All Topics

Commenters repeatedly label a proposed idea as an unproven theory or hypothesis and demand evidence, data, or proof to support it.

Discussions center on a specific aviation near-collision incident, debating responsibilities between air traffic control (ATC) and pilots, common procedures like visual separation and go-arounds in busy airspace, and safety systems such as TCAS.

Debate on suppression of free speech, political correctness, safe spaces, and academic freedom on university campuses, with examples of students and administrators stifling controversial opinions.

Discussions center on the difficulties smaller companies and startups face in hiring top engineering talent due to competition from FAANG-like giants, which benefit from massive applicant pools, better pay, and prestige. Commenters debate recruiting strategies, the role of public profiles like GitHub in poaching, and advice for attracting candidates with potential rather than proven stars.

Discussions center on capturing and repurposing waste heat from servers, data centers, and computing processes into electricity, heating, or other uses, while addressing thermodynamic limitations like temperature gradients and entropy.

This cluster centers on debates comparing stock buybacks and dividends as ways companies return value to shareholders, highlighting buybacks' tax efficiency due to deferred capital gains taxes versus immediate dividend taxation.

Comments revolve around opinions on Windows Phone, praising its UI and features while lamenting the lack of apps and its market failure.

Discussions center on high total compensation packages for software engineers at FAANG companies like Google and Facebook, including base salary, RSUs, bonuses, and references to levels.fyi confirming $170k-$400k+ TC for junior to senior levels.

Discussions center on the causes of economic and social disparities between Black and White Americans, debating whether they stem from ongoing or historical racism versus primarily socioeconomic class and poverty factors.

Discussions compare and critique online learning platforms like Udemy, Coursera, edX, and Udacity, focusing on course quality, completion rates, access restrictions, and evolving policies.

Cluster focuses on discussions about the shift from Flash to HTML5 video playback, particularly on YouTube, including browser compatibility, H.264 support, fallbacks, and DRM (EME).

Debates on whether climate change will cause human extinction, civilization collapse, or mass death versus claims that such fears are overblown hyperbole, often contrasted with AI risks.

Debate on the value and effectiveness of unit tests compared to integration and end-to-end tests, with critiques that unit tests are often wasteful, brittle, or less useful than broader testing strategies, supported by personal experiences and article references.

Users debate whether OpenAI uses prompts, chats, and proprietary data from their API or ChatGPT for training models, questioning enterprise plans, privacy policies, and data retention practices.

Discussions critique venture capitalists' behaviors and advice during founder meetings, debate optimal strategies for pitching, and question the value of seeking VC funding.

Comments consist of users quoting iconic lines from movies, TV shows, and pop culture, often sci-fi or dramatic ones like from The Matrix, Blade Runner, and The Fifth Element, in humorous response to the parent thread's content.

Discussions center on the financial downsides of joining startups as an employee, including low equity upside, high opportunity costs versus big tech salaries, and whether non-monetary benefits like experience and culture make it worthwhile.

Commenters debate the roles of genetic heritability versus environmental factors in determining human traits like intelligence or IQ, often citing studies on heritability, twin/adoption research, and criticizing omissions of genetic components in articles.

The cluster focuses on skepticism and debate about Web3, frequently dismissing it as overhyped crypto, blockchain grifts, or unrelated to core web technologies like HTML/CSS/JS, while some defend or clarify its broader potential.

This cluster discusses people who lack smartphones or access to them, often highlighting groups like the poor, homeless, children, or those by choice, and questioning tech assumptions requiring smartphone ownership.

Users recommend inexpensive used enterprise servers like HP Microservers, Supermicro, and Dell PowerEdge for home labs and small setups, praising their low power consumption, quiet operation, and cost-effectiveness over new hardware.

Discussions center on common Bash-specific issues like bash-isms, quoting problems, globbing, and unexpected behaviors, with references to ShellCheck warnings, BashFAQ, BashPitfalls, and strict mode recommendations such as 'set -ue -o pipefail'.

The cluster focuses on debates about the difficulty of raising early-stage funding for startups, including VC and angel investments, bootstrapping alternatives, and regional variations in funding availability.

The cluster discusses the declining effectiveness and revenue of online advertising, including advertisers pulling back spending, an impending advertising bubble burst, and challenges faced by ad-dependent platforms.

The cluster focuses on debates about whether the rapid influx of investor money into AI startups and companies represents a speculative bubble akin to the dot-com era, with discussions on hype, sustainability, potential bursts, and comparisons to past tech booms.

Users discuss frustration over discontinued older hardware models, lack of updates or servicing, and new models lacking key features or options from predecessors.

This cluster centers on discussions about various products, services, features, or projects that have been discontinued, shut down, or are no longer available, with users noting the timing, expressing surprise, or inquiring about reasons.

Comments discuss the concept of monads, their implementations and syntax in languages like Haskell (e.g., do-notation, list and Maybe monads), and debates on their necessity, portability to other languages, and relation to abstractions like applicatives.

This cluster centers on widespread criticism of the patent system, with commenters decrying its flaws, absurd grants, and abuses, often advocating for reform, abolition, or replacement.

Comments debate the feasibility and viability of building high-speed rail networks in the United States, highlighting challenges like vast distances, low population density, high costs, and competition from airplanes, while comparing to successes in Europe and China.

Discussions focus on a yes/no decision tool and the philosophy that 'yes' is almost always more interesting than 'no', advocating to default to yes.

The cluster focuses on a web-based tool for creating short animated explainer and product demo videos, with users praising its ease of use for startups, requesting features like APIs and talking-head support, and comparing it to tools like Kapwing and screen.studio.

Comments debate the human perceptibility of frame rates above 60 FPS, the benefits of high refresh rates for gaming and displays, and optimal FPS thresholds for smooth performance.

Users recommend and compare web-based diagramming tools like draw.io, Excalidraw, tldraw, Lucidchart, and diagrams.net, often as alternatives to the discussed tool or for similar purposes.

The cluster focuses on comparisons between fixed-price AI subscriptions (e.g., ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro) and pay-per-use API pricing from OpenAI, Anthropic, and others, debating affordability, value for coding/heavy usage, and personal spending experiences.

Users share links to free online computer science courses, lectures, and materials primarily from MIT OpenCourseWare, along with resources from Harvard CS50, CMU, Stanford, and others.

Discussions center on whether high-bitrate lossy audio codecs like MP3, AAC, or Opus (e.g., 128-320kbps) are perceptually indistinguishable from lossless formats, with references to blind tests, placebo effects, sampling rates, and playback hardware.

Users express concerns about tools and apps requiring broad access to private GitHub repositories during OAuth authentication, debating privacy risks and requesting optional or limited permissions.

Commenters repeatedly advise others to use Google search for answers instead of asking questions on Hacker News or using tools like ChatGPT, highlighting debates on search skills and information retrieval.

This cluster centers on debates comparing parser generators (e.g., Yacc, Bison, PEG) to hand-written recursive descent parsers and parser combinators, discussing their usability, performance, and suitability for various projects.

Users express frustration with unclear or incorrect timezone displays in websites, apps, and services, often requesting UTC times or local timezone support to avoid confusion.

Comments discuss Google's internal culture issues including bureaucracy, flawed promotion incentives, employee dissent, and perceived decline in focus and productivity compared to its earlier days.

This cluster centers on criticisms of Google's immense power, monopoly-like control over search, information, and daily life, portraying it as an unaccountable entity akin to a de facto government that abuses users and developers.

Discussions debate the prevalence and reasons for developers using Macs, including hardware appeal, ecosystem compatibility, and comparisons to Linux and Windows in various work environments.

Discussions revolve around metaphors comparing DNA to computer programs, code, software, or configurations, with debates on whether DNA functions like a long-running program or binary code shaped by evolution rather than human design.

Hacker News users discuss and promote various online tools, web apps, and methods for creating, editing, and managing resumes and CVs, including alternatives like LaTeX, Typst, and PDF generators.

Commenters debate the economic value of online advertisements, questioning if ad revenue from non-paying users exceeds what paying subscribers would contribute, and discussing ad costs, targeting premiums, and advertiser returns.

Users complain about not receiving replies to emails sent to a company or poster, typically regarding job applications or inquiries shared on Hacker News.

Comments reminisce about the primitive state of web browsers, HTML, and JavaScript in the 1990s and early 2000s, contrasting it with modern capabilities and highlighting milestones like Netscape, Ajax, Java applets, and Flash.

The cluster centers on debates about using dishwashers versus hand washing dishes, including best practices like avoiding pre-rinsing, efficiency in water and time savings, and tips for optimal usage such as waiting to fill or using multiple units.

The cluster discusses whether website practices like mandatory consent banners for tracking, opt-in requirements, and blocking access without consent comply with GDPR rules for explicit, freely given, and non-coercive user consent.

Comments in this cluster overwhelmingly blame incompetent CEOs, executives, and poor management for company declines, bad decisions, and operational failures.

This cluster focuses on debates about whether digital piracy of content like music, movies, software, and books is morally equivalent to stealing, legally wrong, or justifiable as sharing or victimless.

The cluster focuses on debates about the healthiness of seed oils (e.g., soybean, canola, sunflower) versus alternatives like olive, avocado, and animal fats, often citing inflammation, processing, and omega-6 content as reasons to avoid seed oils.

This cluster features repeated variations of the classic joke that it's not the fall that kills you, but the sudden stop or landing at the end, often referenced in discussions of skydiving, jumping, climbing, or fall-protection devices.

Users frequently complain about not seeing or finding specific buttons, toggles, or switches in the UI, while others point out their locations like top-right corners, beta features, or requiring a refresh. Discussions highlight poor discoverability and unintuitive UX for these elements.

The cluster focuses on discussions of open-source alternatives to Wolfram Mathematica, such as Mathics, SymPy, and SageMath, with comparisons of their symbolic math capabilities, usability, and features.

Cluster focuses on users reporting tinnitus and hearing issues, often attributing them to noise-cancelling headphones or prolonged loud headphone use, with personal anecdotes and warnings about ear damage.

Users debate the usability, advantages, and drawbacks of voice interfaces and speech recognition for interacting with computers and AI tools like ChatGPT, compared to typing.

Commenters share personal stories of moving between major US cities such as SF, NYC, Austin, Dallas, and Seattle, often expressing satisfaction or regret over changes in cost of living, quality of life, and urban environments.

Users discuss and recommend funky, cheap, or unique online shopping platforms like AliExpress, Temu, and various marketplaces, often mixed with spam promotions for budget goods.

Discussions center on strategies for handling job offers, including negotiating with competing offers, dealing with exploding offers, counteroffers, and whether to sign and renege.

The cluster discusses perceived hypocrisy in US government actions banning or pressuring against foreign tech companies (e.g., TikTok, Huawei), questioning if this justifies reciprocal bans by other countries on US firms like Apple or Google.

Discussions focus on the accuracy, reliability, and discrepancies of web traffic measurement tools like Alexa, Quantcast, Compete, SimilarWeb, and StatCounter, with users comparing stats across sites and questioning their validity.

Users recommend various websites and platforms offering free ambient, electronic, or chill music streams suitable for background listening while coding or working.

The cluster discusses deplatforming practices by private tech platforms like Twitter and Facebook, debating their right to ban users (especially conservatives or controversial figures), accusations of censorship, hypocrisy in arguments, and potential for users to build alternatives.

Discussions focus on the history of early programming languages, particularly how Lisp and contemporaries like Algol, BCPL, and Smalltalk pioneered features such as garbage collection, abstractions, and Lisp machines well before C and modern languages.

The cluster focuses on skepticism toward niche, open-source, modular, or alternative mobile phones and OSes, discussing challenges like market size, supply chain issues, high costs, competition from Android/iOS giants, and failure of past projects like Project Ara.

Comments revolve around the role of taxes in funding public services, government functions, or projects, with frequent reminders to pay taxes, sarcastic remarks, and discussions on tax policies and complications.

Commenters seek links, updates, details, or confirmation on the novelty and substance of an announcement in the HN submission, often calling it old news, a teaser, or lacking official sources.

Comments discuss Yahoo's business decline, poor acquisition decisions like Tumblr, over-reliance on its Alibaba stake for value, and speculation about selling the company to Microsoft, Google, or others amid its irrelevance.

Commenters praise a tool or feature available in certain programming languages and repeatedly request or inquire about extending support to additional languages like Python, Go, Java, and others.

Discussions argue that Facebook was not revolutionary but an improved iteration on earlier social networks like MySpace, Friendster, Orkut, and personal sites such as Geocities and LiveJournal.

Discussions center on the SolarWinds supply chain attack and similar breaches in companies like Linode and Ubiquiti, focusing on detection failures, poor disclosure, transparency issues, and accusations of negligence in security practices.

This cluster centers on heated discussions about the definition, consistency, and implications of feminism, including criticisms that it opposes gender equality and defenses citing diverse feminist strands or 'no true Scotsman' fallacies.

Comments in this cluster repeatedly label the discussed product, claim, or announcement as mere marketing hype, BS, or tactics rather than genuine substance or innovation.

Users repeatedly report browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari) and antivirus tools (Malwarebytes, McAfee, Bitdefender, Avast) flagging a specific linked site as malicious or containing malware, often attributing it to Google Safe Browsing API.

Discussions center on health dangers of lead exposure from sources like pipes, paint, dishes, water, and air, including debates on toxicity, bioavailability, historical uses, and comparisons to other heavy metals.

The cluster debates the use of inheritance in object-oriented programming, with most comments advocating for composition, interfaces, traits, or other alternatives over inheritance due to issues like tight coupling and fragility.

Discussions center on the philosophical idea that humans are the universe's means of self-perception, understanding, or experiencing itself, touching on consciousness, reality, and cosmic strangeness.

Discussions recommending Microsoft Surface devices such as Surface Pro and Surface Book as ideal hybrid laptop-tablet alternatives to iPads or MacBooks, often highlighting their detachable keyboards, build quality, and versatility.

The cluster centers on debates comparing a discussed tool or approach to Hadoop, frequently questioning its advantages over Hadoop and positioning Spark as a faster, memory-based replacement for MapReduce while arguing Hadoop is often overkill or outdated.

The cluster discusses Singapore's political system, governance efficiency, low crime rates, draconian laws, civil liberties trade-offs, and its viability as a societal model compared to other countries.

Commenters debate the ease of spoofing email sender addresses and how this likely explains seemingly authentic but suspicious emails in a reported story, recommending header checks and noting persistent email authentication flaws.

The cluster debates the advantages of buying inexpensive used cars outright with cash to avoid payments, insurance, and maintenance costs compared to leasing or financing new cars, emphasizing total cost of ownership and frugality.

Discussions center on the speed of light as a universal limit in relativity, common misconceptions about faster-than-light travel, and explanations involving mediums, phase velocities, and expanding space.

Comments speculate on whether a person accused of wrongdoing, likely a security breach or hack, acted intentionally or was framed, innocent, or mistaken.

Comments focus on the hygiene hypothesis and how lack of pathogen exposure from hygiene, isolation, or modern living may weaken immune systems and increase risks of autoimmune diseases or poor responses to infections.

The cluster focuses on debates about the ethical treatment of chickens in factory farming, including male chick culling, comparisons to human suffering, and alternatives like backyard raising or stopping breeding for slaughter.

The cluster focuses on debates about the potential for advanced AI technology to be abused for harmful purposes, drawing comparisons to nuclear weapons and questioning whether its development should proceed despite risks.

The cluster focuses on discussions about speech-to-text input, text-to-speech output, voice mode accuracy, latency, customization, and feature requests for voice interfaces in AI tools like ChatGPT and YC interview apps.

The cluster focuses on discussions about police arresting people without sufficient cause, for minor or perceived offenses, or unlawfully, debating the ethics, legality, and frequency of such actions.

Discussions focus on comparing population sizes, densities, and metro areas of cities like San Francisco, New York, London, Tokyo, and others, debating appropriate metrics such as city proper versus metropolitan populations and urban density.

Commenters speculate that a website or service has been hacked based on observed anomalies, debating the evidence, timing, and details of the breach while questioning if it's a genuine hack or something else.

The cluster centers on debates about subscription models versus one-time purchases for software, weighing developer sustainability and ongoing updates against user desires for perpetual ownership and avoiding recurring fees.

The cluster debates the distinction between peaceful protests protected by law and disruptive actions like blocking roads or public nuisance, emphasizing that protesting does not excuse illegal behavior or infringement on others' rights.

The cluster debates whether humans are inherently selfish, greedy, and flawed, contrasting cynical views of innate human evil with optimistic beliefs in potential for altruism and societal improvement.

Discussions criticize GitHub's charges for private repositories and recommend free alternatives like GitLab (self-hosted or SaaS) and Bitbucket, debating whether to pay GitHub or switch.

Discussions focus on the pros and cons of Duolingo for language learning, including user experiences with streaks, its limitations for fluency and certain languages, and recommendations for alternatives like Anki, Babbel, LingoDeer, and supplementary methods such as podcasts and immersion.

The cluster debates the risks and etiquette of men approaching women romantically, distinguishing between acceptable flirting and unwanted advances or harassment, often referencing post-#MeToo caution and gender perception differences.