How do you use Hacker News?

4 pointsby questionmaniavor 5 Jahren6 comments

I have hundreds of HN bookmarks.

Whenever I find time - this is my default productive procrastination action - I organize them even better or I start reading the content then reading all the comments. This process has few subsequent steps: - if new links, book references, etc. appear in the comments, I quickly skim them and, of course, add them to the bookmarks queue - I extract the main ideas from the article as well as all the info I want to retain from the comments and add them to a dedicated page in my personal Wiki (say it is an article about Productivity, I add all the new info in my Productivity wiki page if I have one, or create one if not - sometimes I create ANKI cards using the content, but not so often as creating good cards takes a lot of time (and this is actually the step I think has the most value out of the entire process)

Now the problem with all this is that is life consuming. I can't do it properly and scale, I have many interests, therefore many bookmarks that keep piling up. I run a mid-size software development studio, have a newborn and have been diagnosed with ADHD, so all these being very impactful in my schedule, leading only to more bookmarks and frustration. I can't convince myself to just delete all the bookmarks and unchain myself, although I thought about it few dozen times.

I am looking for your practical / mental / emotional approach on consuming HN as a source of inspiration for tampering with my own behavior.

Thank you!

6 comments

Jugurthavor 5 Jahren

I mainly reply to Ask HN about topics I know a couple of things about, or laying out something for someone having trouble with a situation I've been through.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29213383

When there's something I will need, I'll just add it to TaskWarrior with the appropriate tags.

If it's a video, I'll add a +watch. If it's a book, I'll add a +read +book. If it's an article, it's +read.

It becomes trivial to list my tasks and have an idea about what I intended to do about it.

  task +book

  task +watch

Will give me a list of books, or a list of videos and I'll decide which.

I also have projects. For instance, I have a project in TaskWarrior named after the product we're building, https://iko.ai, and if there's anything I read, watch or learn that is relevant to that project, I'll add it there. I annotate things, add remarks, etc.

This was the seed for the knowledge base of our entire company, mind you. I just exported it and it became the company's knowledge base that was augmented.

I also note down things that I would have wanted to do if we had started all over again or if we were to build another product. Ever notice people's obsession on distribution and validation ? Yeah, there's a reason they obsess about it.

I add various playbooks on the technical side as well, such as instrumentation, monitoring, analytics. I want everyone on the team to know how to build a product and a company so of something happens to me, nothing happens to the company.

I tend to optimize for the ability to die without impacting the team beyond nostalgia.

jimmyvalmervor 5 Jahren

> I tend to optimize for the ability to die without impacting the team > beyond nostalgia.

Something tells me even nostalgia is giving yourself too much credit.

Jugurthavor 5 Jahren

jimmyvalmer wrote:

>Something tells me even nostalgia is giving yourself too much credit.

Awww, that's sweet. Hey, I'm a "pretty likable guy"

For memo, this comment reminded me of the only HN user who was uncouth towards me and I went on to check, and it was you! Twice! Not including this because it's funny, even though passive aggressive given the precedents, but funny if taken afresh.

I'll quote two of your replies to me because it appears like someone is obsessed:

On an Ask HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28240292), here's what you wrote:

>Bruh, your sh_t posts here and HN are among the worst offenders in the category of palming off commercial solicitation as academic inquiry. Some [other guy got an earful](https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/p1xrbx/d_w...) a few weeks ago.

To a question of mine addressed to you in another thread:

>As "blast"-inducing as talking with "people like me" is for you, the effect is equal and opposite for me. Stop spamming HN and r/Machinelearning.

As I said, this is for memo. Now go on a downvoting spree like you always do : )

All the best,

capablewebvor 5 Jahren

Sounds like a lot. I use Hacker News like this:

- Obsessively monitor the frontpage for interesting stories (yes, currently I have too much free time)

- Open up the URL of the story and read through/try to use the article/page/application/whatever

- Read the comments, comment where I think I can add something

- Rinse and repeat for every story that seems interesting

Information that is important will automatically stick in my head, either because I felt "enlightened" when first coming across it, or by repeated exposure to the same idea in different but multiple articles/comments. The other cruft gets automatically filtered in my head. I take zero notes on anything I come across HN, generally.

I see HN as mostly entertainment with some useful stuff scattered across some comments thread. But mostly it's just entertainment as any other social media.

questionmaniavor 5 Jahren

How much time do you invest / day?

mattbgatesvor 5 Jahren

I used to visit everyday then stopped visiting for a long time but try to do it weekly... checking the Ask and Show section mostly, with maybe an additional few minutes paid attention to the first page or two just to see what people are sharing.

I visit the Ask section because it gets me thinking and allows me to see the thoughts of others on certain topics. The Show section either provides me with a new tool or an idea for a new tool or just a "wow thats cool" reaction.