What's the Purpose of Hacker News to You?
akamaka: Among the reasons others have already mentioned, I also regularly google through old HN articles for advice on which tools are the best.Searches like "hosting provider" or "server monitoring" will bring up lots of useful comments from the folks in the trenches.Edit: Another reason: positivy toward success.  In my daily life, I'm surrounded by people who denigrate those who are more succesful than them.  HN is a place where that rarely happens, even if the subject is as unusual as jocks or jewel thieves.