We can expect more articles on cooking, which is just "hacking" food? Gardening, as it's "hacking" vegetation (literally, sometimes)? Mental illness treatment advances, because it's "hacking" the psyche?
FWIW I've seen cooking and gardening articles here. Can't recall seeing things on mental illness but possibly stuff about drug regimens; sleep disorders have been handled several times.
But with startups and business success.
"What would happen to overall customer satisfaction if instead of simply refunding his money, we sent an Ipad2 and added a funny note? Could that story go viral and create enough buzz that we could not get for less than $400,000 in marketing budget and countless meetings?"
That sounds like hacking to me. But hey, I am no hacker, so....
That story is a perfect example of how to hack PR for startups: do a few stunts like these, word will spread. That's hacking.
Spending $1M on banner ads is not hacking.
True. However, HN isn't just about hacking, it's about anything "good hackers would find interesting"[1].