from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do you read HN?

by gsora on 8/2/22, 10:13 AM with 11 comments

I'm a new HN user, I used to use RSS feeds but nowadays I prefer coming here and explore all the interesting things people share.

I'm struggling with how to read all this stuff.

I bookmark almost everything I find interesting, but most of the time I end up forgetting about this or that story.

On top of that, reading on phone or computer is a no-go for me: I did that during university and it's simply not ergonomic enough.

This phenomenon is especially true for research papers or more generally anything that comes in PDF form.

I have a Kindle, I tried almost all the tools to send over links and PDFs but the experience is abysmal.

Have you ever experienced this problem? How did you solve it?

  • by f0e4c2f7 on 8/2/22, 12:11 PM

    If something is interesting and too long, I bookmark it.

    If it's a slow day on HN or I feel like I've already seen all the interesting stuff I switch from the front page to my bookmarks and go read the interesting stuff I haven't got around to yet.

    I originally started doing it this way back when I used reddit. If you save the post with comments instead of the link, it turns your bookmarks into a personally curated mini-hackernews or reddit.

  • by warrenm on 8/2/22, 1:57 PM

    I mostly only hit the threads or ask pages - I'll skim the first 5-10 entries under "new", but unless it really hits my interest based on the title, there's just too much floating by to think/worry about

    I hate the main page and how bleeding difficult it is for content to arrive there (same thing with Reddit - the default main page bloddy sucks, read /new, or nothing at all)

  • by xory on 8/2/22, 12:50 PM

    https://apps.apple.com/us/app/octal-for-hacker-news/id130888... I have tried all of them and I dislike Octal the least. I finally bought it after years of switching between the app and web.

  • by jo_beef on 8/2/22, 11:09 AM

    I read the comment section first to see if it's worth reading. And when they do, I skim the whole article starting from intro then headings (without reading the paragraph) then skip to conclusion. If they intrigue me I go back to those headings and read the whole paragraph. But if they contain too much flowery words I just close the tab.

  • by jacquesm on 8/2/22, 10:23 AM

    Way too often.

    I'm trying to keep track of the 'new' page on some days but mostly just let it go because it moves too fast to be bothered with. And I'll open the main page at least several times per day and break out those articles that I want to read. It's a huge time sink.

  • by speakfreely on 8/2/22, 11:32 AM

    I go straight for the comments, attack the article without reading it based on something it didn't say, and then get defensive when anyone disagrees with me.

  • by warrenm on 8/2/22, 1:53 PM

    I usually use my eyes

    But maybe I'm just weird that way :P

    As for the interface I use, it's my desktop browser (Firefox), or occasionally mobile browser (also Firefox in my case)

  • by taubek on 8/2/22, 10:56 AM

    I visit HN few times every day. I must say that I learn the most from Ask HN section. I read things right away and bookmark interesting finds.

  • by softwaredoug on 8/2/22, 2:37 PM

    I use favorites as a “read later” queue. I even submit interesting stories and favorite them for this purpose.

  • by jstx1 on 8/2/22, 10:18 AM

    How do you use a computer if reading on your computer isn't ergonomic for you?