This should be a preference. Ego-boosting sort.

People who are passionate about what they do have a tendency to stand out (pg makes a similar argument on Amateur section of http://www.paulgraham.com/opensource.html).

If you are passionate enough about software development aspects, most HN articles will not feel overwhelming, as you will be constantly improving on your craft. But then you will know how much more there is to learn. Just don't feel overwhelmed then.

I sometimes feel like I'm dragged into too many directions at the same time. Damn interest. But that's it. I love to spin, reading about 3 or 4 frameworks in 2 or 3 languages serially until I feel something like information satisfaction or I'm getting tired.

I think I actually need the diversity of information. Sort of brain stimulation through information overflow. ;)

But it works. Diversity is very good for the brain, i think it's irrelevant in wich form.

And when you're talking about pragprog: http://pragprog.com/titles/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and-lear...

My favourite pragprog book so far.

I suppose I can accept the fact that the majority of people don't represent anything to get flustered about. However, there are people way more talented than me, doing much more important-seeming (that is to say, things that are getting more attention) things, and in general just being more successful than I. I truly mean it when I say "good for them," but it eats away at me. Quarter-life crisis I suppose.

I was on this site as a different name over a year ago and have recently returned. I can tell you that I noticed a pretty significant difference in the quality of users now on this site. There are more low/medium quality comments, and the quips aren't as clever. What's more concerning is the upvote counts on those comments...

That being said, there's no other place I'd rather be.

Oh, and one thing that you have to learn to become comfortable with (or at least Zen about)...there is always somebody better at something than me.

But yes, I've felt like you do.

There are people here that make me feel inadequate as a programmer. I realize that many - if not most of them happen to be people who live & breathe programming, and solving problems and quenching their thirst for knowledge. This means they're world-class programmers, and used to actually using their brains, but it doesn't mean that they're guaranteed to be considerably more intelligent than I am.

Then there are people like patio11, for example. Whenever this guy says anything, it's always brimming with insight & razor-sharp wit. Now, he's kind of a bummer :)

I come on here and find that the vast majority of people are well below my intelligence level. I find that this site is basically a bunch of talentless wantrepreneurial pundits. I come on here to test my patience with idiotic circlejerks - praise Apple, bash Facebook, on and on. Most people I know with real talent feel similarly about HN. Heck, I even know YC guys who feel this way about it.

I'm curious, what have you accomplished that's so great? Do YOU have any achievements to back up your arrogance?

I'd venture to say that you're actually not that intelligent at all. An intelligent person would realize striking a balance between radiating their inner brilliance and being a modest and kind person is necessary in life. You have clearly not yet learned that lesson.

Intelligence won't get you very far when no one wants to work with you because you're a huge dick to everyone around you.

What comments are you talking about? The ones I see are either retarded, extremely arrogant (but not intelligent), or about average (relative to other comments on this site). From his previous comments, I would guess hes of average intelligence, for this site, but EXTREMELY arrogant. Not really a desirable combination, if you ask me.

Even if this site is mostly "talentless wantrepreneurial pundits," which has some truth to it, you're not the slightest bit overwhelmed at the amount of high quality information here?

This is an incredibly important skill; I've found that it's a lot easier to enjoy life if people like you or at least don't dislike you.

Although my account isn't very old, I've lurked at HN off and on for quite a while. It is my impression that they are increasing, although maybe I only pay more attention now that I have an account.

Talking of talent, ping me on duxy786 at google's mail and maybe we can work together!

also I've seen enough from this username that I think, troll???????????????????????????

Yes, Pinky, and there always will be. There's always a faster gunfighter.

See, its comments like this that make the OP and others feel bad :)

I'd rather trade ten smart people for one person who ships.

Sometimes people, even smart people, are unproductive for the usual reasons -- they're lazy/unmotivated or simply just goofing off.

I think it's possible to build a news-site that feeds, say the OP, a news feed that he is 'comfortable with'.

In a more general sense, news sites like HN that use up/down are 'dumb' in the sense that they make a crude (but reasonable) approximation to what each individual wants via a simple[1] summation of what the group wants.

[1] unless I'm mistaken

Not all of the articles are within my technical experience, and some I only barely understand, but I find some seriously mind-blowing things out there.

To the OP...yes. I'm constantly impressed with those who have not only the knowledge and skills, but the sheer drive to build and run a successful startup. Even if I had some crazy-awesome idea that had almost no chance of failure (just as an example), the notion of just...picking up and doing my own thing is a very scary thing to do. I've been job with income stability for so long that the idea of going it on my own scares the hell out of me.

Maybe user-created groups (i.e., subreddits) was simpler and effective.

In fact, in my own experience, I have found it is very difficult for one person (me) to be amazing at all the different things needed to make an idea successful. I'm pretty amazing, but not superman! ;)

It's like only reading Nobel-prize-winning publications and then complaining you feel dumb...

if it worries you so much, why don't you try to make it less popular? eg. by blocking all popular search engines.

a bit more seriously, are there any plans to increase the number of karma-locked features? if people knew that there were more benefits to contributing high quality content/submissions/comments, they might put a bit more time and effort into contributing them.

I find that I carefully word what I write on HN by default. That is the 'culture' of the site. I don't think the median HN reader needs further encouragement to write well. Of course, there are raging dicks everywhere, and people being people will sometimes go off on a tangent. If there was a 'quality of comments' scale, YouTube would probably be near the bottom (just go onto some sorry excuse for a music video and read some spam and inspired fan comments), and HN near the top.

perhaps, for now. but if PG's concerns are valid, then it may be the case that this will change. alternatively, consider it a functional way to reinforce the culture.

I changed all of my videos to moderated comments on YouTube, and I still receive completely inane ones every day, along with "thumbs up if ____" comments. These, again, would be modded into oblivion here.

Maybe I'm one of the unwelcome newbies that are changing this site for the worse (as I'm not involved in a startup), but I don't think this culture has anything to fear as far as quality dilution goes. Noisy, sure, but still high quality.

I like not having to worry about karma because it means I can speak my mind, instead of simply commenting the popular responses in hope of karma.

Remember the tools that you had at your disposal and some one else. Dont get overwhelmed by what others have achieved or seems to have achieved.