The inequality can sting if you compare yourself to others.<p>HN is probably the largest general purpose public forum frequently visited by multi-millionaires and multi-billionaires, so there's always somebody blabbing on about their "investments" or humble bragging about exiting or buying a tesla or some other rich person nonsense.<p>The onslaught of dumb can sting when you realize most people just forcefully repeat the opinions of others without much original thought.<p>If you read for "what's new" information, it can be marginally useful. But, the "what's new" is filtered through the bubble of what isolated nerd people think matters (containers! go! san francisco! google upgraded their toilets!) and not necessarily where the biggest opportunities or impacts can be had in the world these days.<p>But, even with all that, there's still a lot of good information people provide. People will chime in and kindly offer their experiences and personal knowledge about specific or esoteric things with the rest of us who don't know as much as they do.
Yes it is addictive, I have an everyday urge to check what's going on HN, I also feel I'm earning some IQ points here, of course I loose these points later, but that has to do with me ;)
I tend to use <a href="http://hckrnews.com" rel="nofollow">http://hckrnews.com</a> to get a summary and check ask and new now and then when I am taking a break. It can be addicting
I feel like the content submitted has been on the decline, particularly in comparison to content submitted even just two years ago. I must be on the HN-decline equivalent of a nicotine patch.