> I still want to participate in the collective modern culture ... so somethings got to give.
Same comment applies to this forum. I want to participate in discussions on HN, and therefore I am subject to the occasional job ad from YC companies. It's not perfect, but it's a bit facetious to compare that to the attention grabbing of Youtube/Amazon, etc who will intentionally curtail my efforts to find content I want, in lieu of something they want to promote.
That's too cynical. If it were an ad platform, you wouldn't be allowed to criticize those companies, or YC, or members from YC. But you can!
It also doesn't ask for a lot of attention. You don't get notifications, infinite scrolling, custom content for your preferences, and click bait is limited, per the enforced guidelines. There's a bit of FOMO since articles only stay at the top for a while, but there's ways to get around that (RSS, which I use).
HN is a place to discuss interesting ideas first, and YC startups second. The hard work from dang deserves more praise than that!
> I still want to participate in the collective modern culture ... so somethings got to give.
Same comment applies to this forum. I want to participate in discussions on HN, and therefore I am subject to the occasional job ad from YC companies. It's not perfect, but it's a bit facetious to compare that to the attention grabbing of Youtube/Amazon, etc who will intentionally curtail my efforts to find content I want, in lieu of something they want to promote.