When I got off social media about a year ago, I wanted to replace it with something more productive, so I chose Hacker News. I had already been on HN for many years, but decided that I would start visiting it as often as I did with an app like Instagram or TikTok. If I was going to be spending hours on my phone anyway, I thought, why not learn a thing or two.

After nearly a year of using HN every day for several hours a day, I’ve had some realizations. HN is amazing. You’re going to learn things about space, music, databases, web design, writing — you name it. You’re going to come across comments by billionaire CEOs who just so happen to be replying to a deepy-burried reply. You’ll come across tools and advice that actually end up having an impact on your life.

But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows… As you spend more time on HN and start reading the repl