I used to read HN comments before reading articles, but I don't do that much any more because I find the top comments on HN often miss the point of the article.

I used to read HN comments before reading articles, but I don't do that much any more because I find the top comments on HN often miss the point of the article. The top comments are almost always criticising the article, which is OK because "good post" comments are mostly boring. But the criticism is often due to misunderstanding the author. Most articles are not worth reading because they don't have much substance; so there's not much point reading comments about them. For the very little original and interesting writing out there, I prefer to read it before reading any comments.