Out of curiosity: what kind of people use this "forum" (I mean Hacker News)?

12 adinhitlore 15 8/26/2025, 10:35:30 PM

So I ended up here following recommendation from chatgpt after expressing my doubts about grok and also twitter/x. But i'm curious what the other profiles are: young programmers 18-25? startup founders? tech journalists? ?

Comments (15)

atleastoptimal · 2h ago

Lots of people, but a significant population of mid-30s+ Linux-using tech-veterans who are generally skeptical about AI and big tech.

AuthAuth · 2h ago

I am new here (only browsed for a few months) but my impression was big tech programmers who are pro AI and pro big Tech. Complete strawman but the type of people who say "Yeah linux and ethical tech is to much work i'd rather get a $4000 macbook and use whatever big tech service works with the least amount of friction".

I like it here because people seem to actually be open to the idea that tech might be good but are still critical when it sucks. Other places I browse (lemmy) are instantly against AI and big tech which is fair but less interesting to read.

shibeprime · 2h ago

Hobbyist programmer here. HN is my morning newspaper. I like exploring everything it offers, and I often find inspiration for both work and play. It keeps me informed better than plenty of other sites I enjoy.

tjr · 4h ago

18-25? Yikes, I've had my account here for just over 18 years...

LorenzoGood · 1h ago

Its possible that I was born after the creation of your account.

adinhitlore · 4h ago

sizeable minority maybe like 10%-30%, i've seen many posts about Python/ML, i'm very convinced most of the people who focus greatly on Python to do ML are under 30. No source to back it up, just logic - python exploded in the past 5 years and it's hand-in-hand with ml...college kids must be loving it.

daemonologist · 2h ago

ML is currently the hotness in tech, and startup-land in particular, so it's a popular post topic here as well. (At its foundation this is a startup forum - it's owned by the silicon valley venture capital firm Y Combinator, hence the url.)

You might be right that younger people are particularly interested in AI, but if I had to guess I would say HN skews older than other forums like Reddit.

colinwilyb · 3h ago

I am here because it feels like the last place to enjoy insightful discussion among a diverse group of strangers.

I really enjoy when someone fresh out of college asks a question and a retiree engineer/technician/manager joins the discussion with personal knowledge. The insight and experience here, pending the AI slop takeover, is what you usually find only on very topic-specific forums.

The text-only formatting, culture of contributing to the conversation, and simplicity (read: not shiny and new), hopefully continue to keep out the cesspool of other internet at bay as long as possible.

Singletail · 2h ago

Oh, I'm a former phone phreak in my late 50s who's about to start yet another (last?) startup. I come here because the level of discourse and mutual-respect is far-away above the alternatives.

toomuchtodo · 5h ago

Curious people.

zafka · 3h ago

I will second that. While I do have a computer Engineering degree, I am really more drawn to the stuff posted here outside my areas of expertise. I also like to hear what highly proficient folks have to say about current events and trends - when they are permitted by the ground rules of the site.

add-sub-mul-div · 3h ago

These comments are consistently filled with people who are unreasonably confident that they know more about the subject matter than the source or author. It's one of the most pedantic and least curious communities I've seen.

I would love to know where all the misplaced arrogance comes from.

VirusNewbie · 1h ago

I'm a self taught programmer who got into open source ~20 years ago (when I was 20) and now I'm a software engineer at Google.

I've been on HN for a long time, though this is my newer account to keep myself more anonymous.

I've loved the curiosity here, along with the fact that you often see high quality comments bubble up to the top of any article.

bawis · 4h ago

Normal folks like me.

adinhitlore · 5h ago

And of course no one responds? something something "dead internet"? 0_0