Ask HN: How do you get the most out of HN? - illustrioussuit
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askafriend
I put every article into my backlog and never end up reading it.

That way, I can get all the satisfaction and dopamine rush of indicating my
interest in reading something intellectual without actually doing any of the
work to read.

It’s fantastic.

~~~
minhaz23
Ive come to understand this is inherently bad, right? Anything that raises
your dopamine level and constantly seeking that rush by doing that behavior,
when really its just a time kill?

So what can we do to combat this? How can we better avoid this? Whats a better
alternative? To stay away from the computer? To just read a few articles in
depth and miss out on the rest? How do you combat the FOMO of information you
might be able to capitalize on?

Hope my question makes sense and someone has some answers!

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great_psy
For a while I had a journal, and I would force myself to read the article, and
write a summery of how it’s relevant to my life, how can I benefit from it,
and how I might be able to apply the information.

I kept this up for about a week.

It cut down my HN usage to about 5 articles a day, and it made me more
selective on which articles I would open.

It became a chore and I didn’t stick with it, but it could transform the
passive reading experience into a more contemplative activity. Ymmv.

~~~
Vaskivo
The problem with that is that the real gems are, many times, in the comments.
But parsing through that is way harder and more time consuming.

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twobyfour
Depends, I guess, on what you're trying to get out of it.

I use it as a way to burn time while waiting for the bus or the build without
feeling as guilty (or gross) as Facebook would. For getting perspectives I
might not have thought of that help me synthesize new information. And for
scratching the "someone is wrong on the internet!" itch.

I probably read 50% of the Ask section and 2-3 items per page of results on
front page or newest. You could drink from the firehose if you really wanted
to spend every moment of your life on this site, but I prefer to be highly
selective about what to read and even more so about what to engage with.

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i_dont_know_
I found this interface a while ago:
[https://hckrnews.com/](https://hckrnews.com/)

It has something like infinite scroll and tells you what's new since you last
visited. I find it much easier to skim than the top page, or even sorting by
'new'. I usually scroll through it 2 or 3 times a day, look for big numbers on
points or comments, and read those :)

~~~
tedmiston
I keep a list of a few more HN clients with alternate interfaces here as well.

[https://pinboard.in/u:tedmiston/t:hacker-
news/](https://pinboard.in/u:tedmiston/t:hacker-news/)

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antoineMoPa
I learn about new and old things that people share.

I generally dislike when I see the same things for months/years (self-driving
stuff, cryptocurrencies, AI). But in general, I feel like I learn a lot of
stuff from HN. Sometimes, the comments direct me to Wikipedia and I end up
learning even more about some old thing that solves everyday coding problems.

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CM30
Usually as something I read while either on public transport (where wifi is
pretty spotty and Hacker News uses a hell of a lot less data than many sites)
or as something to keep occupied while in downtime at work/waiting in a shop
or what not.

Usually wait until I have access to a decent computer before actually
commenting though.

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flaviuspopan
Resist the urge to try every single new framework/technology just because it's
popular. I wasted far too much time trying to always use the latest and
greatest when MySQL and Python cover 99% of all the use cases I'd ever need.

~~~
aetherspawn
You have to try harder with web because it’s rubbish to begin with.

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matt_the_bass
I read HN while waiting for things (filling the kids bath, boiling tea water,
etc) when I don’t have the time to really dig into something. It makes me feel
like I’m being productive.

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ioddly
I get work through the whoishiring freelancer thread. I might even be breaking
even once you account for all the time I waste reading the articles ;)

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acrooks
I use Instapaper for reading online articles and the Safari extension adds a
handy link below each submission to add the article to Instapaper.

I've really been trying lately - especially the busier I've been - to use that
link exclusively and save all of my reading for later. And then I only engage
with the topics I'm actually interested in.

But of course here I am in a comment thread :)

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vivan
I am subscribed to the HN RSS feed, so I go through that daily. I click
through on the stuff that looks interesting, but never see the same un-
interesting stuff again. Occasionally I'll actually visit the website if I'm
really bored.

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PaulHoule
I read it through a filter

[http://ontology2.com/essays/ClassifyingHackerNewsArticles/](http://ontology2.com/essays/ClassifyingHackerNewsArticles/)

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j_s
Hacker News Extension Suite
[https://github.com/etcet/HNES](https://github.com/etcet/HNES)

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mabynogy
When you're logged in there an "hide" link.

I use that a lot.

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orliesaurus
I scan through the new section and then check replies to my comments, usually
senseless comments and downvotes for having an opinion.

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collyw
Close it and do some work instead.

