And yet, you swipe through 30 HN stories a day. The insidious part is that you think it’s a positive use of your time, or that you learn anything. You’ll forget most of it, and ultimately it’s just entertainment.
If you’re quick to point out all the reasons I’m mistaken, well… take all of those reasons, put them in a paint bucket labeled “tiktok”, and give it a stir till you can’t see the difference. Because as a three year TikTok user, I can’t.
We’re all addicts. It’s a matter of choosing your addictions wisely, and not letting their downsides outweigh their merits. Discipline tends to be the cure, though that never works for me; the only way out is to find a fascinating problem to go work on.
Make no mistake: the average TikTok viewer is a lot closer to the average HN reader in terms of addictive behaviors than we’d care to admit. All of the reasons you keep coming back are addictions in disguise. And if this argument sounds out of place, there’s a way out: it’s fine to be addicted to learning new things.
I refuse to believe you can't tell the difference between TikTok and HN. Just take your argument all the way and say that reading a book is the same thing as using TikTok.
Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35837751 upthread. I wanted to give you a solid reply to this, so I put a lot of effort into it. Perhaps it’s still insufficient, but it’s closer.
I don't know who does that. I look at titles and decide which ones I want to look at. With tiktok, you don't know what's coming next, and normally it takes you at least one or two seconds to know if it's a video you want to watch. Also TikTok content is personalized and there is no end blah blah. It's designed to make you addicted.
By the way I have read a lot of interesting/helpful articles on HN, many of which are not easy read. Many people would agree with me. Also I have read a lot of articles with a critical eye and left critical comments (like this one), never did that on TikTok.
These are just some basic rebukes of your comment. I can go on and on. I think the difference between TikTok and HN is very clear. Not saying TikTok is better than HN, they are different products, but it's very disingenuous to draw parallels between them.
I'll say the opposite, and boldly. With HN, I can quickly scan 90 headlines where 50% of them are tech related and the other half, at least smart people find them interesting or something.
Imagine following a video for a recipe that you can't rewind...
If you’re quick to point out all the reasons I’m mistaken, well… take all of those reasons, put them in a paint bucket labeled “tiktok”, and give it a stir till you can’t see the difference. Because as a three year TikTok user, I can’t.
We’re all addicts. It’s a matter of choosing your addictions wisely, and not letting their downsides outweigh their merits. Discipline tends to be the cure, though that never works for me; the only way out is to find a fascinating problem to go work on.
Make no mistake: the average TikTok viewer is a lot closer to the average HN reader in terms of addictive behaviors than we’d care to admit. All of the reasons you keep coming back are addictions in disguise. And if this argument sounds out of place, there’s a way out: it’s fine to be addicted to learning new things.