What is Hacker News?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1648009

by blantonl • 16 years ago

65 41 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

This post is spurred by seeing the Hacker News guidelines this evening: [Moderator: feel free to remove this]

What IS Hacker News? Is it a social site for startups? Or venture capital? Is it similar to Slashdot (or was Slashdot once similar)? Is it a combinator for startups? (No pun intended). Or is it a more "elite" group of like minded individuals?

I am relative newcomer to the Hacker News scene, being a member for just under a year, but I've gained significant knowledge from those that participate here. I own and manage a well established Internet business, but with regards to Hacker News I struggle to understand who exactly Hacker News is designed for, and targeted to. Frankly, I suffer from an identity crisis at times.

I may need to be content with the understanding that I gain great perspective for my business by reading and participating here, but my curiosity still recommends that I ask this question.

Warm regards,

Lindsay

albertsun2• 16 years ago

You might check out the guidelines for the site.

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#

WalterGR• 16 years ago

"This post is spurred by seeing the Hacker News guidelines this evening"

albertsun2• 16 years ago

That was edited in...

mixmax• 16 years ago

Everyone is here for a different reason. Some people love startups, some love technology, some love programming. Some just like to learn new things.

If you look broadly at the topics, discussions and members I think it's somewhat obvious that there's a common denominator in all of this. Hacker news is a collection of intellectually curious people who enjoy interacting with and being challenged by likeminded souls. This is evidenced by the generally well-thought out comments, stimulating submissions and the tendency to downvote comments that aren't interesting or add to the conversation.

Hacker news is simply a place where you can meet other people that value intellectual integrity and a good conversation about an interesting subject whatever that may be.

shib71• 16 years ago

I'm mostly here for the technology / programming stuff, but I do appreciate the entrepreneurial factor. It seems to bias the content towards ideas that are potentially disruptive, as opposed to press releases and unfocused technophilia.

caudipublius• 16 years ago

"potentially disruptive"? Please elaborate. I find that the ideas mentioned here stem from other ideas mentioned here in a mostly positive fashion.

Andrew-Dufresne• 16 years ago

Everyone is here for a different reason.

True! I am here because I like HN interface and look. There are other sites that provide articles, submissions and discussions on programming and technology. But none do it as well as HN.

One such site is so full of irritating ads, links to other articles and what not that it becomes nearly impossible to focus on the real thing. At another famous site, I am still unable to understand their comment and karma system.

HN is simple, nice and clean. I would say more productive.

weaksauce• 16 years ago

It's also quick to load on my iPhone and the linked articles are generally longer and easier to read on said device because there is less context switching that is slow on the device.

atentaten2• 16 years ago

I guess the confusion comes from the system being named "Hacker News" when the content is rarely hacker-related. This struck me as somewhat as a misnomer as well, but I've since gotten over that. . .

kiba• 16 years ago

What is your definition of a hacker? What others consider hacker stuff may simply boiled down to who they think fit the definition of a hacker.

peteforde• 16 years ago

How do you figure? I rarely see anything on the homepage that isn't of interest to hackers.

_delirium• 16 years ago

You'd have to have a very broad definition; imo, about half the front-page content on a typical day is hackerly. Much of the rest is just general-interest news/politics/economics/business/motivation/self-help/etc. Not that there aren't many hackers also interested in those things, but it's hardly required, and many aren't. Not surprising, either, but I think it's a particular slice of hackerdom. Since it was formerly called Startup News, it's got more of the variety of hackers interested in the biz/economics angle, as opposed to, say, the classic Bell Labs type of hacker.

TheSOB88• 16 years ago

As others have alluded to, it's hacker in the sense of someone skilled at programming, not someone who hacks into systems to screw things up. It's a definition of the word that the public isn't really familiar with.

nocipher• 16 years ago

The term "hacker" is usually associated with technology and, sometimes, more specifically, with programming, but I don't think that captures the essence of what a hacker is. A hacker is just someone who likes to tinker with things.

The term "things" is intentionally ambiguous because it varies greatly from person to person and includes much more than just technology. Indeed, while hackers usually enjoy playing around with code or electronics, it isn't uncommon for hackers to be well read in completely unrelated subjects such as poetry or martial arts. Such behavior makes sense in light of an inherent playfulness.

It also explains, to a degree at least, the connection to startups. While I'm admittedly ignorant of much of the business world, it seems that startups would be the most "playful" (in sense that startups provide the most room for trial and error). Larger or more established ventures are sort of "on rails." They already have momentum and don't want to jeopardize it so they'll naturally be more hesitant to try new business strategies, especially ones without a proven track record.

Essentially, what defines a hacker is the desire to manipulate ideas and concepts, i.e., an innate intellectual curiosity. Most things on HN fall under that umbrella.

atentaten2• 16 years ago

The term "hacker" has been transformed by those outside of the original hacker subculture to mean what others have stated above. As someone who programmed computers for almost 20 years, I never regarded myself as a hacker. Since the definition of the word has been broadened, I would definitely be considered a hacker, yet I still don't have a strong connection to the word.

jeromec• 16 years ago

Hacker News was created by Paul Graham. You may also want to check out some of his essays at paulgraham.com. Here is one which gives some background on why he created Hacker News, and his thoughts on it as of Feb. 2009.

http://paulgraham.com/hackernews.html

da5e• 16 years ago

I think HN still very much reflects the mind of Paul Graham and his range of interests. Obviously he's an expert in startups, but he's also one of the best practical psychologists I've read. And I think this is a site about the mindset that produces programmers, entrepreneurs and people who like to do difficult, mentally-challenging projects and be delighted by the challenge.

amalcon• 16 years ago

You really seem to have two different questions:

- Why was HN created, and/or what is the guiding purpose behind changes?

- Why do people come here?

The former can really only be answered by pg. I'd guess he finds it somehow useful for YC proper. It gives a combination of PR (not quite the right term, but the best I can think of) for YC and a source of information on part of the applicant pool. Again, only a guess. It's also entirely possible that pg just wants to create a good community.

I can give my perspective on the latter. I come here because the quality of the frontpage links tends to be pretty high, and the (median) quality of the comments is even higher.

hnal943• 16 years ago

It's also a muse application for the design of arc, pg's new dialect of lisp.

bokonist• 16 years ago

Hacker News is a place to share news and discuss the world with technology minded, intellectually curious people.

YCombinator is a seed stage venture capital firm. The founder of YCombinator started and runs Hacker News, but there is no other affiliation.

pg• 16 years ago

Hacker news is designed for and targeted at hackers. In the sense of the word that means people who write code, not people who break into things. Other people with similar tastes also like it.

Since it's run by YC and the initial users were mostly YC founders, there is inevitably a startup spin to the stories that are popular here. In fact the site was originally called Startup News. But it turned out to be boring to have so much of a startup focus, so we changed the name and the focus to be more general.

jrockway• 16 years ago

it turned out to be boring to have so much of a startup focus

Glad I'm not the only one that thinks this!

pgbovine• 16 years ago

In the sense of the word that means people who write code

or more generally, people who like to tinker for discovery and exploration. code just happens to be the easiest medium in which to do so :)

mortenjorck• 16 years ago

What is a hacker?

A hacker is someone whose appetite for the universe is never quite satisfied. The hacker seeks to understand: himself, others, what surrounds him, the tools he uses, the things he enjoys, how things fit together. The hacker seeks to build: ideas, means, practical applications, businesses, cultural movements. Some build just one, some build them all. The hacker seeks to learn, to experiment, to solve, and to learn again.

The male pronoun above is of course used merely out of grammatical tradition. Hackers are male and female, young and old. Hackers are in Silicon Valley and in the middle of cornfields, they are in industrialized countries and in developing ones, they date back centuries before the term was coined and will exist as long as does the human condition.

I guess that turned into something of a manifesto. But that's what I believe is embodied in the spirit of the hacker.

pencil• 16 years ago

I consider a COMPLEX problem solver is a hacker. A person who makes profound contribution to his field of interest is a hacker. A person who looks at a tree and wonders why the branches and the leaves grow the way they should is a hacker. TO SUM IT UP A PERSON WHO'S NOT WORRIED BUT CURIOUS TO KNOW HOW THINGS WORK IS A HACKER. HACKER NEWS IS A PLACE FOR THESE MEN,WOMEN AND CHILDREN TO MEET UP. (for the time being i don't fall into any of the above category as i'am yet to become a hacker!!!!!!!!)

hasenj2• 16 years ago

I think what you're describing is a more general class of people. Hackers are the subgroup of such people, who are dealing mostly with computers and writing code.

blantonl2• 16 years ago

pg, thank you. This background gives a much better perspective (to me) on the community.

I look forward to participating further and hopefully better furthering my efforts based on what I learn here.

KevinMS• 16 years ago

It's a site for greedy nerds.

That's my honest opinion, can't mod me down for that, right?

Yzupnick• 16 years ago

Me too. Except (and correct me if I'm misinterpreting you) while you see this as an insult, I see it as a compliment. It is a site for people that are smart and love to learn. It is a site for people that know what the want, and are willing to take the risks to achieve that. It is a site for people that are creative, productive, and try to produce things that the people around them need or want. So yes it is a site for greedy nerds, and that is one of the reasons I enjoy coming.

zackattack• 16 years ago

and that, my friend, is why I love this community.

grigy• 16 years ago

Hacker News is what helps me to stay up to date with the latest news and trends in technology, to hear interesting people, their opinions on various topics, to find useful resources that help to do my work in better way.

Basically it's a fresh air that I need to breath every day.

benthumb• 16 years ago

It's reddit for adults.

IdeaHamster• 16 years ago

You know those stories you hear of the (by now) mythical "Homebrew Computer Club" of yore?

...yeah, like that.

startupcomment• 16 years ago

I dislike the term "hacker." It can and does have nefarious connotations that demean the term. I prefer "programmer," "developer," or "coder." Why run the risk of having someone misperceive your use of the term

xiongchiamiov• 16 years ago

> Why run the risk of having someone misperceive your use of the term

Because you'll quickly find out who your brethren are, and who should be ignored.

hasenj2• 16 years ago

Because "programmer" or "developer" can include people from other programming subcultures, like VB programmers and other types of coders who view coding as just another profession for getting a salary, and/or tend to be merely "consumers" of what Big Companies produce.

c1sc0• 16 years ago

Hacker News was born as a website for YC participants, grew up as a curious little brat interested in all kinds of technical topics, then had a minor identity crisis (hacker vs. entrepreneur) during adolescence, and now seems to have settled in favor of taking the middle ground between hustler & hacker.

klbarry• 16 years ago

I read it because it has intelligent discussions relevant to anyone who works with computers in business.

What is Hacker News?

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