

Only for non-hackers: How do you benefit from Hacker News? - rokhayakebe

I have been using Hacker news since its launch. although i am not a coder i can say that i benefit from it tremendously.  i get to stay up to date and i  try to apply some of the lessons i have learned here to my email startup. the best lessons i have learned come from startups which launched here and asked for feedback. how are you (hackers not allowed) benefiting from HN? you can give one example if you like.
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ballred
Finally something I'm qualified to comment on! Like you, I'm not a coder but I
read Hacker News frequently. I have started 2 web-based businesses, so I like
talking to coders and finding out what they're working on. It's a great source
of inspiration for the next idea. I also have to admit that there's a part of
me that wishes I would have learned to write code so that I could do more
prototyping on my own. I have a lot of respect for a software programmer that
designs an elegant solution to a problem that we've identified.

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gnaritas
Try not calling us coders, I don't know any programmer/developer who likes
being called a coder.

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cstejerean
Yes, I prefer "code ninja".

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ardit33
when I see those "code ninja needed", posts, it just makes me laugh. Juvenile
at best, idiotic at worse. It is hard to take those companies that do that
seriously.

Tell me, what does a code ninja do? Write fast and crappy code, and disapear,
so some other poor soul have to maintain it? Crash the whole server with two
lines of recurisve calls? Check-in code so stealthy that Subversion doesn't
even detect it?

Ps. I noticed the "code ninja" trend, with the raise of Ruby on Rail. It is
everytime I have seen, it has been a posting for either Ruby, or Php job.

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kajecounterhack
Well...I'm a code pirate. So there.

And I'm fine being called a coder, it doesn't really matter what we're called
right? Its more about what we do ;)

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doubleplus
I get references to lots of great blog posts, online tools, and news items
that allow me to stay informed about important issues in the tech and
programming worlds. This has saved me countless amounts of time, since I'm
able to act as if I know what I'm talking about without ever having to put in
any effort/thought of my own. Thanks Hacker News! :)

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mainsequence
I work in public television and like the thoughtful articles and threads on
trends in media and meta-cognition (like the "how do you learn" thread). I
don't code, but have have mad respect for the hackers.

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kajecounterhack
Well...I'm a programmer, not a hacker. So do I count?

YC is how I get my tech news. Just YC, Slashdot and Engadget for me.

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sonink
i think everyone here assumes hackers means programmers..and also sometime
those who build stuff often creatively..the word hacker i guess is much abused
by the media to refer to whom most hackers call crackers

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ALee
I don't read any other tech news. This source is generally the stuff that
matters.

It also lets me see what are the new trends to spot in the web industry.

Lastly, it teaches me how to think like a hacker, which gets me closer and
closer to being useful at our early stage.

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Harj
if you're not a hacker, you have to at least understand technology and be able
to hold your own in tech conversations. hacker news is the best resource to do
that.

