[briefcomment]

Regardless of whether it's social media or not, HN is a huge digital waste of time. Try to think of more than 10 posts that really improved your life over the years. Now realize that you probably look at more than 50 HN posts a day. I would spend much less time on HN, but it's an addiction, like most things digital.

[ryan-allen]

My experience has been different. I consider HN to be a kind of 'finger on the pulse' for my profession as a programmer, and in that regard it's fantastic.

Reddit, on the other hand, is a huge time sink (some good, some bad, I read an awful lot of short fiction on Reddit, and I consider that a positive).

I can think of dozens upon dozens of posts that were useful over the years! In a way HN has reduced the amount of networking I have had to do in order to see what people are interested are in, as they are posted here!

[swiley]

I've found a lot of good things on HN. I'd say it's near a net zero as far as time lost vs new things learned goes.