In many ways it is not. It's an endless source of procrastination and staying here too long without other influences will cause you to develop a most profound case of engineer's disease and blind you to the specific brand of groupthink here. Still, the level of discourse here is high compared to the worst of Reddit, and sometimes on topics I find highly engaging, which keeps me coming back for more (distraction). Just don't fall into the logical fallacy that any of us here are worth more than any other human being because (some of us) have more money, or that we're able to string English words together to form complete sentences.

I admit to meeting up with an old classmate in-person after spending weeks with HN as my main source of social interaction, and then regularly referencing anecdotes on old HN threads in the conversation and advocating for Linux/GNU for an OS; talking down big tech companies in favor of living frugally to contribute to open-source projects; and arguing in favor of working at startups versus big companies if given the chance.

I've since matured to avoid citing HN when referencing anecdotes (instead saying "I read once that..."), being agnostic about where one works (as long as it fits your personal career goals), and trying to also develop my worldview through well-regarded classic books.

I'm hopeful that the HN I enjoyed 10 years ago can be brought back when the reddit refugees who destroyed their own site lose interest.

It was brought back, it is http://lobste.rs

Need someone to invite you though

I can invite you.

I view it like a single subreddit with a community of pretty decent folks.

Reddit is a large wasteland, and comment interactions very often turn sour.

I’m not sure it is much better, but moderation does have an impact on the tone of the conversation. New content pops up a bit slower, so it’s a bit less exciting. There’s a culture of sourcing information.

Moderation keeps most people 'civil' in a formal sense - avoiding dang action. I still quite honestly find the tone here mean and condescending a very significant part of the time. Every one of my subreddits is refreshingly wholesome by comparison. Of course, one can individually quit any subreddit they find irritating.

However, after begging my therapist for help with my doomscrolling, I deleted the Reddit app. We'll see if I end up resorting to blocking HN somehow.

I’m afraid I’m not going to be helpful here, but here’s how I quit Reddit: I simply did it. I realized I was done. I stopped believing I was getting something from it. In 2014 I quit smoking in a similar fashion. Just realized it was bad, didn’t smoke afterwards.

HN is still a great place to understand the ideology of Silicon Valley and its industry. I’ve never left Europe and this forum seems to give me an edge about what’s happening here.

The volume is limited and the density is higher. Once you're on top of everything you found interesting you just turn away and do something else.