1. Open Chrome
2. Type "sdjkgfhsjkfahfd" into the URL bar
3. Hit enter
I have been using this method since I was 9, has been nothing but useful for me.
The fantastic people in the comment section, with intelligent people who put real thought into what they write. You may find people dropping in from high up in major corporations, are SMEs of the highest order - or are just way cool in their own ways. Love it.
In addition to being a place to always learn, it's a true sanctuary for the mind - especially after eg reading public Facebook/Twitter/YouTube comments on just about anything.
(Thanks all!)
That's the really special part. There's plenty of places to find people that have a differing opinion, but HN does the best job I've encountered of fostering good, substantive discussion.
It doesn't always work, but it works here more often and on more subjects than anywhere else I've found. That "more subjects" part is important too, since unlike a smaller more focused forum, you might find that someone you totally agreed with on one subject the day before is someone you are in complete disagreement with the next day, and this can go a long ways towards helping people to remember that if they disagree on the current subject, the other person is likely a rational, agreeable person that deserves the benefit of doubt when you've found yourself interpreting what they've said as extremely harsh, disagreeable or wrong.
...connected to the tech scene
...ad-free
...not a "social network" in the usual data-harvesting sense
...slim, fast-loading, not riddled with bloat and bullshit
...not plagued quite so badly as the rest of the society "out there" by certain degenerate tendencies in what passes for discourse
...more interested in ideas and substance than in what color car the ideas and substance drove up in (and other black magic)
That's really it - that's enough. I didn't get anything cool like a job, but I know there's loads of info here for that too!