[rsiqueira]

There's a quote about this rule (get started and the job will be easier to complete):

  "What you can do, or dream you can, begin it,
  Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
  Only engage, and then the mind grows heated,
  Begin it, and the work will be completed!"
    - Goethe

[SamBam]

Actually by John Anster.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/02/09/boldness/

[jachee]

Cunningham's Law[0] in action. :)

0. https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law

[phoe-krk]

I have decided to use the HN favorite function for the first time today, and I used it on your post.

Thank you for this quote!

[purplecats]

how do you favorite it?

[DoreenMichele]

Click on the timestamp for the comment. It will give you additional options not visible normally, including favorite.

[thewebcount]

OK, slightly off-topic rant: I have to say that timestamp is the weirdest UI element I've run across in a long time. Nothing about it gives any indication that it does anything useful. Want to link to just the thread started by a given comment? Click the timestamp. What? Why? Oh well. Want to favorite a comment? Click the timestamp. Um, OK. That's weird.

I would never think to do that and on mobile have accidentally hit it while trying to do other things and been thoroughly confused how I got there or what led me there. It seems like it would be reasonable to make each of its function into a specific link above each comment. I don't think it would make the UI too much more cluttered, personally.

OK, rant over.

[DoreenMichele]

As someone who originally joined more than 11 years ago, my general impression is "old timers" tend to like the arcane interface. It's part of what makes this forum brilliant.

[toast0]

This is a common pattern, many sites use timestamp as an anchor to the individual post. I'm guessing someone realized there wasn't anything interesting to make a timestamp link to, so you could have it do that, and save space on separate text to explicitly link to the post.

[TeMPOraL]

Timestamp has been the standard place to put a permalink to a post/comment on the Internet since before social media was a thing. Mainstream social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook use this technique too.

[eyelidlessness]

I agree completely and this is one thing HN does like most other sites with user contributions and it’s TERRIBLE.

[srtjstjsj]

You learn it once and it works forever everywhere.

[andi999]

Thats what I live by (apart from the last sentence, this somehow doesnt pan out)