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When I first came across HN (around the time I started programming), I was a bit overwhelmed and intimidated upon seeing the projects/people/success stories in the community. I spent a lot of time just reading before I started posting. I've heard other people express similar thoughts.
Eventually, I just decided to start posting - there is no need to "wait" until you have a certain skill/expertise in an area. You can still make valid contributions to the discussion (of course, please read the posting guidelines).
So any lurkers out there, I encourage you to stop lurking and join the community. I did - and have consequently met many interesting people through HN and learned a lot of new things.
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On another note, the only group of people that seem to get tech/"internet" related (being purposely vague here) news faster than HN is people who use Reddit. I've had many conversations with friends who use Reddit where I will say "Hey, did you hear about X?" and they respond "Yeah, I already saw it Y hours ago on Reddit." Usually the difference isn't very large.