This was from 2013. The general climate here has turned pretty hostile to startups since then. The prevailing advice here is now to land a FAAMG job and slack off with a high standard of living, rather than slaving away at a startup to boost someone else’s capital. What remains is people sharing their side projects, going off-topic and wasting their time one way or another.
> The general climate here has turned pretty hostile to startups since then. The prevailing advice here is now to land a FAAMG job and slack off with a high standard of living
Some times I stumble upon really old HN threads in Google searches and end up missing the quality of old HN discourse. It was never perfect, of course. Nor is the modern version without upsides, as there are often good pieces of wisdom if you sift through enough noise in the comments.
However, modern HN just feels so deeply cynical, angry, and negative with much less of the entrepreneurial tech optimism of the older posts. It’s also starting to feel weirdly disconnected from reality in the way that the extremes of Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook have become echo chambers after consuming non-stop bad news. It’s like people read so many outrage tech stories here that they forget there is an upside to the tech industry.
Big Tech hangs in a weird balance where we’re simultaneously supposed to hate and distrust FAANG companies but also at the same time we’re told to seek out FAANG jobs where we can maximize compensation.
The key to enjoying HN is to ignore any thread remotely related to politics, FAANG, social media, economics (where the comments are actually just about politics), drugs, or open-source drama.
Sadly, the most interesting content links (great blog posts, writings, knowledge, new projects, and so on) generally get fewer upvotes than outrage topics. I try to make a point of actively upvoting the content I want to see here every time I visit.
This is my favorite online place to waste time, after all. And yes, I've given up any dreams of starting my own thing. You pretty much just described me, except not FAAMG (but I am happy where I'm at).
I don't mind this description at all (there's a freedom in giving up even just the dream of the hustle).
4chan often had(maybe still has, dunno haven't checked up on anons for a while) a fantastic feel for irony, satire and parody(including of themselves). People unfairly disregard the true internet comedy gold that 4chan has gifted to society.
> A website where unsuccessful entrepreneurs with egos waste time browsing articles and websites, created by wanna-be entrepreneurs with even bigger egos who are trying to build a following.
> A place unknown to financially successful entrepreneurs.
I always thought the bulk of HN was not entrepreneurs but employed engineers, curious minds, etc. Have I been deluded all this time?
Indeed. There is missing representation in conversations here that make those absences conspicuous. You can see a similar effect on, for example, a company Slack channel, and figure out which groups of employees are having the same conversation on a private channel. Nothing wrong with it unless the members of the side group are obliged to participate in general conversation, and they aren’t here.
Nobody who has ever laid eyes on Bookface could possibly believe that it's a replacement for HN. It's a very different scene, more like Craigslist than Reddit. It would be weird to "hang out" there. Nobody has "fled" HN to Bookface.
One thing i noticed is that most of the conversation here feels alien to me.
I think this is because most of the people here are living in California and they seem to have a very particular world view not always compatible or even undertandable for anyone from any other place.
I used to enjoy this website in like, 2015/16 i think, now the topics are not even tech related anymore.
Fewer than 10% of HN users are in the Bay Area. I don't know what the number for California is but I'd be surprised if it were above 15%. Half of the userbase is outside the U.S. People make a lot of false assumptions about the demographics here.
HN has always had a mix of topics. That hasn't changed.
This is a reflection of how engineers have become aware of the ethical and political effects of their work. To HN's credit the non-technical discussions are of high quality, in general.
From a purely technical standpoint, HN remains the best forum for discovery of new projects and giving feedback to FAANG. (M not so much).
I'm neither part of the tech nor startup scene. I'm happy to see more variety in the content, as long as it's high quality and has interesting comments.
To be frank, work is work and I don't care so much to read about it. I care even less about drama at other companies.
Fair or not, but more and more lately, when searching the web for a useful take on a framework, library, language, or anything else related to computers, I put in a "site:news.ycombinator.com". This way I skip past the multiple pages of blogspam, advertising (disguised or otherwise), and people copying each other's top-ten lists, and might actually see a thoughtful comment or someone's real experience.
> Hey Mr. Cuban, did you see that post on Hacker News?
It's amusing that's the supporting point line, because whoever wrote the entry is placing their self in the category they're trying to peg HN with. I was in business with Mark across a bunch of years, he has always had an interest in news, news aggregation sites, information acquisition and delivery in general. He was familiar with Hacker News, including understanding its association with Y Combinator, and he always liked it when BlogMaverick posts hit the front page. He understood its relevance in the tech ecosystem.
For years after Mark set up his venture capital business, he (his team) used Y Combinator's various public docs as the foundation for the investment agreements.
Interesting (also funny), I never thought of HN from that angle. Does this feel true to HN users or is it more a joke?
While I was transitioning to a software job I found myself checking HN a lot because it seemed like a raw discussion forum for what software engineers were thinking / talking about. Seemed better than Reddit. Still haven't found a better alternative.
On a more serious note, I for one plan on continuing to lurk and comment here until I achieve the unprecedented entrepreneurial financial success that I know my lurking and commenting here more than qualify me for!
I like hacker news for tech news and career subjects, but indie hackers is where the founders seem to hang out. If I need to talk to somebody about bootstrapping, ih is great. A lot fewer technical people though, lots of site builders and no code setups. Hn users can write a bst in their sleep but ih users can make a landing and validate an idea while building a mailing list in their sleep
I think we all make the mistake sometimes of attaching too much weight to the opinions we read online. For some reason I attach more weight to HN opinions but after meeting a few frequent HN posters in real life and seeing recent discussions about vaccines, I no longer do this.
I realize this is a really shitty post and I wish I had the time to rework it to sound less prissy.
99% of entrepreneur fail , that’s literally why it’s hard and why it’s highly respected !
Remember when Tesla almost went Bankrupt ?
It’s very like because it happens almost three times... and only now after 25+ years Tesla is making a profit by selling its cars without sorcery finances...
Being an entrepreneur is hard , I love the Tesla example because even if Elon Musk had the vision and a superior engineering delivery , the company was technically a commercial failure for more than a decade.
Being a better than average engineer ( probably a LOT of HN uses ) is unfortunately not enough to become a sucessfull entrepreneur !
I'm aware of the philosophy behind HN and the dictionary entry alludes to this. From my experience it's more focussed on technology and a liking of knowledge in general.
[+] [-] blululu|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PragmaticPulp|4 years ago|reply
Some times I stumble upon really old HN threads in Google searches and end up missing the quality of old HN discourse. It was never perfect, of course. Nor is the modern version without upsides, as there are often good pieces of wisdom if you sift through enough noise in the comments.
However, modern HN just feels so deeply cynical, angry, and negative with much less of the entrepreneurial tech optimism of the older posts. It’s also starting to feel weirdly disconnected from reality in the way that the extremes of Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook have become echo chambers after consuming non-stop bad news. It’s like people read so many outrage tech stories here that they forget there is an upside to the tech industry.
Big Tech hangs in a weird balance where we’re simultaneously supposed to hate and distrust FAANG companies but also at the same time we’re told to seek out FAANG jobs where we can maximize compensation.
The key to enjoying HN is to ignore any thread remotely related to politics, FAANG, social media, economics (where the comments are actually just about politics), drugs, or open-source drama.
Sadly, the most interesting content links (great blog posts, writings, knowledge, new projects, and so on) generally get fewer upvotes than outrage topics. I try to make a point of actively upvoting the content I want to see here every time I visit.
[+] [-] kbenson|4 years ago|reply
I don't mind this description at all (there's a freedom in giving up even just the dream of the hustle).
[+] [-] cortesoft|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] M5x7wI3CmbEem10|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] halgir|4 years ago|reply
Thread archive: https://desuarchive.org/g/thread/48696148
HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9788317
[+] [-] 0-_-0|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0x737368|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 28255788|4 years ago|reply
> Additionally, the following words MAY NOT be used in variable or function names: master, slave, he, him, his.
Prescient.
[+] [-] hjek|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tyingq|4 years ago|reply
That page is actually pretty funny here and there.
[+] [-] aesh2Xa1|4 years ago|reply
I just came from the “EFF writes a letter to Tim Cook about CSAM” article. I guess we’ve confirmed the parody.
[+] [-] 2OEH8eoCRo0|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brailsafe|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] topicseed|4 years ago|reply
> A place unknown to financially successful entrepreneurs.
I always thought the bulk of HN was not entrepreneurs but employed engineers, curious minds, etc. Have I been deluded all this time?
[+] [-] sillysaurusx|4 years ago|reply
That's because YC founders fled to Bookface many years ago, YC's internal Hacker News.
A YC founder once saw me browsing HN and said "Huh, are you on Bookface?"
I realized later that he'd never been to HN.
[+] [-] 1123581321|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|4 years ago|reply
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22389362
[+] [-] tptacek|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gonehome|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] eddieh|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] novok|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] EMRZ|4 years ago|reply
I think this is because most of the people here are living in California and they seem to have a very particular world view not always compatible or even undertandable for anyone from any other place.
I used to enjoy this website in like, 2015/16 i think, now the topics are not even tech related anymore.
[+] [-] dang|4 years ago|reply
HN has always had a mix of topics. That hasn't changed.
[+] [-] javajosh|4 years ago|reply
From a purely technical standpoint, HN remains the best forum for discovery of new projects and giving feedback to FAANG. (M not so much).
[+] [-] France_is_bacon|4 years ago|reply
I'd love to know.
[+] [-] nicbou|4 years ago|reply
To be frank, work is work and I don't care so much to read about it. I care even less about drama at other companies.
[+] [-] systemvoltage|4 years ago|reply
SV's political culture (and largely America's culture) is being exported to the world at an ever increasing pace: https://www.economist.com/international/2021/06/12/social-me...
Edit: Of course downvotes!
[+] [-] mypastself|4 years ago|reply
Upvote anything with Rust, Go, SQLite, or Haskell in the title; use the words “orthogonal” and “Pareto” as much as possible.
Hate SPAs, Docker, crypto, and someone using the word “crypto” for cryptocurrency.
[+] [-] enlyth|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dennis_moore|4 years ago|reply
Don't forget Julia!
[+] [-] goodpoint|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jstx1|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] leephillips|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elipsey|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hellbannedguy|4 years ago|reply
(Always felt Cuban got lucky during the early days of the gold rush. I feel that way about most financially successful people though?)
I think that definition missed a few HN personality types.
It forgot unsuccessful, lonely, egotistical, disenfranchised, shut-in's---like myself.
[+] [-] adventured|4 years ago|reply
It's amusing that's the supporting point line, because whoever wrote the entry is placing their self in the category they're trying to peg HN with. I was in business with Mark across a bunch of years, he has always had an interest in news, news aggregation sites, information acquisition and delivery in general. He was familiar with Hacker News, including understanding its association with Y Combinator, and he always liked it when BlogMaverick posts hit the front page. He understood its relevance in the tech ecosystem.
For years after Mark set up his venture capital business, he (his team) used Y Combinator's various public docs as the foundation for the investment agreements.
[+] [-] pkdpic_y9k|4 years ago|reply
While I was transitioning to a software job I found myself checking HN a lot because it seemed like a raw discussion forum for what software engineers were thinking / talking about. Seemed better than Reddit. Still haven't found a better alternative.
[+] [-] Nevermark|4 years ago|reply
An Onion article would be even greater praise.
On a more serious note, I for one plan on continuing to lurk and comment here until I achieve the unprecedented entrepreneurial financial success that I know my lurking and commenting here more than qualify me for!
[+] [-] jstx1|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Rd6n6|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beeboop|4 years ago|reply
I realize this is a really shitty post and I wish I had the time to rework it to sound less prissy.
[+] [-] asien|4 years ago|reply
99% of entrepreneur fail , that’s literally why it’s hard and why it’s highly respected !
Remember when Tesla almost went Bankrupt ? It’s very like because it happens almost three times... and only now after 25+ years Tesla is making a profit by selling its cars without sorcery finances...
Being an entrepreneur is hard , I love the Tesla example because even if Elon Musk had the vision and a superior engineering delivery , the company was technically a commercial failure for more than a decade.
Being a better than average engineer ( probably a LOT of HN uses ) is unfortunately not enough to become a sucessfull entrepreneur !
[+] [-] self_buddliea|4 years ago|reply
On the other hand, I still find this amusing.
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] kirykl|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] api|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beeboop|4 years ago|reply