You can also add that to this type of audience which pretty much sums up what the technical bias of a typical HN reader/commenter really is.
So far it is more like all things:
Linux, Rust, AMD, ThinkPads, Elon Musk, Rick and Morty, Stanford, MIT, Web-Tech, Stripe Design, Mr Robot, Space Travel, Kubernetes, Data Structures and Algorithms, and now Telsa.
There's a lot of overlap between the HN user base and both sides of this argument, because the tech community itself is divided and HN reflects that. Each side feels that the other is over-represented here, but that's probably just cognitive bias.
>HN is usually a pretty good gauge for how the wider engineering community feels about a particular technology.
HN is a pretty good gauge for how a subset of a very startup focused portion of the engineering community feels about technology.
I don't know that the same can be said about it reflecting the opinions of the engineering community on the whole, or if the community is even unified enough for anything to be a representative sample. We're a pretty diverse and opinionated lot.
This is the best comment I've seen on this thread so far. And yet it's already near the bottom.
I didn't want to believe it, but it looks like HN is highly biased toward anything that has some VC behind it, flocking to it like it's suddenly going to change the world.
Might get downvoted but HN opinions are based on a minority of people who are more technical and well informed to the point of elitism IMO. When something becomes too mainstream and doesn't cater to the HN demographic, its success is irrelevant and potentially a liability.
HN has a very interesting “vocal minority” thing going where certain articles will have VERY predictable comments.
ShowHN - “this doesn’t work if JavaScript is disabled” or “you should explain this product better I don’t want it”
Any hardware device: “I’ve noticed declining quality because the space bar is a very specific type of plastic now” or “I can’t even ssh into this. I miss the days when I could ssh into my shoelaces”
But there are also just insane corners of knowledge where there isn’t a lowest common denominator and it’s pretty interesting stuff.
When I do know about a given topic I don’t have to scroll TOO far to find an opinion I agree with, and sometimes an argument I hadn’t come across that changes my view.
Not only confirmation bias, but also they're essentially polling a very specific subset of the population.
This is a segment of the population that would be replete with model train enthusiasts, RC plane hobbyists, and HAM radio operators back in the day. So, yeah, things of interest in the tech space would be of even more interest to people on HN.
But yeah, they also picked the "winners", they really have to filter for all topics discussed by HN and then find out how many of those became "future tech" and how many fell by the wayside. Because if it's 1 in 100, it's not a really good predictor.
And if something becomes mainstream, then of course it'll be talked about. That's kind of how it works.
HN definitely has a strain of tech "fad following" and cult of personality going on, in my opinion. There are certain languages, frameworks, companies and individuals that, if one comments negatively about, will earn more than one down vote.
That's actually quite an interesting topic and I think pretty tech related.
Technology enables a lot of great things, but also a lot of not so great and we need to adapt our behaviour and perception to reflect that. HN is one of those rare places were people can usually have a balanced and meaningful discussion on difficult topics.
Gotta disagree that it's rare on HN. There's a strong privacy contingent, but there's also the natural conservatism about technology you develop as an experienced engineer ("how is this gonna break and bite me in the ass?")
Interesting data point.
You know what they say about products that polarizes people..
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