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Comment on Show HN: Inflation-adjusted Hacker News

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I thought this would be about compensation figures.

It’s about HN points.

I've accumulated a lot of HN points, and at no point did I discover some way to turn that into compensation!

The true karma was the friends we made along the way.

I once saw a comment here that some people put their HN usernames on their resumes.

I was shocked; seems like that is more likely to be taken as a negative signal than a plus. “Here, look how good I am at wasting time on this web forum!” :-)

I'd personally take a CV with a big grain of salt, as I personally wouldn't see value in a high karma due to publishing popular stories.

On the other hand, I wouldn't discard it in principle. The comments history of a user says a lot about the user's ideas and approach to discussions/debates.

HN shaped the way I discuss/debate more than anything else in my life, so there can be a significant value in it.

I've been approached (though rarely) because of HN activity, and I've also found great temporary work via HN occasionally. So I would say it's a net positive, and I include it in my LinkedIn profile.

I use a résumé/CV sometimes, but I have found that those places which require one take a long time to process applications and enquiries compared with those places that don't require one, with the result that the latter places have ended up hiring me while the former places are still working up to their third interview or whatever.

In the end the résumé/CV is good to keep going as a hedge, and multiple applications are good for peace of mind, but (maybe it's just by chance) it hasn't ended up used by places I ended up working for for some years now.

I figure having a searchable track record is one of the reasons it's working out that way, and HN is part of that. Other public locations similarly, such as dev mailing lists, issue comments, etc. It's not why I write here, but it is a motivation to write thoughtfully while keeping it real, and I am mindful that a future employer may read what I write :)

It depends what that user did; a really really good account could be more problem-solving than time-wasting.

I think for some low information recruiter/companies it would seem valuable; here's my stackoverflow account (top 33%), my github account (something or other notable), my HN account (big points) results in recruiter thinking oooh big nerd, big in nerd community, yes push this guy.

I mean this of course all plays into the assumption that hiring is anyway a big circus where nobody actually knows anything and are just guessing. But I do seem to see a lot of that assumption being made.

I get paid interest on stackoverflow: I have gone up in rank without doing anything. I was top 10% a few years ago when I stopped, and I am now top 8% (without doing any work at all!).

right they changed their algorithm last year (maybe two years ago now actually). I noticed I got a bump from it, it's interesting to me because I've never really done anything (asked some interesting questions, edited a couple things that were out of date, I have probably answered no more than 3 questions that were not asked by myself.) yet even so I am better than 50%, pretty crazy.

It's more likely the negative reputation this forum has would taint you by association.

It's not quite compensation per se, but rsync.net will give you a very nice discount just for being a HN user. (I don't think they check how many points you have accumulated though.)

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