In my opinion, the best thing about HN is the community.

The insights in to the thought process of some of the smartest people around, and sharing of experience and knowledge, helps in overall intellectual growth. Hopefully, this would help in having a net positive impact in some ways in the respective spheres of influence of the people here.

As far as, jump in 'popularity' index goes for any idea/site that gets covered here, i would daresay HN hasn't yet reached digg/slashdot proportion. And it might never happen as well, given that the focus is to keep it targeted at a specific niche.

p.s. Standing and admiring oneself in the mirror for a long time is generally not advisable. :-)