhn.com/ https://hotonhn.com/
- tedmiston 10y ago
  Thanks for sharing. Added both to my list of HN Apps & Tools [1]. [1]: https://pinboard.in/u:tedmiston/t:hacker-news/ https://pinboard.in/u:tedmiston/t:hacker-news/