1. The quality of the content, both stories and comments, has remained remarkably high. There have been times where I thought things were slipping but a few minutes on YouTube comments puts everything back in perspective.
2. There is just too much to learn and not enough time! On any given day there are more interesting stories to follow than I can possibly follow. Thankfully the comments are consistently good enough that I can read the comments before the actual story to check on credibility and accuracy.
3. I have learned to be more precise in what I say and give a little more latitude to others. Comments can get a bit pedantic. Not every comment needs to be a mathematical proof (although there have been many). I thought about creating a user named “PedanticMan” and going around harassing people about their grammar but I decided instead to try not to let the little things bother me.
4. There are a lot of smart, enthusiastic, knowledgeable people here. There have been so many comments with deeper explanations and links to extended content. Thank you to everyone who takes the time share.
5. Most topics deal with conflicting values and goals. Watching competent people argue different issues has been very instructive. For example, it’s possible to think “C++ is a horrible mess of a language” and “C++ is a powerful tool” at the same time.
6. Karma is strange to me. I’m a grown man with a rich life experience and I don’t care what random people on the internet think about me, there are no prizes for karma, and you can’t sell your points. Still, I notice. I get a stronger emotional reaction to it than seems rational. If any of you ever want to hack the system to get more karma try this: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. I think the best thing is to not care too much but pay attention.
