My imho(i am not such a long time HN reader): HN is all about startups and its pushing you to start your company. Period. Its not really a core recourse for programmers/hackers and there is a very small %% of tech material here. Why? Just remove news. and /* from this page URL to find out )))

In other words: NH will not help you to become better programmer/hacker. Just look at http://news.ycombinator.com/ at this moment and see that there are only few tech links there - rest is about "why facebook is better than google" bs.

My point is: If you ultimate goal stable financial situation for your family you can less risky archive it by becoming better programmer.

On meaningful projects: is working on google/apple/any company you like meaningful enough for you?

All above is just my imho of course..