I think it's related to post-purchase rationalisation. People are emotionally wedded to the tools they use and the paradigms they operate in because changing (or, God forbid, "catching up") implies they've somehow miscalculated or invested their time incorrectly.

Especially in the tech scene, a lot of people see themselves as unappreciated geniuses. The idea that there's a good, simple alternative that will get mass adoption that they haven't thought of doesn't fit that narrative. There must have been a reason they already dismissed the idea, so they approach it skepticism. (The money thing is related to this - unappreciated geniuses deserve a good get-rich-quick scheme, after all.)

I also noticed the slew of $$$-related articles lately. I wonder if that's just a coincidence or a real trend.

Number of startups is way up, number of financial events is up, number of links on the home page is still 30 ;)

I think the point is that because the number of startups & startup-related financial events are higher, those 30 stories contain more startup-related financial event stories than previously.

What's the difference between your post and its parent?

OP (parent's parent) suggested that there are more startups now and therefore more startup finance stories as a result.

Parent suggested that despite this there are only ever thirty articles on the front page at a time, so we shouldn't see more finance ones.

I pointed out that this just means that the ratio of finance stories within that thirty is likely to be higher.

> Parent suggested that despite this there are only ever thirty articles on the front page at a time, so we shouldn't see more finance ones.

No. Parent's point was the same as yours: numerator increased and denominator unchanged implies fraction increased.

You can read it either way. I assumed because of the winky face that he wasn't agreeing with OP.

Hey, you're on the 'message board' of a professional investment firm. What did you expect, a bunch of altruists totally not hoping all their comment karma will magically cause them to be called up by PG and swept into the next YC round on a golden carpet of SV-Angel convertible notes?

Technically this is hacker news, a site for links/news about hacking and things hackers would find interesting. While startups have always been something the site has featured, over the years it seems to have shifted significantly more toward a startup/money focus which is why I've personally reduced my reading here by a fair amount.

Recently I've been finding that my twitter feed is a much better way to get my dose of hacking related stuff -- if you follow the right people it's wonderful! (It's kind of sad that I have resorted to that though, since HN did open my eyes to a lot of things back in high school.)

This site originally became popular because it felt like the opposite of what you describe (ironic as it now seems).

True, but I'd wager the majority of readers/commenters are not investors but entrepreneurs. It'd be nice to see more support and can-do-ness rather than dumping on ideas. More constructive criticism than that's stupid and will never work.

The entrepreneurs are probably faced with a bit of 'zero-sum' syndrome, where if someone else is doing something successful or cool, then they may feel that there is less room in the market for their own idea/product.

I personally come here for tech related stuff (not an entrepreneur, don't particularly care to become one) but still find myself getting caught up in the latest funding BS news. Unfortunately, SV (and HN) seems to be getting watered down with a lot of money-chasers. Of course, I am sure someone, somewhere was saying the exact same thing 30 years ago, so whatever...