Part of it is surely fear of missing out, in this case fear that everyone else will know something you don't. Exactly what we fear of missing out on probably v

Part of it is surely fear of missing out, in this case fear that everyone else will know something you don't. Exactly what we fear of missing out on probably varies a lot from person to person. I don't care all all about the football results, but many people do, as it's a staple of their conversation in their social sphere. For the HN crowd, we survive and thrive on what we know. We're in an industry that moves rapidly, and we perceive that successful people thrive on knowing more, or knowing first. Of course that's only partly true. Successful people know just enough, and then actually get the job done. Knowing where to draw the line between reading about what others have done and doing stuff ourselves is really hard. It's always easier to read about what others have done, and it feels productive, but past a certain point it really isn't.