On top of all you mention, what I like is vast broad perspective on practically any topic. History, politics, warfare, ultra deep sciences, geeky computer stuff, law, surveillance, travelling... name it, and discussion will get deep pretty quickly. Even disagreements are done in a very mature way (I still think Dang is some prototype AI, I cant imagine what will happen if he goes for 2 weeks off).

I must admit, I come here much more for community discussions rather than articles linked.

I rarely read the articles linked. Instead, I find myself getting lost in the tangential threads which have little to nothing to do with the article.

This is the way.

Many people will go through this rite of passage. I fondly remember the times when I did read all the articles. Perhaps not coincidentally, those are also the times when I was a broke college student.

Imo it's a bad habit that a lot of us that don't read the article and go straight into the discussion.

Yeah usually the articles are just jumping-off points for related discussions, which is perfectly fine in my opinion

Another long-time lurker here and I agree, it's amazing that there seem to be experts on any topic here taking the time to write thoughtful posts. And it's not just about technical discussions. Even when it comes to personal topics there always is a helpful and positive atmosphere. Merry Christmas HN!