Lately though its article after article on LLMs. Pro LLM or Anti LLM. These discussions come closer to the stresses of the world than the typical HN post did historically. Well, at least to me.
They often quickly become “AI is bad” or “AI is amazing” in the discussions. I want to mention, I’m not pro or against either way. There doesn’t need to be sides to pick.
Do these posts that dominate the top make you happy? For me it’s turned HN into a place that stresses.
PS. I’m not asking for coping mechanisms, I’ve already cut my time here reading down a bunch :)
Reasonable good faith debates are not normal on the internet!
I guess we have the moderators to thank for this.
Browsing HN stopped making me happy years ago.
Searching HN for individual comments that include jargon that is indicative of knowledge relating to my interests does make me happy. I search HN multiple times per day using a search shortcut that uses the following URL:
Nowhere else really can you get that concentrated & large a place to weigh in on something and get (fairly) intelligent, (fairly) rapid, (fairly) reasonable, (fairly) fast feedback -- even if you don't agree with all of it.
Or, if you're not weighing in and getting responses, just to read the temperature on any discussion (of interest) and see reasonable views raised and discussed.
PG always said something like, if you want to see how silly some people are just read the bottom-ranked comments on HN.
Well maybe HN doesn't upvote the best. But hype gonna hype. It's the best we have AFAIK.
One thing a high school teacher told me and that I carry with me more and more nowadays is that you need to classify what you’re reading before you read it. Not everything is news. There’s always a mix of real information, FUD, and gossip. If you treat all of it the same, burnout is inevitable.
You need to train yourself to scan and decide which discussions are worth going into and which aren’t.
This applies to any kind of forum or group chat.
If I’m happy? I see HN less as a place for joy and more as a place to know what’s going on. It’s still useful. There’s a lot of BS mixed in, and that’s just part of the deal. It’s not a defining part of my happiness or my life, almost like a newspaper.
I just ignore the sloppy posts, be it AI or non-AI related.
Generally speaking, while the disucssions are 'better', they are not good. The comments themselves seldom add real value, discussions are not held with sources and if you start to have a discussion, the other person stops responding to your arguments.
Its 'fun' because i think i like to discuss but i have often than not the feeling i have to explain things
While you mentioned LLMs: I do think that simplifing what LLMs are to a statistical parrot, shows how little people on hn know about LLMs, at least the ones commenting on it and repeating this every time.
With the crypto garbage, i had plenty of people not responding to proper arguments from my side and it feels empty.
HN is seldom stress.
Is the the only social network that is not enshittified or dominated by inane algorithmic slop.
The LLM arguments are boring but exist literally everywhere online discussing technology
This perspective seems extremely close minded, almost as if suggesting those who are not 'founders' (of silicon valley startups?) are incapable of rational thought or action.
There are many executives who have never 'founded' a VC backed company who would heartily disagree, not to mention all of the humans with other credentials who process information, make decisions and create value.
There's always going to be a prevailing zeitgeist, and that's always going to dominate people's focus.
But by and large, HN is the most intelligent, thoughtful community I've encountered, with people going out of their way to be kind and thorough in their replies, discussing things maturely, disincentivizing unhelpful and low-effort behavior. Not to mention the dizzying wealth of knowledge and experience the people here have.
Obviously it's not 100%. There are plenty of harsh people and attitudes. But there's a lot of good discussion happening here, and that's what I try to focus on. I can only hope one day to be as interesting/inspiring a member of the community as some of the people I've seen on here.
It's been a long time since I saw something like that. There's far more yelling, far more people who seem to be here not to think, not to discuss, but only to argue and push an agenda. Far more people that simply Will. Not. Listen. no matter how thoughtful a point is being made in reply.
HN lost something - something that was really sweet while it was here.
The real hackers have left long ago.