When I first logged onto IRC circa 2001, the internet was a curious place, instantly connecting me to other nerd kids. Over the years, it has turned exceedingly bitter, and HackerNews is no exception.
I’ve been an “active lurker” since 2008, occasionally submitting my own writing (had my earliest “first-pager” in 2012). For me, the most important part of HackerNews is the comments section.
If you open the comments section of almost any first-page link, you’ll usually find trolling, trashing, and other pessimistic behavior that clouds everything good. Over all these years, my instinct tells me that only a small percentage of people post most of the negativity. And I’m not talking about proper constructive criticism, but the usual internet rage that was so common during the early forum flame wars.
That can make one think that the place is not worth visiting. But when I looked closely, I found that although the amount of unhelpful comments had gone up, there were still the same quantity of gems to be found as I did over a decade ago.
While reading comments on an SICP post, I learnt that Sussman published a title in 2021 called “Software Design for Flexibility: How to Avoid Programming Yourself Into a Corner.” I got my copy of SICP while I was still in college, and had also viewed some of his MIT lectures. In an instant, I bought the hardcover to open my mind to more great ideas.
To whoever commented the above, you folks are the real gems of the community, and made me discover things that neither the first page of Google, or the supposed “RAG-based knowledge tools” are able to surface.
And just like that, the people who are willing to participate in the community…
…who are okay ignoring the negativity…
…who are okay disagreeing respectfully…
…will eventually dig a lot of gold. Convenient tools will just make others myopic.
Disconnecting from this community might cast a big blind spot in my potential for knowledge, because I’ll be disconnecting from a lot of smart folks whom I might never meet in real life.
Or, maybe I will?