I think the problem is partly a coordination problem. I want to read what everyone else is reading, so that we can talk about it together. I could read War And Peace, but I would have no-one to talk about it with. But I know everyone else is reading what's new.
There are other ways to coordinate, though. Book clubs, for example, often pick non-new books to read. Maybe solutions should concentrate on the coordination problem. I could imagine a version of Hacker News that bans all material published in the last month, so that it is only for timeless classics.
(I am not claiming that coordination is the only cause of this phenomenon.)
There are other ways to coordinate, though. Book clubs, for example, often pick non-new books to read. Maybe solutions should concentrate on the coordination problem. I could imagine a version of Hacker News that bans all material published in the last month, so that it is only for timeless classics.
(I am not claiming that coordination is the only cause of this phenomenon.)