Optimizing My Hacker News Experience
a year ago
- #Hacker News
- #Productivity
- #Tech Tools
- Author has been using Hacker News (HN) for over 5 years, browsing it multiple times a day during weekdays.
- Common issues include piling up of open tabs, difficulty in finding HN posts after reading articles, and missing listings when not checking HN for days.
- Problems also include the 'last checked marker' issue, increased screen time, and HN feeling like work due to FOMO and FOGO.
- Paywall issues are common, though HN comments often provide archive links.
- Solutions developed: Tobie (a Telegram bot for push notifications of HN posts) and HaNe (a Chrome extension for handling paywalls and summarizing comments).
- Tobie sends notifications for HN posts with at least 50 points or specific keywords, reducing the need for daily HN visits.
- HaNe features include opening archived links for paywalled articles, finding HN posts for any web article, and summarizing HN comments.
- Future improvements for Tobie include customizable configurations and better AI-based comment summaries.
- Both tools were developed to be free-tier optimized, with Tobie using cloud functions and HaNe being a Chrome extension.