Even with all its faults, it's pretty much the best predictor I can still find of what I find interesting at any point in time. The breadth of 'interesting' tha

Even with all its faults, it's pretty much the best predictor I can still find of what I find interesting at any point in time. The breadth of 'interesting' that I can find here is exceptional — I can probably say it made me a much more well rounded human being. It's funny, when I first created an account 7 years ago, most of the discussion was way, way above my head, or so I felt. I don't feel that way any longer. It might be life experience, or it might also be that all our filters and shields are up much higher than it used to be. Or we've all grown up together and became curmudgeonly together as well so that the glove still fits. (But yes, the quality of discussion in HN has taken a sharp dive starting about 1-2 years ago, in my opinion.)