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Every article I read, for better or worse, has been filtered. The following describes my filteres when I am simply enjoying articles posted on HN (My filter's a
by dustfinger 7y ago
Every article I read, for better or worse, has been filtered. The following describes my filteres when I am simply enjoying articles posted on HN (My filter's are different if I am researchinig a topic):
The first filter is whether the article makes it to the front page of HN. This is followed by a quickly formed opinion about whether the title captivates my interest. If the first two filters pass, then I will take a couple of minutes to skim the comments section and decide if I want to read the article. In this way I leverage the minds of others as a final filter. If the article passes every filter, then that means that I have remained motivated to invest my time in reading the article myself. I open each article that passes all of the filters in a new tab and move on to the next title of interest. Once I reach the bottom of the page, I have the set of articles that I will read throughout the day. It is true, that I let other peoples' opinions influence what I read, but I justify this by reasoning that it would be impracticable for me to read every article that makes the front page of HN. This will cause me to have a biased perspective on things, but for me the strategy is one of practicality. I did read this author's article by the way. I think that the project is creative and interesting. Thank you for posting!
- melicerte 7y agoI often find posts on the "new" page more interesting than the one on the front page, you should give it a try.
- dustfinger 7y agoYou know, I am going to try this out. Up until now, I have not been voting on pre front page posts; therefore I have not been contributing to the front page filter effect that I take advantage of on a daily basis. I probably won't do this every day, but for this week I will. Thanks for the nudge!
- nerdponx 7y agoI suspect this is how most people read articles on most forums where articles are commonly posted (e.g. Reddit).
- dustfinger 7y agoI think you are probably right. Although, I can see how the author finds himself only reading the comment section.
- Agentlien 7y agoThis is very similar to how I do it as well. The short of it is that for most articles which seem interesting the comments implicitly recap the most interesting parts of the article. Furthermore, the comments give a good idea of how reasonable the points of the article seem, since there's usually at least a few people here with plenty of knowledge in the relevant field. If an article seems interesting but doesn't have a lot of comments, I'll usually open the comments in a new tab and then refresh later to see if more comments have dropped in. If the comments indicate the article is interesting and I am interested in more than a quick summary, then I'll open the main link.