Ask HN: Hacker News for Non-Software Engineers | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Hacker News for Non-Software Engineers

10 pointselil1710 comments

Hi HN!

While I love the culture and many of the articles, HN is not as relevant as I wish it was to my day-to-day job and interests. As a mechanical engineer/engineering generalist, I wish there was a version of HN that focused more on every type of engineering that's not software engineering. I wish I could find the blog posts about how to get the most out of a factory visit, the journal articles about new materials, and the latest startups that hire people with my skillset.

I'm not looking for Q&A or help forums (there are lots of good ones for that).

View on HN

It's probably worth looking for Twitter lists as there are a lot of mech eng people on Twitter plus a lot of generalist accounts for university engineering departments, blog aggregators, etc.

In the mobile app, look up "mech eng" etc., find a reasonably good profile under People, biased toward posting AND retweeting, then tap the dot-menu & "Lists They're On". Look for lists with 25+ members.

That's just one idea, I'm sure there are lots of ways to get similar results, good luck.

Thanks! I’m not a Twitter user so I didn’t even think that was a thing I could do. Guess I’m making a Twitter account despite recent events.

Tip: Many people find Twitter is more useful when using Lists¹ (by making your own "Mechanical Engineering" list, for example) as the primary interface, rather than just following people and using the algorithmic timeline.

¹ https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/twitter-lists

If you find some, I would be interested as well as I feel the same !

I had briefly been on some reddit / discord community that had a space for news, and another one for homework,

But I left because a single moderator was racist and misogynistic without realizing it (he mostly said you had to tell the 'minorities' that even them could apply to jobs or you were not supporting, and thought you had to teach Europeans about women because they didn't did this in job ads)

Now I'm on matrix ! There are some interesting communities about various subjects. But the fact they're on matrix indicates they're basically these IT passionate like on HN.

I also wondered if academic meetings are open to everyone. I remember that some non-IT university researchers used to spend time at local meetings and larger conferences, with co-workers from other universities. But these events seemed to be mostly open to researchers, or cost a lot when they are open to professionals.

At best, you have your uni alumni or a local club, if you're interested in these news.

Anyway, tell me if you find a relevant community online !

I’ll have to take a look at Matrix. As a professional I do end up going to academic conferences (work pays) and they are absolutely the best time. Academics typically love having someone from industry show an interest in their work. I’ve found folks very welcoming and willing to explain the parts that are highly specialized/PhD level. However, it can be difficult to find relevant ones to my area (I haven’t liked any of the conference search websites I’ve used).

Aw you're so lucky

I worked in IT as soon as I graduated from engineering, so I never had the opportunity to go to conferences.

I am! I do love my job. I’d say seeking out a job that lets you go to conferences is absolutely worth it - they are invigorating and keep me engaged in my career.

Alternatively, many employers are surprisingly open to paying for conferences if you can demonstrate the value - for example, explaining how it will help you grow in your career or how it would help you find something useful for your (e.g. new technology or business process). Looking for local conferences reduces the cost a lot and makes it more palatable.

www.hackaday.com DIY for PCBs but sometimes 3D printing, laser cutting, and so forth. Very energetic and engaging community.

I love hackadau but did not know they accepted submissions! Excellent!

They totally accept submissions. I used to be there everyday until I fell for HackerNews Charm :-). Excellent community, very well moderated and everyday someone posts a thing or two that's totally ingenious. Search and check for anything by; Dmitry Grinberg(Guy ran linux on a Arduino MEGA LOLs) Sprite_tm(https://hackaday.com/tag/sprite_tm/)-> this guy is a legend.

Enjoy diving through the rabbit hole. If You wanna chat about embedded stuff(I am an EE who encourages everyone I see to become one), chat me up. Email in bio!

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