You're not missing that much. It's a link aggregator like reddit, but there is only one big page. When you read it with a careful eye, it can actually be pretty useful for learning about new things in the tech world. However, anytime the discussion veers into social issues, it quickly turns into a discussion of why eugenics is actually good.
I make a point to not read into any HN comment chain that’s more than 3 level deep. There are just too many socially inept technology workers out there think they can software engineer their way out of any social issues.
So you are a saying there is a market for a browser extension that limits how deep comment chains can go?
To the VC mobile Graman!
E: shit this is 4 deep, guess it will never be read.
It's a forum run by Paul Graham, who's the king of smug computer nerds. Paul Graham runs a VC firm called YCombinator, which was responsible for funding AirBnB and Reddit, among other things.
Mostly FAANG techies IQ-wanking (ctrl+F James Damore) and Burning Man trustafarians trying to fit in.
HN Sneerz:
https://rbt.asia/g/thread/41920845
http://n-gate.com
That dude is an absolute king, to the point I cured myself of my compulsive HN browsing by reading his weekly summaries instead. He also trolls HN referrals btw (and also google.ru referrals for some reason? lol)
The funny thing is I work for a faang AND (used to) attend burning man. Ran a theme camp and did all the things.
I never discuss hn with my burner friends. They don’t give a shit. I also don’t go to burning man with tech heavy people. They are there for the party, building things, and drugs. Not for the vc oppos.
As for work, I assume some of my coworkers read it, but honestly no one discusses it. We are all fairly polite and careful and tend to discuss work and get it all done in the 40 hours a week or so.
What I think hn is full of is startup peeps who want to live, breathe, and drink tech. People who are excited about crypto coins. People who think their “success” in tech grants them unlimited knowledge and right to fix the world without knowing anything about it. Those people. I’m sure there are some at a faang but also people tend to be focused and smart and work on their shit and call it a day.
I actually work at a startup, and I can say that the only time HN comes up is when someone from Marketing says "hey there's an article mentioning our product on the front page, everyone go vote it up".
As far as I can tell, it's a marketing platform disguised as a discussion board. And given some of the comments there these days, I'm not even sure it's good PR for us to see our products favorably mentioned there.
I always had the impression HN wasn't even full of actual startup peeps, so much as devs who lived outside of the Valley and get googly-eyed about the thought of moving there.
lots of people are talking about burning man. is it worth the hype? does it have anything special over the 1000+ summer festivals in ex-USSR countries? i'm not sneering here, i've been considering going there for a while but the steep price tag, the atlantic ocean and of course the fucking virus have dampened my hopes.
i'm also asking because it feels very american (and specifically start-up/rationalist-ish as well) to take an okay-to-good thing that's existed for a while, repackage it and hype it up as literally the best thing ever and only awesome people like us could ever come up with it and this is why we are #1
Most of burning man is not even remotely close to startup culture. Burning man has also been a draw for decades. Remember the front page article Bruce sterling did for wired titled “the new American holiday”? You know, circa 1999? People forget that the tech boom and bust cycle in Silicon Valley is several iterations now. At least 3 for software.
In any case, yes burning man is that good. It’s not a festival as per se - when I think of a festival I think of music stages, $10 bottles of water, etc. Burning man is not like that. There’s no vendors. It’s in an extreme environment that can kill you. There much more than music there. Burning man can be the transformative experience you need.
It’s also at its core a psychedelic festival. The art, the culture and norms is all very supportive.
One of my least favorite Burn experiences was a startup founder pitching to some VC's at like 4AM in the deep playa after rolling in on their e-bikes
Just a shameful experience for all parties involved
All pitches on playa are shameful experiences.
The REAL startup game is to drop acid with a potential founder, and then develop the strong relationship and trust. Gotta have that trust and understand what kind of person your co-founder is!
But pitches, ugh. If you can still talk coherently at 4am... try harder.
HN banned its most HN member, but [their comment history](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=yummyfajitas) is pretty much distilled HN in its purest form.
I find this site useful in tracking what appears on the front page of HN over 24 hours. Sometimes there's actually interesting links. The comments are generally garbage.
https://orangesite.sneak.cloud/
btw when I try it out on my machine it just gives me an option to download the file and otherwise displays the blog normally, since my browser doesn't open .wav files by default
still, A+
I didn't even think to check if that was a real link. Pretty sure I've heard that one before from a dozen Family Guy jokes. I got a pretty good nose for this type of thing.
Lol
I’m one of those alluded-to devs who have no idea what HN is. Can a fellow sneerer give me a gloss on what I’m missing?
oh hey, that was me!
What a mediocre fart noise.