HN Explorer

Ask HN: How HN improved your life?

7 points by paraseba ↗ HN
Maybe you quit your job, maybe you started your own business, or you're getting more sleep, or you're dieting, or you're practicing mindful meditation.

What life improving event or practices you started after reading a HN thread?

15 comments

[ 4.7 ms ] story [ 41.3 ms ] thread
jpr
It didn't.
mindcrime
Hrrrm.... I don't know that I'd say HN has "changed my life" in any specific, grand sense. But I've definitely learned a lot from hanging out here. If I had to cite one thing in particular that I've gotten out of my time here, it would probably be "being exposed to the Customer Development methodology." I'm pretty sure it was a link or two from here that first got me reading about CD, and led me to buying Steve's book, which I would cite as being "life changing" (or at least on the verge of it.)
Mz
So far, I wouldn't say it has "changed my life", at least not on the scale that usually suggests. I would like it to. I have a project in mind that I would like to get support for/feedback on. I completely suck at starting discussions and the things I "submit" are generally largely ignored -- which is a problem I have historically in other forums, it isn't particular to HN. I hardly slept this week and then slept like 9 or so hours last night. Maybe this weekend or some other weekend, I will figure out what to ask. :-/ Or maybe not. Time will tell.
noahc
It sounds like you should be testing more.

What is different about the questions you ask and the ones that get responses?

How can you make your questions more like theirs?

Ultimately, just throw up a lot of crap and see what sticks. Then improve on what sticks.

Mz
Just throwing up a lot of crap and seeing what sticks doesn't generally work for me. To me, that's the slowest, most painful way to figure out what works. Studying the successes of others is my preferred route. This particular idea is kind of newly born, so probably best to let it incubate a bit anyway. And, as I said, I have not slept well this week. Posting with a clear head generally gets better results.
noahc
Obviously, not sleeping isn't the greatest way to have your best thoughts. I understand that.

However, I think you're missing out on a huge upside. You are judged by your best works not your failures.

The problem with studying the success of others is that you're not doing anything. I would know, I spent 2 years doing it and had nothing to show for it.

When I say throw up a lot of crap, what I really mean is throw up good enough stuff to validate the idea. Then go from there. It maybe painful, but it works. It certainly isn't slow. I can throw up an outline of 5 blog posts and say, "Which one do you want to read?" and then write the post everyone likes. Or I can study how the best bloggers do it and start tomorrow(which never comes).

Mz
Oh, I actually do plenty of that or I wouldn't still be posting here. I'm a woman and very open about that. Women sometimes comment here that it's a tough environment for a woman. And it can be. But it's also a growth experience. If I get badly downvoted or something, I wonder why, I wonder what I can do differently, rather than just feeling burned and going away to lick my wounds.

In this case, I really think my impetus to immediately post and start asking questions is probably a bad one, a premature impetus. It will be better for me to do some of the legwork before posting and requesting feedback. I'm not a patient person. :-) So I don't really want to wait. But I think it is best, not just because I am not in a good place mentally today but for other reasons as well.

JoeAltmaier
I discuss world-changing news with my son after dinner. NASA discoveries, social phenomena, whatever. I get it all from HN.
znt
Thanks to HN, I found out that only my persistence and creativity is the limit regarding my software development career. Being a corporate software drone is not the only viable way of having a decent life.
JoshCole
It has made me more aware of my own ability. It is really easy to see yourself as better than you are when your peers aren't expert, but on Hacker News I don't have that problem as so many of you are above me. This helps me to keep improving.

It has also exposed me to concepts that I wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise. For example, I was introduced to Lisp through Clojure in part through this site. This exposure to other ideas is pretty awesome, since it helps me get a more nuanced picture of the tech world. In my C++ class I have a teacher who preaches object oriented programming as the most revolutionary idea since the wheel (which you can model with object oriented programming..) while online I'm exposed to the many advocates of functional and even event driven programming. I could give more examples.

I think some people might find these things to be inconsequential. I mean, it isn't getting a job or a wife. However, these little things are constantly adding up to more intelligent decisions which are leading to other wise choices. I think it qualifies.

I think that I can safely say that Hacker News has made me a slightly wiser person.

Oh, and god willing I'll be able to get an internship through contacts on Hacker News. Wish me luck. =)