Skip to content

Comment on Ask HN: What are some key ingredients for a compelling Ask HN?parent

Comments

I tried this Ask HN before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19846911

It didn't do really well, maybe due to the timing and not the subject matter, but it's worth noting that some people in the thread did take an accusatory stance and assume malicious motives from my question. I tried my best to cover my bases and make sure the intent didn't come across as personal gain, but alas, you can't convince everyone.

My goal was to get responses from people who work in "exotic" or otherwise "not techy" industries who could benefit from technology that they may know about but are not experts in (alternatively, they are capable, but do not have the time nor incentive to care). I'm sure that, especially among the people who frequent HN, we've all had experiences with processes in our lives where we've thought, "man, I could script this in a few hours."

I don't find the activity inherently malicious at all, it's a certain type of brain picking that people don't respond to positively. Thanks for the example!

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.