3 ms·
> I feel like I'm seeing the same ideas over and over again. You are. I run a small MSP, we work with end-users all day long, small and medium-sized businesses
by thaumaturgy 12y ago
> I feel like I'm seeing the same ideas over and over again.
You are. I run a small MSP, we work with end-users all day long, small and medium-sized businesses and home users alike. The recurring topics on HN are completely irrelevant to them. Very few new services or products on HN -- maybe a couple per year -- are something we can recommend to them. GoDaddy, Dreamhost, Quickbooks, and Microsoft Office still rule their world. The only YC product that has become ubiquitous in their lives is Dropbox. HN tech topics often reflect small pockets of bleeding-edge techies talking to eachother.
Also, a lot of the opinions expressed in software development here are the diametric opposite of what users want. "Move fast and break things" -- users hate that. "Release early, release often" -- users really hate that. "Don't optimize" -- users are sick of that, we hear about that just about every day, usually in the form of, "why should I bother getting a faster computer, it will still feel slow".
Occasionally I try to relay users' opinions back to software developers and usually it doesn't go over very well. My life is a lot easier if I don't communicate with software developers, and instead tell users that software developers aren't an easy group to work with.
> What do you do to break out of it?
I use a custom news reader that helps me stay off HN. I focus on building things and working with users. I spend more time out in the world, instead of reading about it. I remind myself that news is actually not very valuable, that most of the things I read about aren't anything I can take any action on or will impact me directly.
I haven't owned a television in years and have never been a cable television subscriber, and when I get a glimpse of TV at the gym or restaurant or someone's house or elsewhere, it doesn't look like something I want. Online news is gradually falling into the same bucket for me.