I wonder if this can be a good forum for your question. You must suspect every answer here simply because everyone here is a self-selected group of people idly reading and commenting on Hacker News threads. It is like asking your friends at the bar for suggestions on how to quit drinking: many there have no interest in it, and the rest are interested but have not succeeded.
Several threads here seem insightful, particularly the top comment with quotes on avoiding the pitfall of information addiction. I often find pragmatic, applicable advice for fuzzy mental and emotional problems here, more so than in most other online communities.
In the end, it’s the poster’s responsibility to comb through responses to find useful snippets. The cliche of “admitting the problem is the first step towards recovery” could also apply to asking this question.
Rather than comparing HN to patrons at a bar, I’d counter that HN is more like a large courtyard on a tech campus. Sure, there’s bars, foam pits and foosball tables, but there’s also chess matches, spirited debate, and plenty of like-minded people around too.
Nothing wrong with bars. They're also known for spirited debate, like-minded people, and foosball tables, even more so than tech campus courtyards.
But you have a point. I'm being snarky, unfair, and, worse, unhelpful. One can consume media and also create stuff. Hanging out here doesn't mean that you aren't also creating neat things, and indeed there are a whole bunch of posts here every day showing the insane and wonderful things people are out there creating.
I do not feel so good about 30 items hitting my brain each time I open HN. (even though I am only scanning, sometimes just filtering by the vote count).
Is there a smaller number like 10 that might make me feel less guilty?
This could be a good location, at least personally I think so. My time on here is maybe 15-20 minutes a time. Usually once or twice a week although the last week has been a bit more frequent. ;)
