Comment by Jacob4u2 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Jacob4u2 | Hacker News Reader

I sometimes have a hard time justifying how much time I spend on HN, but this quote about creativity really put it in perspective for me:

  "A current favorite is Hacker News. Look, someone is describing how they did the effects for Tron Legacy. They really did go out of their way to make those Unix screens authentic. You know, I have an article about the beauty of the command line. I should write…"

I definitely consider it less of a side-track considering the blog posts and side projects that have been inspired by HN.

I've always wondered what kind of ambient value HN adds to Y Combinator. As an advertising tool for PG's operation, it's exceptional. But as a serendipity generator, it's also pretty remarkable. Curious to know how many people who have gotten stuck while working on Y Combinator projects managed to get unstuck thanks to finding the right link at the right time.

Theoretically, any number of filters could do this (RSS, twitter, etc.), but none of them have quite the same feedback loop as the comments sections here. Personally, it's becoming rare for me to open a link without simultaneously opening the discussion link. In terms of that serendipity, I wonder if it isn't (just) the suitably interesting variety of topic which produces it, but the way that a particularly astute set of replies prompts thinking from a variety of angles.

That, more than anything, seems to be the real cause of prompts with regard to whatever problems you may be struggling with.

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