HN: one of the last remaining Great Good Places of the Internet, a lone tavern in an iconic gateway town to the now not-so-wild west.
Beyond the western borders of this little town, the tech gold rush has both expanded to epic proportions, affecting all the economies in the world, and also gone through enough booms and busts that the phrase "gold rush" seems somehow off.
As more and more young'uns join and jaded veterans return to throng the tavern alike, it often seems to be on the brink of either exploding with the largest gun fight in history, or jumping the shark.
The secret is the man at the corner of the bar @dang, always around with a friendly smile and a towel on his shoulder. The only sheriff in the west who still doubles as the friendly bartender: always polite, always willing to break up a fight with kind words and clean up messes himself.
Yes a cold-hard look from him is all it takes to get most outlaws to back down, yes, his Colt-45 "moderator" edition is feared by all men, but the real secret to his success: his earnest passion (some call it an obsession) for the seemingly sisyphean task of sustaining good conflict - letting it simmer but keeping it all times below the boiling point based on "the code":
"Conflict is essential to human life, whether between different aspects of oneself, between oneself and the environment, between different individuals or between different groups. It follows that the aim of healthy living is not the direct elimination of conflict, which is possible only by forcible suppression of one or other of its antagonistic components, but the toleration of it—the capacity to bear the tensions of doubt and of unsatisfied need and the willingness to hold judgement in suspense until finer and finer solutions can be discovered which integrate more and more the claims of both sides. It is the psychologist's job to make possible the acceptance of such an idea so that the richness of the varieties of experience, whether within the unit of the single personality or in the wider unit of the group, can come to expression."
May the last great tavern in the West and it's friendly bartender-sheriff live long and prosper.
Right you are. I ran across that quote in her collection "The Suppressed Madness of Sane Men". She included the quote but not the paper. I thought it was amazing, so I wanted to read the paper—which was not easy to find. Eventually someone dug me up a copy, and it turned out that the quote was the only interesting thing in it. But what a quote. I don't know of anything more relevant.
If any of you want to explore Marion Milner, the place to start is "A Life of One's Own"- a work of original genius: https://www.amazon.com/Life-Ones-Own-Marion-Milner/dp/041555.... Everyone says "think for yourself" but she actually did it. Oh and her brother won the Nobel Prize in physics. Quite a family.
It's definitely only a great, good place from a certain perspective. People I respect greatly refer to "the orange site" as "toxic", "misanthropic" or "misogynistic" and full of "microdosing" "VC worshipping wankers" who don't read TFA.
It's definitely taken a different path than the one it was on c.2010 where any entrepreneur was effectively worshipped. I'm not sure if it's better or worse. The site rarely brings me joy. If it disappeared tomorrow I wouldn't miss it, but I wouldn't know what to do with myself.
Meh. You're applying selective judgement when talking about Twitter, saying it's entirely reasonable because you are very good at avoiding the awful parts of it.
Do the same with HN and you will see the good parts of it are entirely reasonable as well.
Taken as a whole, I don't see how Twitter as a whole is reasonable. In my opinion, on average it is probably the most toxic, inane popularity contest of any social media.
That said, this is a Thanks HN post, so I don't really care to make this a whole discussion about the blue site vs the orange site.
I guess my perspective is more so that many folks on HN openly celebrate HN, and feel that it is objectively good, and folks who don't agree with that are firmly ostracized. Criticism of HN doesn't do well here.
Conversely I don't know of a single person who uses Twitter who doesn't believe it to be an absolute hellsite of inane misery.
Dan has helped define for me what thoughtful moderation looks like. Not everyone likes dang, but this website is my Third Place and I am so thankful for the hard work (from Dan and everyone who participates here with integrity) that keeps it alive.
Couldn't agree more. I'm not sure how @dang and crew manage it but to continue to be a place of connection on the internet I don't loathe genuinely is a huge testament and I'm very grateful this community exists.
It can definitely be an echo chamber, the mods tend to flag/ [dead]/ bury posts and comments for no reason and turning on [dead] visibility is basically just 4chan, however I have received the most legitimate use from this site as people on it tend to be experienced and knowledgable
Someone replied to you claiming he's shadowbanned, and sure enough it's a dead comment and 90% of his stuff is dead as well, despite seeming to be pretty innocuous. Turn showdead on and see for yourself.
I was just coming here to say this. I've been part of the community since 2007, which feels like a really, really long time. But I've learned a lot, both from the submissions and the comments. This is probably the only place on the Internet where I always read the comments or read the comments instead of the article.
It's an understatement to call HN a daily read for me. Does anyone else check the comments before following the link? The perspectives shared here are a valuable part of my information diet. Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving!
HN has really impressed upon me the value of site loading speed - one big reason I often check the comments first is that _they're there instantly_, whereas clicking on the actual link is a bit of a crapshoot! It's surprising how influential that difference is.
I frequently don't follow the link unless the comments make me intrigued enough to do so. Partly because of the typically high signal/noise ratio for top comments here, and partly because of the ubiquity of paywalls, popups, horrible design and other JavaScript-heavy forms of user-hostility (or at least non-friendly or misguided) one finds in the average website.
The simplicity of presentation on Hacker News is one of its defining virtues.
I go through the front page and right click open new tab the link to the comments section for all the stories that seem interesting. Then I go through each tab, see if the comments are interesting, and only then do I click on the article.
I find the comments and discussion often provide far more value compared to the actual articles. Especially when it comes to links about health. Lots of pseudoscience out there and very grateful for the knowledgeable community to shed light on it when it shows up.
+1 and I’m greatful for dang and the moderation team for making it a great community to discuss and share ideas and opinions that I would never would have come across otherwise. Thank you.
When I had children, a family of my own, I came to find Thanksgiving my favorite holiday. Seemingly immune to the commercialization (I'm going to disassociate Black Friday with Thanksgiving), it became for me a day to relax, hang out with the family and ... be thankful.
How pure and unencumbered is that?
Best thing the U.S. has come up with. (Landing on the Moon was cool too though.)
I mean it when I say that software engineering as a career would not be as fun if HN didn't exist.
Here is a well moderated safe haven for technical and business discussion, incredibly popular yet holding itself to a higher intellectual standard than the rest of the internet, where I can ask questions, share opinions, learn from others, publicise my startup or pet project and be taken seriously.
+1, this place has (mostly) managed to retain what made it special despite becoming more mainstream due the popularity of the SWE career in the last decade.
I've been reading HN almost daily for almost a decade now. I found it through a friend who has taught me a lot about programming, the internet, and nerdy things in general. When I discovered HN, it felt like I had a whole community of people similar to my friend who introduced me to it.
Thanks to everyone here for kipping some sanity and wisdom in the wilderness of the Internet, thanks to dang for making it possible and thanks to the person that more than a decade ago recommended me to visit at least once per day the front page of HN. The latter definitely changed my professional career.
The more noise fills news and social media, the more I end up consuming HN instead of any other source. With GPT3 generated content now flooding the web that applies even more so. I’m going to eventually convince my non-engineering friends to join in as well. Maybe HN can apply some tagging on content so they can filter for the less technical stuff that is more accessible to them.
When I created my account 11 years ago I thought I wasn't that smart either. Then I got older and cocky and figured out we're all pretending to be smart :)
Thank you to Ycombinator for allowing the Hacker News team editorial freedom, and thank you to the editorial team for the work you do.
Lastly, thank you to the users here that continually teach me new things, and for helping me see the world and myself in different ways. I'm a better person because of this site, your posts, and your comments. Stay classy out there!
I want to thank all the individuals who spend extra time making thoughtful and balanced comments. These tend not to get as much engagement on site but I promise they ruminate in my mind and help me grow as a person. Thanks.
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and even soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
Also, this Proclamation issued by Governor Wilbur Cross on Nov. 12, 1936
"Time out of mind at this turn of the seasons when the hardy oak leaves rustle in the wind and the frost gives a tang to the air and the dusk falls early and the friendly evenings lengthen under the heel of Orion, it has seemed good to our people to join together in praising the Creator and Preserver, who has brought us by a way that we did not know to the end of another year. In observance of this custom, I appoint Thursday, the twenty-sixth of November, as a day of Public Thanksgiving for the blessings that have been our common lot and have placed our beloved State with the favored regions of earth -- for all the creature comforts: the yield of the soil that has fed us and the richer yield from labor of every kind that has sustained our lives -- and for all those things, as dear as breath to the body, that quicken man's faith in his manhood, that nourish and strengthen his spirit to do the great work still before him: for the brotherly word and act; for honor held above price; for steadfast courage and zeal in the long, long search after truth; for liberty and for justice freely granted by each to his fellow and so as freely enjoyed; and for the crowning glory and mercy of peace upon our land; -- that we may humbly take heart of these blessings as we gather once again with solemn and festive rites to keep our Harvest Home.
Just finished rewatching Ken Burns' Civil War for probably the tenth time. It's a holiday tradition for me. To anyone unfamiliar, it will completely transform your understanding of American history, and Lincoln as a man.
Can't recommend it enough, and it's on PBS digital through Prime Video now.
Thanks for making this thread. It'd be fun to have a regular Thanksgiving/Christmas Eve thread where people post cooking and other holiday-related hacks.
Fully agree. Without HN, I wouldn't had read books like Code, Designing Data-Intensive Applications or Operating System: Three Easy Pieces (to name just a few). I'm usually a passive reader here, but I wanted to say thank you to all of you who share their knowledge and wisdom and therefore help me to learn new things on a (almost) daily basis.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you posters and commenters.
I'm a passive reader here, but I wanted to say thank you to all of you who share their knowledge and wisdom and help me to learn new things on a daily basis.
The comments here are almost always more informative than the link itself.
I am a long-time lurker. This is the best place to know and learn about the latest and greatest. I am thankful for all the posts and comments. I echo the overall sentiment here that this is the only place on the internet where I would rather be. My day starts with HN and ends with it.
Thanks to the fantastic team at HN, which keeps everything running smoothly.
I’m thankful for the privilege of living in the current time and being free and able to (hopefully) make it a better place. I’m thankful to live in a place where I can just be how I am without having to worry that it will get me killed, or even hassled.
I am thankful for HN being there for me every day. This place feels like a cozy home for my higher brain functions.
There has not been a bad mood that I could not eventually distract away by either reading comments or getting actively involved in some conversation here. Rarely do I walk away from a day of browsing HN without new project ideas dancing in my head.
HN has also been invaluable for validating certain technical concepts over the years. All in all, I certainly owe this community much more than it owes me.
For young people like me who are new to the tech industry, this year has been a realization that tech is anything other than "a rollercoaster that only goes up." But I am so thankful for everyone in this community, and ones like it, for bringing so much rigor, growth, and opportunity to the world. I'm thankful for my co-workers, customers, readers, and friends.
Happy Thanksgiving HN, my home on the internet. I can’t express enough gratitude for all this site has given to me, from the knowledge, the eye opening perspectives, knowing that I’m not alone in my insatiable curiosity about the world, and also being an exemplar for high quality discourse on the internet.
Grateful, yes, for rediscovering this great resource for interesting news. So many other sources have succumbed to sensationalism and have become mostly "click bait". Thank you to all the contributors, the admins and developers, and everyone who makes this enjoyable resource popular.
We've got the 'rona again, so pretty small one today. If you're celebrating with loved ones and friends, give them a hug. Wishing I could do that. Don't let those important yet small moments pass.
Happy Thanksgiving! May your thoughts be considerate, your stomachs be full, and your wallets not too empty (especially after this weekend)! Thanks for being an awesome, kind and thought-provoking bunch!
Thanks HN for been a gateway to the internet! This is the best social news site online! Thank you to all writers and readers! Happy thanksgiving to all!
Today's a real shit day for me, not because of the holiday but because of the events in my life leading up to today, but I just wanted to pop in and tell HN Happy Thanksgiving because this community is wonderful even with its flaws. Thanks for everything over the years and many to come.
Thank you very much, dang, for working tirelessly to moderate and maintain an amazing community. I know nothing's perfect, but this community keeps me coming back (for better or for worse) because of the quality discussion. Moderation is at least half of that.
Today, as will be spent laying on the cold & hard ground of a floor in the high desert of Cali - maybe with a warm cup of tea - I find myself thankful for the freely accessible intellectual stimulation on HN, which has played a major part in (mostly) keeping my sanity for quite some time now (think I found this place in 2012, never felt need for account tho), while essentially bedridden. Though I often find some of you on here to be a bit ghoulish, the site is most definitely a net positive for me.
Thankful for my few friends - of all I’d intentionally pushed away, as to not have them witness my medical condition rapidly deteriorate the me they knew - who have continued to care about me, & attempt stay in my life.
Thankful I can still piss as biology intended, & that I’m not in a wheelchair or similar mobility device. Sorry for the crassness of this remark for those who can’t & do need said devices, but either of those two for me, & I would soon take exit of our life.
Now over half of my young life completely encompassed by extreme pain, discomfort, & debilitating symptoms. Career path likely irreparably derailed, despite hard earned full ride scholarships. Doctors who didn’t give a fuck until it was near too late, & now more doctors who still mostly don’t give a fuck.
Be thankful for your health & able body if you have it. For those who do, I advise making a plan, grounded in reality, as to whether or not you want to fight an unfathomably painful & endlessly hopeless battle, should one ever come your way - or to be at peace with the fate behest (is this a properly used word. I don’t know, too much brain fog right now) you, & a plan to leave our world in the most comfortable way. Before slowly watching your life’s achievements fade away into nothingness, & you/your friends having to watch you wither away into nothing more than the most physically & mentally fragile husk of who(m?) you once were.
Take care of your bodies, desk nerds. & should the need arise, seek treatment as early as possible, & use whatever means necessary to get it.
Edit: For visibility & my principles - though I am not one of them, I am very NOT thankful for the active culture war currently raging against the LGBTQ+whatever folk who live in our (US) country. Let them live their fucking lives, & de-platform the psychopaths trying to genocide them.
Shout out to all the talented people here and for @dang for keeping things in check.