4 ms·

I hope fans will forgive me for saying this, but Matt Levine's newsletter is kind of incoherent and not relevant to the HN audience. It never has much of a focu

I hope fans will forgive me for saying this, but Matt Levine's newsletter is kind of incoherent and not relevant to the HN audience. It never has much of a focus, and it's only rarely about tech. If you like this kind of newsletter, just subscribe to it: http://link.mail.bloombergbusiness.com/join/4wm/moneystuff-signup http://link.mail.bloombergbusiness.com/join/4wm/moneystuff-s.... Kindly avoid posting it to HN every day. Post the articles Levine links to instead, if you must.

vincefutr23 9y ago
What do you mean by incoherent?
- etjossem 9y ago
  I expect to read technology articles here, not the unfocused thoughts of a finance columnist on 5+ different topics.
  - RhysU 9y ago
    It's not much different than reading 5 separate non-tech posts on HN.
    - imron 9y ago
      That individually would never have made it to the front page.
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
  - taspeotis 9y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
    - imron 9y ago
      I think it's the unfocused thoughts on a range of different topics that's the problem. I don't mind reading about non tech things. Rambling musings on the other hand don't really do it for me.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - Tomte 9y ago
    Then please adjust your expectation. It's not in line with the officially stated purpose of this site, nor with the regulars' expectations.
- gnicholas 9y ago
  Not the original commenter, but I was also thrown a bit by the structure of the blog post. Most items posted on HN are on a single topic, and I didn't realize going into this item that I was dropping into a multi-topic finance newsletter. Based on the title, I was expecting a single, unitary article that was about hedge fund size and tax arbitrage. It took a while for me to realize this was not the case.
jcfrei 9y ago
I'm surprised by your assessment of Matt Levine. He has great insight into the world of finance and has shed light on many complicated issues (for example this great article about Dell going private: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-06-01/michael-dell-bought-his-company-too-cheaply https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-06-01/michael-d... ). And HN isn't just about tech - finance has been a topic of many discussions here.
- etjossem 9y ago
  I loved that article, but the difference in quality/relevance between it and the newsletter is night and day.
  - dsacco 9y ago
    What exactly was the quality difference?
kbenson 9y ago
> it's only rarely about tech That's not really relevant. If it's interesting and a good discussion results, then it's appropriate for this audience. We discuss archaeology here. I'm sure tax discussion and items about the the financial industry aren't too far afield. > Kindly avoid posting it to HN every day. It will be voted up if people think it's worth it, and not voted up or flagged if people think it isn't. We have an accepted mechanism for figuring out what deserves the attention of HN readers. When the site admins think it isn't working to the degree they like for a submission, they make spot adjustments to that submission. Calling out Levine as not being a good source is fine though, as long as you back it up.
ice109 9y ago
incoherent? it's several vignettes broken up by heading - it's not trying to be coherent (each vignette is definitely coherent internally though (
tptacek 9y ago
Only a small fraction of Levine's posts make it to the front page, and a fraction of those have any staying power. Levine posts are a rare case where the HN system mostly works as intended. People should keep posting them when they like them.

vincefutr23 9y ago

What do you mean by incoherent?

etjossem 9y ago
I expect to read technology articles here, not the unfocused thoughts of a finance columnist on 5+ different topics.
- RhysU 9y ago
  It's not much different than reading 5 separate non-tech posts on HN.
  - imron 9y ago
    That individually would never have made it to the front page.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
- taspeotis 9y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
  - imron 9y ago
    I think it's the unfocused thoughts on a range of different topics that's the problem. I don't mind reading about non tech things. Rambling musings on the other hand don't really do it for me.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- Tomte 9y ago
  Then please adjust your expectation. It's not in line with the officially stated purpose of this site, nor with the regulars' expectations.
gnicholas 9y ago
Not the original commenter, but I was also thrown a bit by the structure of the blog post. Most items posted on HN are on a single topic, and I didn't realize going into this item that I was dropping into a multi-topic finance newsletter. Based on the title, I was expecting a single, unitary article that was about hedge fund size and tax arbitrage. It took a while for me to realize this was not the case.

jcfrei 9y ago

I'm surprised by your assessment of Matt Levine. He has great insight into the world of finance and has shed light on many complicated issues (for example this great article about Dell going private: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-06-01/michael-dell-bought-his-company-too-cheaply https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-06-01/michael-d... ). And HN isn't just about tech - finance has been a topic of many discussions here.

etjossem 9y ago
I loved that article, but the difference in quality/relevance between it and the newsletter is night and day.
- dsacco 9y ago
  What exactly was the quality difference?

kbenson 9y ago

> it's only rarely about tech That's not really relevant. If it's interesting and a good discussion results, then it's appropriate for this audience. We discuss archaeology here. I'm sure tax discussion and items about the the financial industry aren't too far afield. > Kindly avoid posting it to HN every day. It will be voted up if people think it's worth it, and not voted up or flagged if people think it isn't. We have an accepted mechanism for figuring out what deserves the attention of HN readers. When the site admins think it isn't working to the degree they like for a submission, they make spot adjustments to that submission. Calling out Levine as not being a good source is fine though, as long as you back it up.

ice109 9y ago

incoherent? it's several vignettes broken up by heading - it's not trying to be coherent (each vignette is definitely coherent internally though (

tptacek 9y ago

Only a small fraction of Levine's posts make it to the front page, and a fraction of those have any staying power. Levine posts are a rare case where the HN system mostly works as intended. People should keep posting them when they like them.