This is not a joke. I realize that hn is not a web app in the classic sense, but I get far more value from hn than any webapp. Let me explain...
I learned long ago that increasing productivity was like "striking out the pitcher". You got small, easily measured, and much appreciated improvements. But the real improvements come in major shifts in thinking and processing.
I once had a choice of 2 projects to work on, each about the same amount of work for me. One would save 8 people 10 minutes per day. The other would change an entire business process, potentially saving millions of dollars. Believe it or not, I chose the first because I didn't understand the ramifications. Until my first mentor stopped me and pointed all this out (That's how he became my mentor.)
I have looked at several web apps and desktop tools but eventually rejected them all (except for Textpad which rocks). I'm just not interested in saving a few minutes here and there. (I also realize that there may be many web apps that go beyond simple productivity improvements.)
Hacker news, OTOH, changes the way I think all the time. Once or twice a month, I come across something that improves my work by magnitudes, not percentages.
I also get my creative juices flowing simply by participating. It's hard to place a value on that.
This is so true, if I could upmod you again I would.
Micromanaging your productivity, trying to find out if you use a few minutes too much on facebook, or whether you could save some time having only one cup of coffee instead of two during a workday will only help your bad conscience. Not your actual productivity. The real booster comes from having a good overview, experience, knowledge and knowing what to work on. Hacker News is great for this.
I remember reading an article (posted here of course) about the guy that programmed Chrome's V8 engine. He works on a farm in the countryside, he only works 8 hours a day and goes home at 5 o clock. No long hours, and no micromanaging of time. I don't think anyone questions his productivity.
I often have whole days where all I do is think. This is time well spent because once I get coding I know exactly what to do, and have thought out many of the problems that I will eventually run in to. The more experience, overview and broad knowledge you have the better you are able to do this.
I am new to this place so I am not sure I know what you are talking about. Is it about motivation? Reading about successful stories makes you less procrastinating or what?
I think what edw519 is saying is that reading certain stories on HN induces a paradigm-shift in his/her thinking. This leads not to a slight gain in productivity or slight reduction in procrastination, but instead to a whole new way of working or thinking that completely dominates his/her previous mode of operation.
What's interesting here is that a lot of the commenters -- myself included -- are blurring the definition of what a web app is. I wonder why that is? I don't have a point other than to ask that question, because my gut tells me it would be an interesting thing to investigate.
To me, a website is a website. Just because it has forms, uses the "cloud", and has a shiny logo doesn't stop it from being a website. The only websites I use that are anywhere close to "application" functionality are GMail and thesixtyone, and even then it's just ajax frosting on top of a delicious html cake.
I fail how to see how using HTML and Javascript keep something from being an application. To be an application it has to run on the desktop, and not the browser?
It's about level of interactivity, responsiveness, and robustness. Shiny web front-ends to a relational database just don't compete on the same level as desktop workhorses. Mint, Gmail, and Freshbooks are nice web "applications", but their innovation is in solving simple problems with incredible interfaces. The innovation in Textmate, and Photoshop is that they enable a high amount of manipulation and automation that simply can't be delivered over the web at this time.
To be an application, you certainly don't need to meet the levels of interactivity, responsiveness, or robustness as Textmate or Photoshop. Maybe to you that's what an application is, but under a more standard definition all a piece of software needs to do to be considered an application is to interact with a user to do a specific task. It has nothing to do with value judgements. A crappy cgi guestbook is technically a web application. It doesn't matter that it's slow and only does one thing.
This is not a joke. I realize that hn is not a web app in the classic sense, but I get far more value from hn than any webapp. Let me explain...
I learned long ago that increasing productivity was like "striking out the pitcher". You got small, easily measured, and much appreciated improvements. But the real improvements come in major shifts in thinking and processing.
I once had a choice of 2 projects to work on, each about the same amount of work for me. One would save 8 people 10 minutes per day. The other would change an entire business process, potentially saving millions of dollars. Believe it or not, I chose the first because I didn't understand the ramifications. Until my first mentor stopped me and pointed all this out (That's how he became my mentor.)
I have looked at several web apps and desktop tools but eventually rejected them all (except for Textpad which rocks). I'm just not interested in saving a few minutes here and there. (I also realize that there may be many web apps that go beyond simple productivity improvements.)
Hacker news, OTOH, changes the way I think all the time. Once or twice a month, I come across something that improves my work by magnitudes, not percentages.
I also get my creative juices flowing simply by participating. It's hard to place a value on that.