When I think of content you'd find on HN, the essence is probably best captured by Paul Graham's essays. And yet, those are by and large political, in fact the very first one is. [1]

[1] https://www.paulgraham.com/prop62.html

I don't think technology or finance is apolitical, regardless of what we want from it. Whether or not that justifies ignoring the political side should be up to the individual.

You might be out of luck when something isn’t what you wish it was. I’m here because the moderation is very good and to understand how the world works (both at macro and micro levels), despite the tech slop [1] (yet another redundant framework, all the AI drivel, what the latest hype cycle investment scam dressed as innovation is, etc). There is a hide button for threads not of interest [2], I find it useful to hide topics I'm not interested in, you might too.

This is not to say you cannot continue to find gems of interesting tech related posts, but I find them to be few and far between. I find the Ask and Show HN posts to be my favorites.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44484996

[2] Ask HN: Does anybody use the HN hide button? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34305451 - Jan 2023

(i am mindful that HN is the result of people who won the capital investment lottery creating a space to encourage intellectual curiosity, and i do my best as a participant to respect that [3]; there is no Dan or Tom equivalent elsewhere, they are the value here [among other mods not overtly public])

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43729126