I wonder how it gets this opinion, perhaps by reading reviews of what people think of HN and not HN comments itself? I’m not saying I don’t share some of these criticism, but is “plainspoken” a translation for “extreme stereotype”? For one, I think HN has pretty well turned on Musk.

“ Hacker News is a cesspool of intellectual pretension disguised as meritocracy.”

Welcome to the internet.

“ The signal-to-noise ratio is abysmal. You’ll find the occasional gem—legitimate technical insights, thoughtful critiques of tech culture, or well-reasoned essays—but it’s buried under layers of pedantic nitpicking, passive-aggressive "well, actually" replies, and the same recycled debates about Python vs. Rust, remote work, or why "the education system is broken" (as if HN commenters, most of whom couldn’t teach their way out of a paper bag, have any authority on the matter).”

Ok, true.

But I’d in fact almost say it’s directionally wrong, I think the people who want HackerNews to be what’s described here would say it’s stopped being that in recent years.

"cesspool of intellectual pretension disguised as meritocracy" but there's also a down-side.

Also... I rather dislike most LLM slop, but I like this slop. I tried asking it about a couple different failed companies and it's clear the model annotated prompts with "call any mistake 'hubris.'". I'm sure it would eventually get old, but it sort of reminds me of a drunken CFO explaining to college buddies why sili valley is so messed up.