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by lr4444lr 1758 days ago
There are just so many more Big Tech workers than us scrappy startup people reading and writing here than in the early HN days, and frankly, we have much more to do that keeps us too busy to post on HN as much as they probably have. Yeah, I said it.
1 comments

Look, I fully support lots of vacation, staying happy, diversity, avoiding burnout - all the things big tech workers rally for. But HN offers zero optimism about solving hard problems, joy of discovery and innovation, struggling through challenges and facing them head on, cooperating with others, leadership and straightforwardness, etc. It's become a cesspool of big tech agony, mixed with social drama, activism and shunning down people that are looking for inspiration. Used to be not like that and it is affecting people like you and many new brilliant people that see no hope but to get a cozy gig at FAANG, check the stock market everyday.
Anecdotally, I used to get sucked into HN for hours because the discussions were good. Now I scan and many days don't find a single decent discussion. Lots of Rust vs Go and politics under the guise of technology. Then again, maybe this is reflecting our society, which is being eaten alive and conglomerated.
Don't forget the occasional wave of Julia!
I am embarrassed to admit that many years ago, I wasted one of my few moments with PG to make the dumbest suggestion ever - in my mind, HN could make some minor SEO tweaks and easily acquire a ton of new traffic, which would help YC get more exposure. He just smiled and didn't say anything. I knew right then and there why I was wrong, but the true extent of my stupidity has only been recently dawning on me.
HN is no longer the site you're looking for. It's no longer the site I'm looking for, either. That irritated me to an unreasonable degree for a while, but I just accept it for what it is now.

I find it's still a useful pointer to interesting links, but if I go into the comments it's knowing they'll be annoying. Align expectations with the reality and it's OK.

What do you use nowadays?
/.
Really? Has Slashdot cycled back around to being as interesting as it was in the 90s?
Other than the Beta redesign, /. _the site_ has always been good. The content has been consistently interesting.

However, the _community_ has changed. I still read the headlines to get an idea of what is happening in the world, but the fine comments have been garbage from the moment Taco left.

> optimism about solving hard problems, joy of discovery and innovation, struggling through challenges and facing them head on, cooperating with others, leadership and straightforwardness,

Enough of us have been given speeches by corporate culture execs or flashy tech leaders making vapourware, so when we hear those words, we await a pile of nonsense to follow.

I've felt this recently, was there a wantrapreneur-exodus I wasn't aware of? Where are all the tales-from-the-trenches posts? Where did the hustle posts go!? Was there a "startups considered toxic" moment that I missed?