I've always wondered what kind of ambient value HN adds to Y Combinator. As an advertising tool for PG's operation, it's exceptional. But as a serendipity gener

I've always wondered what kind of ambient value HN adds to Y Combinator. As an advertising tool for PG's operation, it's exceptional. But as a serendipity generator, it's also pretty remarkable. Curious to know how many people who have gotten stuck while working on Y Combinator projects managed to get unstuck thanks to finding the right link at the right time. Theoretically, any number of filters could do this (RSS, twitter, etc.), but none of them have quite the same feedback loop as the comments sections here. Personally, it's becoming rare for me to open a link without simultaneously opening the discussion link. In terms of that serendipity, I wonder if it isn't (just) the suitably interesting variety of topic which produces it, but the way that a particularly astute set of replies prompts thinking from a variety of angles. That, more than anything, seems to be the real cause of prompts with regard to whatever problems you may be struggling with.