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Ask HN: What is the best thing you learnt or got out of Hacker News?

• seeknotfind 3y ago
  You never know when knowledge on a scrap of paper floating in the wind turns out to be the key to the door of your destiny. I've read this site for about 10 years now. The biggest thing is all the random blog posts I wouldn't ordinarily stumble upon. A lot of times, programming problems come up at work, and of course I know all the details of some arcane trivia because of 3 different articles I'd seen on it and different perspectives on it. The biggest problem is then trying to go back and find which blog article I read. That's impossible.
  • moralestapia 3y ago
    I use the 'favorite' feature as my bookmark list on this site.
    • walterbell 3y ago
      Would be nice to have offline full-text search of favorite HN stories and comments.
  • frfl 3y ago
    not a perfect solution, might not work for everyone, but keeping a personal wiki (folder with markdown files, Emacs Org Mode, Obsidian, etc) has worked well for me. Better than thousands of browser bookmarks I had prior.
• genmud 3y ago
  I think the constant drip of interesting hardware related stuff has gotten me out of my software comfort zone.
• andremedeiros 3y ago
  There's an HN post that takes first place on my bookmarks bar, which is an Ask HN about the best paper people read in 2020 [^1]. Every once in a while I'll open it and browse through a ton of amazing papers and research and try to learn something new. Hasn't let me down yet. [^1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25346456 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25346456
• paulcole 3y ago
  Helped me get over the belief that people in tech must be super smart. Turns out they’re just as dumb as the rest of us.
  • bedobi 3y ago
    This!!! I've struggled with impostor syndrome A LOT but coming here and seeing a lot of supposedly well paid, successful, highly educated people say the things they sometimes do... I don't mean to say I'm smarter, I'm just saying, it's comforting.
  • narag 3y ago
    Sounds bad, but just change "dumb" for "naive" or "biased" and we agree. To be more specific, it helps me identify the ways people gets behind some weird idea and maybe why. Same goes for the negativity that someone mentions in another comment, it's the same to me: unexpected reactions that say more about who reacts than about the criticized idea.
• bsamuels 3y ago
  This is as meta as it gets, but I learned what it sounds like when smart sounding, but closed minded people try to shut down an idea. Looking over all the old YC projects that ended up being wildly successful, but their HN threads were full of naysayers who are better at sounding smart on the internet than providing actual feedback. Learning to differentiate between that kind of poster and people who have genuine feedback that reflects what users actually want is invaluable.
  • polishdude20 3y ago
    Being wildly successful doesn't mean the idea wasn't bad. There's more than money and success that some "smart" people think of when complaining about ideas on here.
    • churchill 3y ago
      I think it's safe to safe you're the kind of guy bsamuels above is talking about :)
  • raldi 3y ago
    Yeah. Living in SF, where self-driving cars are a constant daily sight, I recently went back and read a HN thread from five years ago with comments like, “I work in the industry. There’s no way you’re going to be seeing them in 5-10 years.” Someone should do a roundup of these kind of posts: the Dropbox announcement, etc
    • mickael-kerjean 3y ago
      The infamous FTP top answer on the Dropbox launch is what led me to open source a solution to the Dropbox problem [1] after spending a bit too much time on the drawing board trying to understand the limit of FTP and why we couldn't have a Dropbox solution based on FTP. From that reflection I then made it work with every possible file transfer protocol you could think of. [1] https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash
    • interestica 3y ago
• willio58 3y ago
  The discussion has been what brings me back. I comment a lot on HN which is an exception for me online and I find the replies I get are very thoughtful, even when they disagree. Every now and then I comment on something and someone comes in with a reply that shifts my perspective. That's what excites me.
• dirtybirdnj 3y ago
  It provides me with a sense of community that I lack in my life. I am driven by technology but not a lot of other people in my life are interested in these things. It's often providing me with "restore faith in humanity" experiences when I see exchanges in the comments where the worst impulses of humanity are expressed, and someone will respond with an eloquent and well articulated rebuttal to the insanity that society has normalized. There are also lots of smart people saying really dumb shit on here as other comments have alluded to. But overall, this is one place that consistently restores my hope that there are other people out there who think like I do and share even a few of my values.
  • monnow 3y ago
    I second this. Being a farmer with a huge interest in electronics and programming, I don't get to hang around like-minded people (generally, I barely to get to hang with people that have a decent grasp of their mother tongue, thus I just work and listen to podcasts and some audiobooks). The hn comment section and some of the blogs I read here make the tech world something tangible, rather than something only happening in some far away land.
    • solardev 3y ago
      As a programmer interested in (mechanized) farming, how does one get started? Are there crossover interest groups where people discuss automated farming?
  • TacticalCoder 3y ago
    > It provides me with a sense of community that I lack in my life. I am driven by technology but not a lot of other people in my life are interested in these things. You should try to find meet ups and/or hacker spaces if you live near an actual city. I've been to several countries and have always been able to find those (well, ok, except when I was in rural France with the closest real city a 1h30+ min drive or so).
• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
• foobarbecue 3y ago
  HN introduced me to meteorjs, which is still the only js framework that makes it easy to bind database, app state, and UI ("3-way data binding") without a lot of mental gymnastics.
• pmontra 3y ago
  It's not one specific piece of information but how to deal with people. In case you reply to somebody to explain why they are wrong, start a reply with a positive (nobody is 100% wrong) then tell them what you think they got wrong. It's much more effective. Similarly, don't be snarky. Source: observation of a zillion of threads and how they evolved in the two cases, and which ones were downvoted.
• zingababba 3y ago
  I have HN showing up in it's own tab in Feedly. Just click on the stuff that's interesting. It gives a /decent/ pulse on what's going on. There are sometimes nuggets of gold in the comments. For actual technical content Lobste.rs is a superior source though IMO.
  • cyberge99 3y ago
    Is that still invite only? Anyone have an invite to share?
• walterbell 3y ago
  None of us is as smart as all of us.
• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
• jytechdevops 3y ago
  that yoe != knowing more or having the right answer
• PreInternet01 3y ago
  If you're always disagreeing with everyone about everything, first check (and if necessary install) the CO2 detectors in your primary living space. If symptoms persist, talk to a mental health professional -- even if you're in a locale that doesn't value such things, this tends to be surprisingly affordable. And, in the end, also surprisingly helpful.
  • dontcontactme 3y ago
    my friend, CO2 is a natural part of the atmosphere and is emitted from your mouth with every breath you take. Carbon monoxide (CO) is the dangerous gas that you are thinking of.
    • interestica 3y ago
      I think they actually did mean CO2/Carbon Dioxide. There can be issues with air quality in areas with poor ventilation. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26273786/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26273786/
    • ben0x539 3y ago
      It's incredibly easy for CO2 levels to get to uncomfy levels in an enclosed living space such as my office at home with no central air and a closed door, especially in the heat of local summer where I will try very hard to not open the windows, or a shitty small meeting room at the overpriced coworking space. It's emitted from my mouth with every breath I take yeah that's exactly the problem. :( It's definitely not as bad as carbon monoxide poisoning but it's also much easier to inflict on yourself at least to the point where it can make you drowsy and worsen your headaches.
    • PreInternet01 3y ago
      Yes, CO2 is perfectly natural, as is Arsenic. Yet, a high concentration of CO2 implies, in most non-contrived situations, a high concentration of CO. Which is also about as good for you as a high concentration of Arsenic. Make of that what you will, and do consider that if you think it's a perfect cure for (whatever), you might be a tad wrong...
• checkyoursudo 3y ago
  That I could do a Ph.D. even though I am over 40. Then I went for it. No regrets.
  • solardev 3y ago
    Good for you!! Was there a particular thread that discussed this?
    • checkyoursudo 3y ago
      I don't remember a specific one, or a specific tipping point. And of course it wasn't just people here that influenced me. But this place, with so many curious people, motivated people, was a pretty good positive reinforcement for me. There have been discussions over the years about people getting PhDs in their later years or even in retirement, people changing careers at late ages, starting companies even though no longer childless and carefree, things like that, that helped motivate me. It wasn't so much about why any of them did it. That is really personal to each individual and not motivating, I think. More that people have succeeded in doing it was what I needed to see.
• KineticLensman 3y ago
  For me, it's a few things (some of them also identified in other comments here) * Keeping my finger on tech and its changes * A tech community * Off-the-wall things to read * Ideas for side projects - e.g. implementing lisps interpreters All of these have got more valuable now that I'm retired and not surrounded by tech peers
• azangru 3y ago
  I learnt the power of frontend minimalism, in how it helps make websites fast and resilient :-)
• Oras 3y ago
  1. Being up to date with science, news, and tech. HN never disappoint in seeing what's going on in many industries not just tech. 2. Sometimes, the comments are not actually related to the topic itself (just the title), but nevertheless, I find value reading different perspectives in the comments.
• spuz 3y ago
  Within an hour of the Log4shell bug becoming public, I was able to inform our team and figure out how it impacted us. Yes we do have subscriptions to alerts from security services whose job it is to track this kind of thing but feeling like I can keep on top of the most critical security issues along with them feels quite valuable.
• phugoid 3y ago
  HN is a spark plug that caused various forward motions and explosions in my life. I learned about open source and Linux; in time that went from a new hobby to a change of direction in my career. I learned about startups, and figured I should try since I'm also a genius who can build a great product. It took quite a bit of money and time lost to convince me otherwise. I found out about the online CS Masters program at Georgia Tech and did that a few years ago, this led to moving countries and getting a job doing AI.
• sgc 3y ago
  I do some programming, but I am an academic working outside academia, rather than a programmer. I love keeping up to date on the tech world here, and I have learned many important things that have helped me over the years. But what really keeps me here is something else. It doesn't always prove to be true, but the site is generally a calmer, more educated conversation than what I find on other sites. I don't have as much interaction with other educated people as I would like in my daily life, so these interactions, even if on subjects that are not my core interests, are quite valuable to me.
• zelphirkalt 3y ago
  A few recommendations of truly good books about computer programming. That, or perhaps in general seeing work or prose of extremely skilled programmers, which lets one know, how much one still has to learn, avoiding ones own skill to plateau, because of thinking, that one already knows all there is to know.
• daza 3y ago
  Books recommendations, without a doubt.
• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
• __rito__ 3y ago
  The learning resources people share here are fantastic and leveled me up by a lot. Whether it is SICP, Conway's Game of Life book, great MOOCs in Coursera or whatever! My life has been changed by the gems of learning resources shared as submissions and comments. And not only text or text-like material, the amount of good books I have found in the comments here are better than all other communities combines. I cannot put up a complete list- I found about Neal Stephenson from HN, and Cryptonomicon is in my top-5 novels. I also loved Diamond Age. I learned to meditate with Culadasa's book which I came to know about in HN comments. Not exaggerating, my life has taken a good turn because of meditation. I can spend at least the next five years reading great fiction and nonfiction recommended here. I also come to know about many mental models, methods, etc. which have made me better. I was born in a middle class family, and never was poor. But these were all unknown to me. HN has been an equalizer for me.
• JohnnyIrish1956 3y ago
  In 2015 I stumbled upon the empathic reaction of Iranians on 9/11. From the article that had photos and cites from credible international newspapers to back it up, I browsed more on the blog and was fascinated by the photos. This was really an eye opening experience for me, understanding that we should not base our full view on news programs on TV, and I started to read more travel blogs to learn from travellers about foreign countries. The original article was this one: https://theotheriran.com/2015/09/12/irans-exceptional-reaction-to-911-attacks-candlelit-vigils-for-the-victims-and-60k-soccer-fans-respected-a-minutes-silence/ https://theotheriran.com/2015/09/12/irans-exceptional-reacti... I can recommend everyone to skim the photos, covering many aspect of Iranians lives that we cannot imagine.
  • Gibbon1 3y ago
    I had a Iranian girl sitting next to me in one of my classes during the Iranian hostage crisis. I can not not think of her sitting there in class as students would go off about what they wanted to do to Iran. Drove home to me that the small groups of people that run all the various countries have their agendas and spats with each other that have little to do with the interests of the populous.
• l0b0 3y ago
  The less-than-wildly popular posts are where the gold is. The 1000+ voted posts are usually not very interesting (but probably rage-inducing to some part of the community, for sure), but looking through a few hundred posts with a couple tens of votes each usually brings up something worth reading to the end.
• unintendedcons 3y ago
  I got a new social group in Toronto and we run a weekly meetup now, so that's pretty cool. Mondays.pizza if you're in town :)
• talaba 3y ago
  I learned about AirVPN from someone here. Most of the well known VPN providers are blocked in my country, but AirVPN works like a charm.