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While I am not a programmer, I gravitate to Hacker News the community seems to value smart, clear, concise, rational arguments, and sees through the BS. Because

While I am not a programmer, I gravitate to Hacker News the community seems to value smart, clear, concise, rational arguments, and sees through the BS. Because the community is intellectually curious, it is happy to discuss any interesting article that contains a smart new idea or perspective, which extends far beyond programming. Link Quality: Articles that are low quality and don't provide any new or noteworthy information are not upvoted by HN and as a result I don't need to take time and energy to sift through them. Almost every mainstream news site on the internet is half full of fluff, and the FB newsfeed is even worse. HN avoids this be having a community of smart people who care enough to vote, and also by not being captive to advertisers Comments Quality: Concise, rational, well backed up comments get upvoted. If I don't have a pre-formed opinion of a particular article I can turn to the comments to find the smart people who know what they're talking about, and then the best rebuttals right below. If I stay on WSJ I don't see that. Diversity: Not only does HN cover an incredibly diverse range of topics, but also a diversity of opinion in the comments. Most news sites are siloed by topic, and my FB feed is an echo chamber. Procrastination Value: Something about HN makes it the ultimate place to go when you don't want to do something else. Your brain gets a jolt from hunting through the list and finding something new and interesting to read. And it updates constantly at a similar pace to meet my procrastination needs. Plus the articles are good so I feel like I actually learned something compared with the Buzzfeed articles I might have clicked if I went to FB.

kleiba 10y ago
I am a technical person but probably (a good deal) older than average here on HN, and to be honest, I cannot fully agree to the statement "[...] seems to value smart, clear, concise, rational arguments, and sees through the BS" (unless the emphasis is on "seems"). Don't get me wrong, my point is certainly not that HN is the opposite of this description - I just don't find it very different here from other interactions I have. If anything, I sometimes get a bit of a "full-of-myself" vibe in some comments here, more than I'm used to. That's just a personal opinion, though.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- samleoishere 10y ago
  Getting your point. Maybe the "other interactions" you have are on par with those here on HN and that begs the question, where do those interaction happen?
  - kleiba 10y ago
    I've been working in computer science / computational linguistics departments of various universities / research institutes for pretty much all of my career.
- Jhsto 10y ago
  I guess the usability of HN depends a lot on your age and where you are physically located. When I used to live in the Bay Area, the significance reduced for me because I was able to have roughly the same coversations with people I would meet on a daily basis. Coming back to Europe, the same conversations cannot be found. Most of my peers in college dont know where Silicon Valley is located and even if they would, they are more interested in drinking booze and planning on when to do it. The only way I can remotely keep up with the headlines of what matters in the Bay Area is to read HN.
frgtpsswrdlame 10y ago
I'm also not a programmer and this is pretty much my answer. Also, I'm in finance and this is sort of an "inside view" into the tech sector.
- mcintyre1994 10y ago
  Is there anywhere I can get a similar "inside view" into your area? :)
  - diegoperini 10y ago
    Yes please
  - frgtpsswrdlame 10y ago
    Now wouldn't that be interesting? If the people who "aren't tech" in this thread posted the other places they get news we could get some really great stuff. Most of the stuff I read is actually economic, not necessarily financial. For that: http://economistsview.typepad.com/ http://economistsview.typepad.com/ is about as good as it gets. Although I would recommend ignoring the frequent Krugman reposts. The comments are also usually dominated by 3 or 4 very opinionated posters. Also http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/ http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/ for general news/interesting headlines. https://www.statnews.com/ https://www.statnews.com/ is great for healthcare. One thing I see every once in a while on HN is people with the belief that they can spend a week or two knocking out an algorithmic trader and start raking it in. In order to break this illusion I would recommend: http://financial-math.org/ http://financial-math.org/ http://www.quantresearch.info/ http://www.quantresearch.info/ And in terms of investing, Bogleheads is of course incredibly popular but still the best way to get investing safely and quickly. EDIT: I'd also like to say that the Wall Street Journal is pretty invaluable but I have a subscription. The google loophole closing may make that a more difficult source for the layman.
    - traek 10y ago
      > One thing I see every once in a while on HN is people with the belief that they can spend a week or two knocking out an algorithmic trader and start raking it in. In order to break this illusion I would recommend: http://financial-math.org/ http://financial-math.org/ http://www.quantresearch.info/ http://www.quantresearch.info/ Also, the Wilmott quant finance forums are great: https://forum.wilmott.com https://forum.wilmott.com
djyaz1200 10y ago
Agree, well said. I'd add that it's very time efficient. I'm trying to be as informed as possible in as little time as possible.
sksareen1 10y ago
Agree with this. I'm not a programmer but still work in tech, so find the conversation valuable and at a minimum helps for awareness of issues and trends. Not to mention the non-technical content is pretty valuable and gets trending here before most other places, except maybe some sub-reddits
sunflowerfly 10y ago
I worked one year as a programmer years ago and now lurk on HN for the reasons Dave_TRS stated.
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  [deleted]
ha8o8le 10y ago
Agree with everything here. For us non-technical people, it's just a matter of skipping over the programming stuff. You just have a blindness for these articles - after a bit of practice they just disappear and all the other gems shine through.
ChristianGeek 10y ago
"My Facebook feed is an echo chamber." This is one of my favorite quotes of the year so far!

kleiba 10y ago

I am a technical person but probably (a good deal) older than average here on HN, and to be honest, I cannot fully agree to the statement "[...] seems to value smart, clear, concise, rational arguments, and sees through the BS" (unless the emphasis is on "seems"). Don't get me wrong, my point is certainly not that HN is the opposite of this description - I just don't find it very different here from other interactions I have. If anything, I sometimes get a bit of a "full-of-myself" vibe in some comments here, more than I'm used to. That's just a personal opinion, though.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
samleoishere 10y ago
Getting your point. Maybe the "other interactions" you have are on par with those here on HN and that begs the question, where do those interaction happen?
- kleiba 10y ago
  I've been working in computer science / computational linguistics departments of various universities / research institutes for pretty much all of my career.
Jhsto 10y ago
I guess the usability of HN depends a lot on your age and where you are physically located. When I used to live in the Bay Area, the significance reduced for me because I was able to have roughly the same coversations with people I would meet on a daily basis. Coming back to Europe, the same conversations cannot be found. Most of my peers in college dont know where Silicon Valley is located and even if they would, they are more interested in drinking booze and planning on when to do it. The only way I can remotely keep up with the headlines of what matters in the Bay Area is to read HN.

frgtpsswrdlame 10y ago

I'm also not a programmer and this is pretty much my answer. Also, I'm in finance and this is sort of an "inside view" into the tech sector.

mcintyre1994 10y ago
Is there anywhere I can get a similar "inside view" into your area? :)
- diegoperini 10y ago
  Yes please
- frgtpsswrdlame 10y ago
  Now wouldn't that be interesting? If the people who "aren't tech" in this thread posted the other places they get news we could get some really great stuff. Most of the stuff I read is actually economic, not necessarily financial. For that: http://economistsview.typepad.com/ http://economistsview.typepad.com/ is about as good as it gets. Although I would recommend ignoring the frequent Krugman reposts. The comments are also usually dominated by 3 or 4 very opinionated posters. Also http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/ http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/ for general news/interesting headlines. https://www.statnews.com/ https://www.statnews.com/ is great for healthcare. One thing I see every once in a while on HN is people with the belief that they can spend a week or two knocking out an algorithmic trader and start raking it in. In order to break this illusion I would recommend: http://financial-math.org/ http://financial-math.org/ http://www.quantresearch.info/ http://www.quantresearch.info/ And in terms of investing, Bogleheads is of course incredibly popular but still the best way to get investing safely and quickly. EDIT: I'd also like to say that the Wall Street Journal is pretty invaluable but I have a subscription. The google loophole closing may make that a more difficult source for the layman.
  - traek 10y ago
    > One thing I see every once in a while on HN is people with the belief that they can spend a week or two knocking out an algorithmic trader and start raking it in. In order to break this illusion I would recommend: http://financial-math.org/ http://financial-math.org/ http://www.quantresearch.info/ http://www.quantresearch.info/ Also, the Wilmott quant finance forums are great: https://forum.wilmott.com https://forum.wilmott.com

djyaz1200 10y ago

Agree, well said. I'd add that it's very time efficient. I'm trying to be as informed as possible in as little time as possible.

sksareen1 10y ago

Agree with this. I'm not a programmer but still work in tech, so find the conversation valuable and at a minimum helps for awareness of issues and trends. Not to mention the non-technical content is pretty valuable and gets trending here before most other places, except maybe some sub-reddits

sunflowerfly 10y ago

I worked one year as a programmer years ago and now lurk on HN for the reasons Dave_TRS stated.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

ha8o8le 10y ago

Agree with everything here. For us non-technical people, it's just a matter of skipping over the programming stuff. You just have a blindness for these articles - after a bit of practice they just disappear and all the other gems shine through.

ChristianGeek 10y ago

"My Facebook feed is an echo chamber." This is one of my favorite quotes of the year so far!