Oh yeah, that's something I've started to spend a lot more time on now. Sometimes the threads are hard to read/follow, but once in a while there are such gems in the comments, it's definitely worth it.

Sometimes the sheer number of comments is daunting too. Seeing some discussions reach three, four, five, even six hundred comments is almost a deterrent. I'll usually look at the first few top level threads to see if anything interests me if not, I'll move on.

I also wonder how it's possible that big of a discussion is happening in the middle of the day. I usually take a break from coding for 5 or 10 minutes, pop over to HN, refresh and see if anything sparks my interest. Then I notice some article has gone from 1XX to 3XX comments and am just like 'huh...'