Ask HN: What tangible benefits did you get from spending time on HN?

Re:Ask HN: What tangible benefits did you get from spending ... by User23 on Saturday March 06, 2021 @11:27AM (#26368454)

The average comment quality nosedives when the subject has in any way been politicized. I don’t always follow it, but as a rule for any post about climate, immigration, diversity, and so on reading the comments is at best a waste of time even when the submission is high quality.

Comment quality is generally high on computing related technical subjects—unsurprisingly for a community composed of subject matter experts.

Finally I’ve noticed mixed comment quality on financial posts. There is significant noise but there are many commenters with an excellent operational grasp of how our financial system really works.

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Re:Ask HN: What tangible benefits did you get from spending ... by chubot on Saturday March 06, 2021 @12:34PM (#26368996)

Yes agreed. I find it's pretty easy to tell comments and stories where people are genuinely interested in learning things, and those where there is a lot of "advocacy" or meming of a political position they heard from somebody else.

Some subjects attract a lot of the latter comments. This applies to both technical and business stories.

IMO if you want to get more value, then learn to tell the difference, and don't spend a lot of time "arguing with people on the Internet". You could do that forever on HN, but you can also get a ton of value out of it if you spend your attention wisely.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: What tangible benefits did you get from spending ... by 6510 on Sunday March 07, 2021 @12:29PM (#26377737)

People needed most in political debates have removed themselves from it.

[ Parent | on HN ]