
Ask HN: Did reading HN bring anything valuable into your life? - mdoliwa
I&#x27;m trying to figure out my motivations behind specific online habits. One of them is reading HN.<p>I&#x27;m curious if reading HN bring anything valuable into your life or is it just pure entertainment. Did you learn something valuable, found a job, meet your wife. :)
======
hirundo
I was lying flat on my back for the third straight day. Lower back pain. There
was a great amount of pain when I just rolled over, and standing up to go get
water or to relieve myself was barely at the edge of possible.

This wasn't the first time I had gone through this, and it seemed to be
happening more often. So I remember lying there and wondering if the politest
way to commit suicide would be on a plastic tarp in my car in the parking lot
of the coroner's office. If I could make it there.

There's a tablet mounted on an arm on my headboard that I can read on my back.
I got to an Ask HN item asking what books had most changed your life. The top
post at the time was about Dr. John Sarno's book, Healing Back Pain. I've read
a lot of books in that genre, but I was desperate and figured, if it helped
one guy it might help me. So I surfed over to Amazon.

The book ad pressed all my skeptic buttons. No drugs or exercise. Talk therapy
for back pain. This isn't all in my head damn it! But I saw so many hundreds
of positive reviews on Amazon and elsewhere, and the book was $6.99 on Kindle,
so I bought it and downloaded it immediately.

Maybe an hour later I had finished the intro and chapter one. I slowly and
painfully got up out of bed and started waddle/stomping around as best I
could. Collapsed into bed a few minutes later. Got up again, rinse, repeat. A
few hours later I was basically functional again. A week later I had to pay
attention to notice the pain. Now a couple of months later I still get
twinges, especially when doing heavy yard work. But the fear has subsided.
I've been able to work through it.

That doesn't mean the pain won't come back. And I'm positive that this
approach won't work for everyone. But I'm doing great. And my yard looks much
better. That one HN post lifted me up and saved me, not quite literally, but
almost.

~~~
twistedanimator
Funny you should mention seeing a book recommendation on HN that changed your
life. I have experienced the same thing, but with a different book.

A month ago I read a comment[0] about the book This Naked Mind and how it
helped him/her with their alcohol consumption. Getting serious about my
alcohol consumption has been on my todo list for a while, so after seeing it
had 4.7 stars on audible I bought it. I listened to it in its entirety in 3
days during my commute and haven't had a drop of alcohol since.

To give you an impression of my level of drinking. I'm not a heavy drinker,
but I am a habitual drinker. I drink either 2 or 3 high alcohol beers or a
bottle of wine almost daily. I've always been worried about the sheer amount
of empty calories I'm consuming and if just by cutting out alcohol I'd lose
weight for free.

Today is day 25 since I've had any alcohol and I'm just so pleased with the
outcome. Maybe the book can help you too!

[0] -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17834081](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17834081)

~~~
justsomeguy3591
This is kind of crazy... I think I saw that same comment when it was posted.
Added it to my to-read list and recently decided to get the audiobook and
listen through it. About 90% through and I have to admit - it has given me a
lot to think about.

My consumption is generally on the weekends, 4-5 drinks per outing with
friends. I've gone out for drinks twice since then and couldn't bring myself
to order more than one drink. There's a lot of reason behind her arguments
against it and I never really realized just how much of the perceived
"benefits" of it are simply placebo effects or misattributed to other factors
entirely. I'm not sure what the extent of my behavioral change will be after
but it's safe to say I'll never look at alcohol the same way.

For anyone else on the fence - read it! At the very least, entertain a
different perspective on the pervasive drinking culture we find ourselves
surrounded by.

------
k4ch0w
I just like being here because I don't feel like I'm crazy for the thoughts I
have. You guys make me want to be a better human by pursuing things that
really matter and steering me away from the BS other people get dragged into.

Things of value added were

Deleting my FB when other people are flabbergasted by the thought and I feel
so much better for doing so.

Always looking for constant ways to automate my job to free time up to
think/rest.

Realizing that working 80 hours won't get me some amazing outcome at a company
because pursuing that game(the rate race) is completely out of my control.

Learning about stoicism and really realizing no one cares about me and that's
not a bad thing, but a good thing.

I love to lurk here because people hold each other to a high standard of
information. If you say something that sounds false, someone will call you out
on it and ask for your source. I don't know any of you, but you are some of
the coolest f###ers I have never met.

------
jawns
I found a job -- and a new career.

I was working as an editor at a metro newspaper, doing editing half the day
and programming the other half. I saw a startup's job ad in a "Who's Hiring"
thread and figured I'd check them out. I got hired soon after, and I've been
with them for the past seven years!

I've also gotten decent exposure, and some helpful feedback, for some of my
side projects that I've posted over the years.

And every once in a while there's a good opportunity to plug one of my books
in a comment thread. By the way, have I mentioned what's hitting bookstores
this April ... ?

~~~
steve_b
I received Experimenting with Babies as a gift and loved it. Looking forward
to both Newlyweds and Preschoolers!

------
gatsby
I signed up for HN eight years ago yesterday.

Back then, I was working at a mind-numbing job in private equity and hating
every minute of it.

HN encouraged me to move to SF, learn new skills, join a startup (where I met
my wife), which led to an acquisition, which led to joining a YC company as an
employee, and eventually starting my own company.

For a bunch of strangers, this community was, and still is life-changing.

~~~
Slackener
Wow that is a long time.

Congrat man.

------
ghthor
Absolutely. I remember when I was just coming out of linear algebra, ready to
make games armed with this new math skill that I knew could use to create
collision detection. I was scouring the web, looking for this library I knew
had to exist... I mean it's a fundamental element of almost all software in
the modern era. No luck, nothing, just little tidbits here and there, no full
blown library that said give me some polylines and I'll tell you if they
cross/collide. Was depressed lurking the HN boards when someone posted and
article on box2d, and it fucking dawned on me, physics engines are one big
glorious collision detection library. I immediately dug into how I could strip
away the physics simulation and use the polygons for pure detection. 5 months
later of started my career as a software engineer due to winning a 3month
grant to make an educational game, all powered by box2d and my exploration of
math, physics, and game design.

------
joshstrange
7 years ago I joined HN and it's been extremely helpful at keeping my finger
on the pulse of tech. I have learned about new tech/libraries/languages/etc
here on HN and been able to take what I've learned and use it for work and
personal projects. Can HN be a procrastinators dream of a time-sink?
Absolutely, if I had a dollar for every time I closed an HN tab and then
pressed "Command+T" then "n" then "Enter" to pull up HN again I'd be rich. I
need to cut down on some of that time spent on HN but overall it's been a net
positive.

~~~
yesenadam
But that's what _noprocrast_ is for! It works great. I find HN very addictive
too, but the hours spent are of decreasing value after the first, I guess. My
settings - after 60 minutes on here, I can't come back for 6 hours. The first
time I tried it, it felt very strange, but worked immediately - I didn't come
back on for months actually. If only something like that was available for the
other addictive things in life!

------
enimodas
I feel like I'm gaining less and less from it every year. Maybe that's me
getting older and more experienced, more having seen everything already, or I
am oversaturating myself, or the quality is declining.

~~~
schappim
I think overall diversity (not just gender/race) is an issue. The same
domains/voices keep on popping up.

------
jbob2000
Yes. I love reading the comments, there is so much wisdom in this community.

Also, HN has shown me that I seem to have a rhythm to my mental health. I have
a few good weeks where I post good comments and get upvoted, then I have a few
bad weeks where I post crappy, poorly thought-out stuff and get downvoted. I'm
working on it and apologies for using the community to track my personal well
being.

~~~
yesenadam
Hehe funny. I found I got upvoted in the morning and downvoted at night.

------
carapace
HN has been amazing for finding technical stuff, and often really
knowledgeable people will explain things.

One thing that made my day recently was "Logic Programming and Compiler
Writing" by David Warren, 1980; (
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17674859](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17674859)
) about using Prolog to implement compilers. I was in the middle of writing a
compiler for Joy (PL) in Python and it opened my eyes to Prolog. It turns out
I've been working too hard. After a quarter of a century I've pretty much
given up imperative languages and my productivity has gone way up (more
functionality from less code, with fewer bugs, written in less time.)

Ooo, and one time I got to interact with Alan Kay!

------
crobertsbmw
Every once in a while I get a new insight into something I want to learn, or a
new book to read. It's also my primary news source. I'm sure I could find an
alternative if HN shut down tomorrow, but it's pretty much how I know about
what's going on in the world.

------
brixon
I learn a lot. I'm the one management goes to when people ask to use a new
tool or process. 95% of the time I have already heard about it and have a
basic understanding of it due to HN. I describe what it is, how it relates to
other stuff we already use and if it has merit to try out. I look super smart
when I can answer on the spot. HN is a good filter to focus me on tools and
processes that people might actually use or want to use.

------
Apreche
Yes. I was once young and naive. I wanted to work for a cool startup or a big
tech company like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.

Thanks to HN I learned that silicon valley culture is toxic and all those
companies and startups are full of scumbags and people who were as naive as I
once was.

This saved me from making some very bad decisions.

This post is not sarcastic.

~~~
na85
HN has helped me realize the staggering extent of the ethics problem facing
software as an industry, and realize that most people are not inclined to do
anything about it.

This post is not sarcastic either.

~~~
gameswithgo
agreed. I've seen a lot of sociopath style thinking here. it is good to be
aware that this is so common but it does make me sad.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Don't be sad. Better you know what you're up against, than not know.

------
zwieback
Yes, as a news feed it's been interesting, especially to get a pulse of the
tech community. The discussions, not so much, sometimes there's a useful link
or quote but the back and forth is a bit strained and there's a severe lack of
a sense of humor. I don't want it to turn into reddit but there are too many
narrow-minded commenters.

------
lochlan
Two companies ago I posted in the “Who is Hiring” thread. I ended up only
getting a couple responses (while other channels got much more activity) but I
ended up hiring one of them. Though I’ve since left that company, my former
employee has become a good friend and confidant, and ended up following me to
every company I’ve jumped to.

------
DanFeldman
Totally. I read HN and often get routed to interesting articles, technical
discussions, and arguments I normally wouldn't see from my other sources of
content (work conversation, FB, reddit). I like the highly technical nature of
the posts here. I distinctly remember reading some article about B-Tree
implementation in Rust that went mostly over my head, but gave me a great
understanding of what developing a standard library looks like. I've never
used rust nor have I built a standard library, but I got something out of that
article & discussion.

I also make heavy use of the job threads, my company gets great candidates out
of the WhoisHiring monthly post.

Also, HN introduced me to YCombinator. I eventually applied and got into the
fellowship, which definitely brought something of value to my life... I found
out about HN through a link someone sent me early on to a discussion.

------
twinge
Monetarily speaking, I bought TSLA when it was $35 a share and bought into
Ethereum during the presale (~$0.35 USD per Ether). I rarely buy individual
stocks or securities, and by now I've sold most of everything; the returns
have been substantial.

------
rasikjain
I have been on HN for more than 10+ years. HN has given me lot of
exposure/knowledge to newer tech stack (e.g Frameworks, Cloud, Cyber Security
etc). Having this kind of exposure helps in broad thinking when you design
application.

It also provides different perspective on startups, politics, health etc. Best
part is "ASKHN" where people are willing to share their experiences.

Also recommended HN to lot of my friends :-)

------
zeroego
Believe it or not, I found a very useful workout program in the comments on HN
called Stronglifts 5X5. I kept seeing people talk about how great it was for
beginners and I've failed to keep a regular weight lifting regime in the past
due to feeling overwhelmed by having to memorize form for dozens of exercises.
I've been doing Stonglifts for 2 months and I feel great.

The wiki and the app are super useful. I think the founder is a little bit of
a salty dog, and his subscription model for the paid version of the app is
just plain silly. That being said, he's given a lot away for free in terms of
information and the free version of the app is still great, so for that I
thank him and the people on HN for introducing it to me.

~~~
prostoalex
Long time ago somebody somewhere on HN recommended Starting Strength.

I started researching, read the book, and then one day a certified gym opened
in my area. Healthiest I've felt in years.

~~~
zeroego
I've been meaning to look into that program. I've heard a lot of good things
about it here and various other places on the internet.

------
rolleiflex
Even with all its faults, it's pretty much the best predictor I can still find
of what I find interesting at any point in time. The breadth of 'interesting'
that I can find here is exceptional — I can probably say it made me a much
more well rounded human being.

It's funny, when I first created an account 7 years ago, most of the
discussion was way, way above my head, or so I felt. I don't feel that way any
longer.

It might be life experience, or it might also be that all our filters and
shields are up much higher than it used to be. Or we've all grown up together
and became curmudgeonly together as well so that the glove still fits.

(But yes, the quality of discussion in HN has taken a sharp dive starting
about 1-2 years ago, in my opinion.)

~~~
weliketocode
Quite sad to hear the number of people saying that quality has gone down;
especially since I've only been getting active in the last year or so.

Hopefully there's a healthy dose of nostalgia tinging these opinions.

It's certainly been a great source of interesting information for me.

------
blakesterz
I learned about Docker and Ansible here, and we use them both in production
every day.

I've used many comments and stories for material for presentations I've given.

I've learned so much I'm not sure I can list it all of the things!

------
jakecodes
I saw the Who's Hiring for GitLab in 2015, became an early employee, still
here, not leaving. Best job ever.

~~~
sivaramom
I am curious about how to develop skills to get those jobs. The descriptions
are far fetched

------
mitchelldeacon9
Since Fall 2013 I've been reading HN twice a day – over coffee in the morning
and in the evening after dinner. I am a nomadic contractor who works in the
blue-collar basement of the IT industry, with several years experience in
Silicon Valley, Portland and Austin as a datacenter technician, service
reliability engineer, and general-purpose nuts-&-bolts computer guy. For me,
HN opened a window on an entirely new dimension of the industry: the world-
view of the elite class in venture capital and entrepreneurship. It's
fascinating to read the same articles they read, to see the world through
their eyes. I don't always agree with the ultra-capitalist weltanschauung on
HN, but I think I understand it better, to a certain extent.

Aside from the politics, I have learned a great deal from HN about my own
technical domain: the hegemony of the Linux operating system,
advantages/limitations of RESTful APIs, python as the (arguably) preferred
scripting language, and much more. But the best aspect of HN is, in my
opinion, the continuous stream of commentary and discussion about books on a
variety of topics. It was here that I discovered Joseph Frank's magisterial
biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky, which alone was worth the price of admission.

Overall, I consider HN to be an intellectual oasis in the chaotic desert known
as the Internet. Many thanks to the women and men who develop and maintain
this remarkable web site. Bon courage.

------
santa_boy
This post sticks out to me distinctly: [Life is
Short]([http://www.paulgraham.com/vb.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/vb.html))

I re-read it every few months. Helps me to spend more time with my kid.

Aside, there are quite a few benefits and lots of distractions. But, it really
depends on the day's schedule. I've noticed I don't visit HN for a few days
when I'm _in the flow_ of working on something exciting.

~~~
growtofill
This is gold. Thanks so much for sharing!

------
thsowers
I went to a university where many courses are years behind. HN exposed me to
more new technology than I experienced during my entire time at school, and
kept me up to date on modern programming.

On a more personal level, I have found much advice in various Ask HN threads
that has really impacted me. Everything from career advice, to what's really
important in life and how one should deal with the inevitable negative aspects
of existence.

------
kgwxd
I'm sure plenty of people can also answer "yes" to the question "did quitting
social media bring anything valuable into your life?"

------
yesimahuman
Reading HN back in college in '08 is what exposed me to startups in the first
place and convinced me that starting my own was actually something I could do.
I owe my entire career to the world that HN and the early community showed me.
Maybe some of that has gotten lost in years since but I'm still indebted to
it.

------
kumartanmay
The way I spend time and the quality of information I consume shapes my
thinking and I owe it to HN.

Since HN is crowdsourced, it is my trusted go-to source for authentic and
newsworthy news. Secondly, I always search my queries on HN before Google. I
believe SEOs are over-rated when it comes to searching for your needs.

~~~
lettergram
You may appreciate: [https://hnprofile.com/](https://hnprofile.com/)

As it ranks content (articles) based on what "experts / insiders" feel about
said content. AKA it's almost all very high quality news / information about a
given topic.

~~~
kumartanmay
Interesting! I see that you've decided experts based on sentiment analysis of
their comments. How do you decide upon the high quality of information/ news
on a topic?

~~~
lettergram
You can review the search results themselves. It's somewhat subjective "what
is good / bad" however, the stories all appear highly relevant and of fairly
high quality as it relates to the topic (again subjectively).

------
omot
Smarter, less-sensational form of news-entertainment. It's a good alternative
to Fox News/ CNN, even better than NYT/WSJ. I also like the focus on
tech/start ups, I feel like I'm being slightly more productive.

------
throwaway5250
Mostly entertainment, but occasionally significant tech announcements or
scuttlebutt.

Unfortunately, the moderation is mostly unhelpful, I read the raw "new" stream
for the good stuff, even though it's noisy.

------
amvalo
I found out about battlecode
([https://battlecode.org/#/](https://battlecode.org/#/)) which was lots of fun
for many years.

------
openfuture
Gave me massive analysis paralysis but also brought me a whole new level of bs
detection. Now that I'm rolling out of paralysis I feel it'll take a lot more
to distract me.

------
jamestimmins
I found a great freelance client, and on the more mundane level, I often find
nuanced responses to typically hyperbolic news stories.

------
drivingmenuts
I sometimes ask myself the same question. It certainly helps to remind me of
how much I’m not making in the tech market, but also why it’s a good thing I
don’t live near Silicon Valley.

Most of the tech stuff is good but everything else seems more and more
disconnected from my personal experience, such that it’s becoming easier and
easier to walk away.

------
jstrebel
I learned about S. Pinker's book "The blank slate" here on HN. It altered the
way I think about humans.

------
aprdm
Yes !

I got a job in London/UK and hired a person for my team in Vancouver/CA (one
of the best hires I've ever made.)

------
JeanMarcS
2 years ago it helped me through a rough phase learning from other persons
experiences.

Now I continue reading it on a very selfish way. It makes me feel, if not
smart, at least cleaver. I love to read about stuff I never heard about, or
progress in a field I like. And I love to understand what I read. Good for the
ego !

------
aklemm
HN brings me the best of what I'm interested in on the Web, so I appreciate
that. The comments I find useful for filtering and previewing the linked
articles as well for links to other related material that augments the linked
article.

------
sergiotapia
Here since July 2012. Nope - this site is just filler during slow days for me.

------
zafka
I have been reading HN for 8 years now. It is currently my number one source
for news. I have learned many things, and I believe it is helping to prepare
me for my next big adventure.

------
Real_S
I often find interesting research and/or tech advances outside of my immediate
field of study. Also, articles on startups here may have influenced my journey
as a founder ;)

------
Antoninus
I mostly read the comments but its given me some good blogs that I like to
read (stratechery & morning paper)

------
trelliscoded
I got my current job because I posted on here. So did the other senior person
in engineering.

------
simplyinfinity
it gave me perspective and a broader visibility into other fields and in tech.
7 years later i still visit several times every day.

------
vertline3
No not yet, but I hope it will soon :)

------
PaulHoule
A job.

------
z_
n-gate

------
clubm8
No

------
Kenji
I learned details about undefined behaviour in C++ on hackernews. This was a
great help when I looked for a job. I learned about Rust, tensors, Docker,
GDPR, Angular, and many many more things. Generally my tech knowledge has
become much more well-rounded and broader, but also deeper in several areas.

I also learned a lot about Silicon Valley and the prevailing culture there,
much to my dismay. Ok just kidding but my jokes triggered some people and I
got hellbanned. Where I come from, people are much more chill and love to
share good sarcastic jokes.

~~~
dang
You were banned not for "sarcastic jokes", but for taking HN threads into
political flamewar—not what this site is for—and ignoring a large number of
requests to stop. We told you we were banning you and why. But you forgot to
include links
([https://hn.algolia.com/?query=linkless%20martyr&sort=byDate&...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=linkless%20martyr&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0)),
and HN readers like to decide for themselves:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14960370](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14960370)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14938232](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14938232)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14748150](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14748150)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14453935](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14453935)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14101988](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14101988)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14017705](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14017705)

I'm glad to see that your good comments are getting vouched for, though. That
is the vouching system working as intended. If you decide you want to follow
the guidelines and use HN fully as intended, you're welcome to email
hn@ycombinator.com.

------
Slackener
It lets me discover things I would have never discovered.

All in all I am finding myself spending a lot of times on Hacker News

