Add value to the community. You can add value with spot on comments or interesting and/or relevant submissions. For a newbie it will be difficult, but as soon

Add value to the community. You can add value with spot on comments or interesting and/or relevant submissions. For a newbie it will be difficult, but as soon as you start to understand what the community values (and if these values are aligned with yours), it will become easier. 'Luck' is negligible on comments but on submissions is not (despite not being determinant). If karma is really important to you, there are some 'low hanging fruits' but you have to identify them by yourself or the HN crowd will pick them. Ok, one tip, pick a not crowded ShowHN thread where you can give your honest and construtive opinion, (at least) the poster will often reward you: you are adding value. Understand also that getting karma here is really difficult. It took me 7,5 years to get 5k karma. Probably, I didn't "win a thread" more than 5 times, there is always somebody in a better position to comment it.