[eLobato]

How is this Hacker News worthy content? It's a great article, granted, but it has nothing to do with hacking (unless I'm missing something).

If you downvote this comment, I think explaining in a reply why this article belongs in Hacker News would be great.

[simonw]

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

"On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

[dang]

Hacker News is about more than hacking and startups. That has been in the site prospectus for some 7 years and is kind of the whole idea.

I posted it because it's damn interesting, and secondarily because the site could use a little more diversity.

[Zancarius]

I found it fascinating, because it's a place I'd never go to--and because I admire those with the intestinal fortitude to visit places that could potentially land them at the bottom of a 6' hole in the ground. One of the reasons I read HN is because of the occasional morsel like this that is simultaneously unexpected and rewarding.

The other side of the coin is that it was well written and humorous, which helps, but the language itself brought to life incredible images. Writing is a skill. Good writing is an art. Both can be appreciated but one is adored. I always assumed that hacker-types generally had a wide array of eclectic tastes and interests, and I'm pretty sure some of the more famous ones would agree [1]. Besides, who doesn't like a good, lively story about a culture that's alien to the majority of us Westerners?

I'm still puzzled though. I've never understood why some people have a penchant for clicking links they know they'll hate, read them anyway, and then post their misery and suffering. It would seem less of a cognitive load to ignore the unwanted than to embrace and let it fester.

[1] http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/reading_habits.html

[adventured]

You've been here for nearly three years. The surprising thing is that you don't know Hacker News is not just about hacking. That fact has been repeated almost daily since the origins of this site.

[mwfunk]

The two most tiring and unnecessary comments anyone can make on any news aggregator websites (including HN) are:

(1) "Hey, this article is titled '10 cool things about X' (where X is some programming language or framework or library or server or something) but it didn't explain what X was! I've never heard of X so clearly no one else has either!" Every once in a great, great while, it's a defensible comment, but it's just not worth making the comment even when it is. Just Google it if you haven't heard of it, that's what the rest of us did.

(2) "Hey, this article you guys linked to doesn't fit into the category of articles that I have assigned to your website!" Seriously, no good can ever possibly come of this. Downvote the article if you feel this way, that's why the ability to downvote articles exists. It's just so not worth verbalizing the sentiment.

Unfortunately, the third most tiring and unnecessary comment that can be made on such sites is probably the one I just made, so sorry everyone! :) I mean well, I really do.

[kstop]

Because reading about his awesome life makes me want to develop a SaaS product and charge for it from Day 1.

[clarry]

I kind-of get your point -- I don't see why the linked post is something that hackers in particular should find intriguing. But I personally found it to be an interesting read, and I expect most people (hackers or not) should feel the same. In any case it's a refreshing change for all the "big tech corp did this or that" stories that are repeated in all tech media (even mainstream media) and are only tangentially related to hacking because it's got something to do with technology.

[stupidpost]

I totally agree 100%. I began to read the blog post and noticed that the author was trying to make it sound like a novel. If I wanted to read a book I would. It wasn't interesting; actually pretty distracting.