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Suggestion: HN should have a reddit-style AMA (ask me anything)

15 points by MatthewB 15y ago

It would be great to have a reddit-style AMA (Ask Me Anything), where interesting people come and answer questions asked by HN users. I can only speak for myself but if there were a way to ask industry experts questions about...well anything...it would be extremely beneficial for us young hustlers and hackers. Thoughts?

nostrademons 15y ago
I dunno. I loved the original concept behind AMA, which was that if you look hard enough at anyone's life, you can find interesting parts that are worth listening to. The first half of IAmA's title is "Where the mundane becomes fascinating..." I dislike what IAmA is quickly becoming, which is a place where people request only celebrities, pile on where they show up, and try to milk them dry of information. A bunch of recent threads have actively complained about IAmAs from "normal" people, which I thought was the point of the subreddit. It sounds, from the way you've worded your request, that you're looking for the second kind of post. I wouldn't want to see this, because I think it teaches precisely the wrong skillset for entrepreneurs. Sucking up to experts and milking them for information is how you succeed in the corporate world, where advancement is predicated on what the people above you think. To succeed as an entrepreneur, however, you need to intimately understand the problems faced by normal people. That's your market: the millions of normal people out there. And if you ignore what's interesting about their lives in favor of what's interesting about the leaders of your field, you'll suck at capturing that market.
- MatthewB 15y ago
  I don't think it would be like that. HN would ask questions and get insightful information and stories from people who are as passionate about this industry as we are. I do understand what you're saying about what reddit's AMA was originally intended to be.
ra 15y ago
I don't agree. There's already Reddit for that
- MatthewB 15y ago
  Right but we aren't going to get people from our industry on reddit. At least not easily.
ig1 15y ago
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2476123 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2476123 I think people on HN wouldn't really feel comfortable putting themselves forward for an AMA. Maybe it would work if people nominated people they'd like to see do an AMA (or even type of person "someone who's done xyz")

15 points by MatthewB 15y ago

nostrademons 15y ago

I dunno. I loved the original concept behind AMA, which was that if you look hard enough at anyone's life, you can find interesting parts that are worth listening to. The first half of IAmA's title is "Where the mundane becomes fascinating..." I dislike what IAmA is quickly becoming, which is a place where people request only celebrities, pile on where they show up, and try to milk them dry of information. A bunch of recent threads have actively complained about IAmAs from "normal" people, which I thought was the point of the subreddit. It sounds, from the way you've worded your request, that you're looking for the second kind of post. I wouldn't want to see this, because I think it teaches precisely the wrong skillset for entrepreneurs. Sucking up to experts and milking them for information is how you succeed in the corporate world, where advancement is predicated on what the people above you think. To succeed as an entrepreneur, however, you need to intimately understand the problems faced by normal people. That's your market: the millions of normal people out there. And if you ignore what's interesting about their lives in favor of what's interesting about the leaders of your field, you'll suck at capturing that market.

MatthewB 15y ago
I don't think it would be like that. HN would ask questions and get insightful information and stories from people who are as passionate about this industry as we are. I do understand what you're saying about what reddit's AMA was originally intended to be.

ra 15y ago

I don't agree. There's already Reddit for that

MatthewB 15y ago
Right but we aren't going to get people from our industry on reddit. At least not easily.

ig1 15y ago

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2476123 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2476123 I think people on HN wouldn't really feel comfortable putting themselves forward for an AMA. Maybe it would work if people nominated people they'd like to see do an AMA (or even type of person "someone who's done xyz")