
Ask HN: What interesting stuff are you browsing? - strooper
My online activity seems to be in a loop comprise of hackernews, email check, and google news recently. It seems all these sites are updating very slowly; or am I checking too frequently?<p>What interesting stuff are you browsing recently?
======
wenc
I've been trawling subreddits to get a ground-level view of common narratives
that we hold on to but have never thought to collect data on.

For instance, there's a common and oft-repeated notion that food delivery apps
are screwing over drivers, not just restaurants. So I've been reading the
Couriersofreddit sub to get the story from the horses' mouths:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/couriersofreddit/](https://www.reddit.com/r/couriersofreddit/)

It turns you can make quite a bit driving for GH/UE (well in some
geographies), so much so that a $15/hr job with benefits is unattractive.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/couriersofreddit/comments/gkmuc4/wo...](https://www.reddit.com/r/couriersofreddit/comments/gkmuc4/would_you_take_amazon_driver_for_15hour_plus/)

I want to work towards a just world, but I believe the first step is to really
understand the system of incentives and what is actually happening on the
ground, as opposed to simply taking in oversimplified media narratives.

Subreddits are watering holes for folks in the field. I think their
unvarnished perspectives are interesting data points (albeit skewed towards a
Reddit-centric demographic).

~~~
dyslexit
I'm very weary of resistor self-reported "data points". They don't often
reflect real life for most people, or worse, don't even reflect really even
for the commentor. I seriously doubt the person saying he makes $35-$40 an
hour doing uber eats is any sort of real average even for him. On top of that
a thread like that is more motivating to respond to for people who want to
give a "fuck you" to Amazon or who want to brag about their profits than it is
for the average driver.

~~~
dclusin
In the rare occasions I take an Uber I always ask about the economics of it.
From my anecdata it seems like most have never done any modeling of
depreciation or maintenance cost forecasting, even extremely basic like miles
until major service required and how much it would cost. At most they factor
in the monthly oil change, if they even do that.

Maybe some enterprising person on here could make a slick web app to help
people estimate depreciation and maintenance costs, with a user interface that
people with a high school diploma could understand.

~~~
cskinner
Our local motoring association (RACV in Victoria, Australia) provides a car
running cost calculator, including precomputed values for common models
organised by category. Their methodology seems pretty solid.

[https://www.racv.com.au/on-the-road/buying-a-car/car-
running...](https://www.racv.com.au/on-the-road/buying-a-car/car-running-
costs.html)

------
yowlingcat
> It seems all these sites are updating very slowly; or am I checking too
> frequently?

Congratulations, friend. You have arrived at a kind of limbo that in all
likelihood you will end up at again in the future. I congratulate you, because
you have arrived at the point where you have "synced" \-- that is to say, you
have processed material from your desired channels from the post to the
present moment such that this feeling you are experiencing, an almost
emptiness or that of negative space, encapsulates and closes in upon the
definition of "present moment".

Give it a day, and new content will arrive in your familiar channels. You'll
consume it, and return to this familiar, interstitial area.

Perhaps now is as good a time as any to consider directionality. Is it a good
time to go back on material you've previously processed and re-process it for
refinement? It will only deepen your intuition and the firmness of your
intellectual grip. Is it time for you to seek out a new channel, as you're
doing here? That too, is a new adventure. Is it maybe time to begin forming
your own channel? So too could that be a new adventure.

And if none of those sound appealing? Well, perhaps that is even more
appealing. Perhaps you, like many other folks, have finally come to that point
where you ask "what's next?" to a deafeningly loud internal silence. This is
good. This is where the interesting stuff happens.

If I can give you a word of advice -- don't feel so inclined to have to come
up with an answer immediately. It's possible that you may need to keep your
internal eyes and ears open for when the answer finds /you/.

And to answer your question in a more literal manner -- take a look at what
you've liked, commented on, and favorited on Hacker News. You can probably
identify some areas that you tend to enjoy exploring. Try and find
folks/communal spaces on Twitter and Reddit (maybe YouTube too, if possible)
that also explore those areas. From there, you can branch out, whether it's
talking directly with those folks to get a sense of what they think is
interesting that you might not know about (this is the best way, IMO) or
following new paths out further.

But, I will stress: try and soak in the feeling and fully absorb it. To run
away from it could be to waste it, and it's something that you may one day
look back upon as more rare and valuable than it originally felt.

~~~
MamaJumba
> an almost emptiness or that of negative space, encapsulates and closes in
> upon the definition of "present moment".

It definitely feels like that more and more for me recently. Sometimes it
feels like "I've watched these videos before" on YouTube or I find the memes
on Reddit repetitive or unfunny. It gets to the point where I don't mind
rewatching videos..

~~~
lawkwok
I've taken these feelings as cues to get off the internet and focus my energy
toward the "real world", as cheesy as it may sound.

I feel more joy and direct benefit through improving interacting with the
physical environment like cleaning the house, learning the science of baking
and cooking and giving the results to friends and family.

It feels more like I'm living real life than having my life disappear into the
ether of the web.

------
jmspring
In support of my offline diversion from working too much. Been researching
Hugel Kultur. Another approach to raised beds. Most of the research is around
what organics in the area I live make sense.

[https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/many-benefits-
hugelk...](https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/many-benefits-hugelkultur)

~~~
pwdisswordfish2
As a German that name sounds suspiciously German, in which case it should be
“Hügelkultur” (hill culture). I don’t know why the article gives a completely
fantastical pronunciation. If it’s a loan word you can pronounce it however
you want, if the article wants to make it look like a foreign word whose
pronunciation needs to be explained, I feel like it should do it right.

The English wikipedia article has some PIE:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCgelkultur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCgelkultur)

Unlike ö (pretty much the i in girl) and ä (pretty much any English a), it’s
hard to find an example of the ü sound in English. I guess it’s somewhere on
the gradient between the “ee” and “oo” in “new”.

Usually the most familiar ü-word English speakers are familiar with is “über”
(over, about, above, also fig. in the sense of superior). I believe this is
the fault of “Übermensch”…

~~~
gen220
I was taught to make the sound as (1) make a long “e” (as in leek) shape with
your mouth, (2) pronounce the “e”, (3) leaving the tongue and rear part of the
mouth in place, change the position of the lips to make the shape of “o” as in
“oh”.

This configuration doesn’t exist in normal English, but it’s not too far away!
Once you know what it’s supposed to sound like, the next trick is combining it
with consonants.

------
dorkwood
I've been browsing the likes of people on Twitter. It works like this: find
one person you think is interesting or does interesting work, and go to the
'likes' section of their profile. Scroll through their likes until you find
something else that's interesting. Click through to that person's profile, and
repeat. You can find some really cool stuff doing this, especially if you
happen upon someone with similar taste. It's a great way to surface content
without waiting for the algorithm to serve it up to you.

~~~
_xgw
This general concept of going back to the source of the information can be
applied to many other social networks to find higher-quality/interesting
content. I started browsing hackernews because I realized a lot of the content
posted on reddit on /r/programming and tech-related subreddits was often
posted here first.

It all starts by taking the time to examine the content you consume & why you
enjoy consuming it.

------
papeda
I always rep Wikipedia's "random page" function [1]. Random page is especially
useful if you are cooped up at home and can't access normal sources of
randomness like close conversation with other people, the rustle of leaves in
trees, sunlight filtering through passing clouds, etc.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random)

~~~
austinl
Reminds me of the Wikipedia vital articles. I've been trying to learn German,
so I've been picking one mostly at random and reading the German translation.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vital_articles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vital_articles)

~~~
sawmurai
Brilliant idea. I will use it to improve my polish!

------
geocrasher
These aren't signs that you're not finding the right feeds. They are signs
that you need to unplug a bit and go do something in meat space. The Internet
will still be there when you get back ;-)

------
sendbitcoins
"Two Minute Papers"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu56xVlZ40M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu56xVlZ40M)

GTC 2020 Part 2 was pretty good
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeScfkCm3b4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeScfkCm3b4)

Mostly I'm in a rut as well

------
organicfigs
Probably the least interesting, esoteric, and useless topic but it's a rabbit
hole none the less: the taxonomy of ancestors of modern-day elephants such as
the Deinotherium
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinotherium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinotherium)).
A lot of them look wild and they're interesting to read up on.

------
anarchyrucks
Not browsing per se but I've been reading
[https://datadass.dev/](https://datadass.dev/) and reading source code of
various storage engines and their documentation. SQLite and Postgres have a
very good documentation with implementation details. The plan is to write my
own storage engine. I'm creating a spec for my own implementation for now.
This has been keeping me busy while I'm not doing my regular work.

~~~
djhworld
typo in the link: [https://www.databass.dev/](https://www.databass.dev/)

------
RupertWiser
For mindless browsing when you’re trying to fill a few minutes, I’m quite a
fan of Mix [1]. I believe this used to be stumbleupon. You simply enter your
interests and it keeps suggesting related content.

[1] [https://community.mix.com/blog/2019/2/27/introducing-the-
mix...](https://community.mix.com/blog/2019/2/27/introducing-the-mix-app-for-
android)

~~~
gabagoo
I was just going to ask if anyone knew of a modernized version of Stumbleupon.
Thanks, had no idea this existed.

------
EvanWard97
Took a break and have been thinking and researching idealized/better/pure ways
of doing things. E.g. exploring alternative:

\- number systems. Base 12 would be nice.

\- systems of measurement. Adjusting the SI base unit to be even powers of
Plank Units seems ideal.

\- calendar systems. 12 month years, 5 week months, 6 day weeks (with an extra
5 or 6 day week at the end of the year) seems nice.

\- time system. A new time system based off 12. Sub-units are 2 hours, 10
minutes, 50 seconds, 4.16 seconds, and .3472 seconds. Time can be a normal
number then like A63.B8

\- languages. Lojban seems awesome!

\- coding. Replacing C and C++ with D and Rust, and Python/R/Matlab with
Julia.

\- taxes. Land value taxes really do seem awesome.

Probably over half this has been via Wikipedia.

~~~
gxon
Why not the 13 month calendar? e.g.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fixed_Calendar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fixed_Calendar)

Obviously 12 is nice for divisibility (easy quarters and halves), but are
there any other key reasons?

~~~
gxon
OMG. There's a dedicated calendar wiki,
[https://calendars.wikia.org/wiki/Main_Page](https://calendars.wikia.org/wiki/Main_Page)

I don't know why I'm surprised, but this brightened by day!

------
mhb
Applied Science videos:
[https://www.youtube.com/user/bkraz333/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/bkraz333/videos)

------
nanomonkey
Sign up for newsletters from interesting people, they'll send you down more
rabbit holes than you'll need. Corey Doctorow, Robert Sloan, Tim Ferriss,
Kneeling Bus, Jeremy Singer-Vine, The Convivial Society, Eric Weinhoffer and
Peter Attia are a few to check out.

After that and Hacker News, I suggest setting up a decentralized media account
such as Scuttlebutt, Beaker Browser, or Mastodon.

------
thomas
Always Wikipedia. Click a link. Any link. Click a link inside that article.
Repeat 3-5x and you will be at something fascinating and obscure.

------
seddin
I discovered wiby.me the other day and found this site called neocities and
there I was able to find a large amount of blogs/personal sites with cool
designs that reminded me of the old days on the internet.

------
kgwxd
I suggest using an RSS reader so you never have to consider a feed item more
than once in your life.

~~~
beagle3
Indeed. As a long time paying user of NewsBlur (not otherwise affiliated) I
highly recommend it.

Can be self hosted, but I’m too lazy; price is acceptable and Sam Clay just
makes this laziness feel justified :)

------
juststeve
Project Gutenberg top 100:
[https://www.gutenberg.org/browse/scores/top](https://www.gutenberg.org/browse/scores/top)

------
oblib
I'm kind of feeling like I reached the end of the internet the past few days.
I'm sure I'll find another rabbit hole soon enough, and I really need to get
outside more right now anyway so it's not a bad thing. Might have to do more
with having a pretty long spell of rainy days.

~~~
FailMore
Hey, can you email me? (Email on profile.) I also get to that "saturated"
place a lot and am not satisfied. I know there is more interesting content out
there. I'm trying to solve the problem, so would love to chat to you/see if
you eventually want to beta test.

~~~
oblib
Yeah... that's something that's been on my mind so I'd be interested in that.

------
cdiamand
A friend and I are curating a list of finance articles -
[http://topstonks.com](http://topstonks.com)

Trying to keep it funny, edgy, and informative.

If anyone knows of a place to find interesting articles on High frequency and
algorithmic trading, let me know!

~~~
soared
I'm a huge fan of your site's design. I'm too unemployed to stomach reading
your content, but motley fool and deeper pockets are my two usual sources for
finance reading.

~~~
cdiamand
Thank you!

------
FailMore
If you are looking to try something new I launched
[https://taaalk.co](https://taaalk.co).

It's a platform for longform online discussions between two or more people.
You can read other people's or make your own.

------
zakokor
My recent links are shared here
[https://pegao.co/@zakokor](https://pegao.co/@zakokor)

~~~
FailMore
Hey, I just want to congratulate you on building a stunning product. I really
like the design and feel of the site. Congrats!

~~~
zakokor
Great, thank you for the feedback!

------
sarthakjshetty
Mostly experimental drugs and their histories. Given the pandemic, I'm reading
a bit about drugs like Remsdevir. Bloomberg put out this great longform
article [1] on how Gilead had the foresight to actually ramp up Remsdevir
production when the inital reports broke out of Wuhan.

Also, historically how drugs went through clinical trials, experimentation,
production etc. The anti-HIV drug AZT is well documented, and there's a great
article here [2] by TIME if you're interested.

[1] - [https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-gilead-remdesivir-
co...](https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-gilead-remdesivir-coronavirus-
treatment/)

[2] - [https://time.com/4705809/first-aids-drug-
azt/](https://time.com/4705809/first-aids-drug-azt/)

------
Brajeshwar
It has been like that for quite some time for me too. I try to avoid tempting
to add more to it. No news for me. If it is important/interesting enough, I
will hear it on Twitter or from my wife.

So, for me, it is;

\- (Desktop): HackerNews, Twitter, Email mostly

\- (Mobile): Photography / Videography. Text mostly. Phones calls are rare.

If you want to fill in, try starting a reading habit or even better, writing.
I've 2 stickies right in front of me on the wall just above the monitor that
says "Read anything today?" and "Wrote anything today?" I'm failing on the
writing part and struggling to make it happen.

------
narengowda16
Learning System Design
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn1XnDWhsLS5URXTi5wtFTA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn1XnDWhsLS5URXTi5wtFTA)

------
implements
Arts and Letters Daily.

No commenting, but kinda like a HNs for the Arts:

[https://www.aldaily.com/alt/](https://www.aldaily.com/alt/)

~~~
cambalache
It is a good site with 2 caveats. It is center-right (this is not bad per se,
but just be aware of the bias). With a high frequency, the summaries are
terrible and misleading.

~~~
reedwolf
It's also highly opposed to the concept of artificial intelligence or anything
resembling computational theories of mind.

I don't think they've ever posted anything that puts computers and modern tech
in a good light.

------
Kaibeezy
Synchronizing my walking desk pace with the GBP/USD exchange rate chart on

[https://www.poundsterlinglive.com/data/currencies/gbp-
pairs/...](https://www.poundsterlinglive.com/data/currencies/gbp-pairs/GBPUSD-
exchange-rate)

1 min, 30 min, 1 day, candles, kagi, baseline, heikin ashi, zoom in, zoom out,
both axes.

------
ibobev
Recently I browsed
[http://www.indieretronews.com/](http://www.indieretronews.com/). This is a
site with information about new games for old computers like Commodore 64,
Amiga and so on, and also for retro styled indie games for modern systems. I
even posted it to HN.

------
abellerose
The most interesting things I view online are from hackernews, reddit, etsy,
advance.lexis, researchgate, medscape, sanctionedsuicide, and occasional
youtube videos. Usually topics & areas of interested related to programming,
law, medical, and homestyle activities like cooking & DIY projects.

------
samcgraw
Plug for a website I built to combat against this very 'loop' I too was
experiencing.

It's a site for collaborative fiction through writing prompts, if you like
reading or writing: [https://www.storylocks.com](https://www.storylocks.com)

------
thomas
I’ve been researching and looking high and low for some kettlebells! It’s
crazy how hard it is to find some hunks of cast iron right now.

Stuff like: [https://helpatmyhome.com/best-
kettlebells/](https://helpatmyhome.com/best-kettlebells/)

------
FailMore
Hey, can you email me? (Email on profile.) I also get to that "saturated"
place a lot and am not satisfied. I know there is more interesting content out
there. I'm trying to solve the problem, so would love to chat to you/see if
you eventually want to beta test.

------
karanke
Hey, I'm currently writing a newsletter on reframing ideas from pop culture
using first principles, would appreciate if you could take a look:
[https://reframing.substack.com/](https://reframing.substack.com/).

------
opportune
I've been getting back into pro starcraft watching the TSL, which is an
ongoing tourney that just finished airing the first round today. Very
interesting and challenging game. There is a ton of data out there in the form
of past games to watch.

------
marmot777
I’d say that the most satisfying reading are articles and documentation
regarding things that I’m trying to get better at.

It’s good to be as well informed as possible on what’s going on in the world
but there’s diminishing returns after a hour or so of news in a day.

------
Anon84
Mostly CoVID19 related stuff for work and my ongoing blog series:
[https://github.com/DataForScience/Epidemiology101](https://github.com/DataForScience/Epidemiology101)

------
JacobDotVI
Http://marginalrevolution.com - lots of interesting links and commentary.

~~~
tudorw
and now I know I can buy tear gas flavoured ice cream, thanks for that ;)

------
tim333
I was on a bunch of coronavirus stuff - subreddits, twitter etc. Dunno how
healthy that is. Also the news has slowed a little. Also some self development
related things eg. Naval on Rogan which I liked.

------
vga805
Books.

Right now it's Middlemarch.

~~~
gregn
ditto. Books. Right now it's: Who Killed Homer, and Sophocles plays.

------
mikekchar
> or am I checking too frequently?

Your unit tests are running too slowly, otherwise you wouldn't be checking so
frequently.

Oh, wait. That's me.

------
nataz
Armslist.com

Didn't even know it existed a month ago. It's a fascinating window into a very
popular hobby.

------
thatoneguytoo
[https://usedone.today](https://usedone.today) \- Thinking of how to make it
better

------
davidivadavid
RSS and a few hundred quality blogs should give you enough content. And
there's always, you know, books.

------
exolymph
Obligatory plug for my subreddit, where I collect interesting links:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/sonyasupposedly/](https://www.reddit.com/r/sonyasupposedly/)

There's some crossover with HN, but plenty that you won't have seen.

Less obligatory plug for gwern's subreddit, which is great:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/gwern/](https://www.reddit.com/r/gwern/)

------
pwdisswordfish2
If everyone's online activity and browsing patterns were made public it would
destroy the profitability of Facebook, Google, and other companies conducting
web surveillance as a means to generate revenue.

It would also obviate the need to ask a question like this. We could just
search through user histories and discover new things that way.

~~~
PenisBanana
Hear, hear!

------
101404
Yes, very likely you are checking too frequently.

------
reedwolf
my90stv

Tv from the 90s.

[https://my90stv.com/](https://my90stv.com/)

------
gabagoo
Longform.org is a good resource for longer reads, if you get paywalled just
pass them through Instapaper first.

Also Arts And Letters Daily

Naked Capitalism daily linkdumps (morning + water cooler at 2pm) have plenty
of auxiliary reading material in them

Slate Star Codex comment section is always popping off, some discussions are
more interesting than others depending on what you're into

------
qznc
Hacker News, Reddit, and lobste.rs are my regular loop. Comments often send me
to a deep dive somewhere. Yesterday it was rereading stuff from Yudkowsky:
[https://www.readthesequences.com/](https://www.readthesequences.com/)

------
livealife
[https://tildes.net](https://tildes.net)

Similar to HN but contains non-tech stuff.

------
loltyler1
[https://tildes.net/](https://tildes.net/)

