For me, HN started off as an alternate news source to reddit; there's more signal to noise with every article on the front page. Even if it wasn't newsworthy per se, you could (and still can) count on a vast majority as free and surprisingly in-depth knowledge. An example - once their was an article on MIT's free online course; a specific lesson on Chinese Architecture was a godsend when I had been trying to expand my footprint in architecture theory.

I'm an illustrator / comic artist / graphic designer triad, if it counts. :)