I thought about reddit and subreddits while reading this article (and HN is just an off-brand subreddit), and I can't disagree more.
These kind of websites are funnels that can satiate someone's need for novelty, while exposing them primarily to pages and ideas that a sub-community assembled around and collectively agree upon. The exploration hits a hard wall of very diminished returns once the explorer meets the sub-culture and the ideas they like.
In many ways, the links in my Facebook timeline are a better vector for exposure to new things because my IRL friends and relations are a wider variety of people than congregate in a subreddit (or other specific social forum).
I thought about reddit and subreddits while reading this article (and HN is just an off-brand subreddit), and I can't disagree more.
These kind of websites are funnels that can satiate someone's need for novelty, while exposing them primarily to pages and ideas that a sub-community assembled around and collectively agree upon. The exploration hits a hard wall of very diminished returns once the explorer meets the sub-culture and the ideas they like.
In many ways, the links in my Facebook timeline are a better vector for exposure to new things because my IRL friends and relations are a wider variety of people than congregate in a subreddit (or other specific social forum).