Is Hacker News a Waste of Time?
xenophanes: > Ask HN: Is Hacker News a Waste of Time?> The question though is whether interesting is good enough.In my words:"Is interesting stuff worth doing, and is using my own judgment OK, or should I stick to what tradition and authority and culture says is important?"His best defense of reading Hacker News is not that he likes it. It is:> I do not wish to come accross as someone who would rather be isolatedBeing social is an approved activity.Paul Graham says:> [Hacker News is] certainly alarmingly addictive. Much more so than a newspaper. I've been wondering lately what to do about that.He has the common attitude that problems should be solved by an authority Doing Something, and that his judgment should trump the individual judgment of each reader. And he has the attitude that if people spend a lot of time doing something, that is prima facie evidence that it's a bad thing. That is backwards.All this is a direct result of parents who educate their kids with principles like:- it doesn't matter if you like it, do something important (aka, approved by an authority like a text book manufacturer or a tradition)- if you like it a lot, then it's probably bad. TV, video games, ice cream, playing in preference to doing homework, etc- your judgment can't be trusted- if you have a problem, don't do anything, tell an authority who will fix it. e.g., self defense is banned at school, only defense by teacher is allowed. even solving an "i need to use the bathroom" problem on one's own initiative is banned.- you have to share and socialize or you're a bad person. Ayn Rand is the devil.