[HN Gopher] Reverse engineering my #1 Hacker News article
___________________________________________________________________
Reverse engineering my #1 Hacker News article
Author : wirtzdan
Score : 83 points
Date : 2025-01-20 14:53 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (danielwirtz.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (danielwirtz.com)
| uhoh-itsmaciek wrote:
| Nice analysis. The point about titles is interesting: given how
| content spreads on the Internet, it's really an invitation to
| potential readers. If you take that too far, it can devolve into
| tacky link-bait, but it's worth thinking about how to summarize
| your post into a handful of compelling words.
| wirtzdan wrote:
| Exactly!
|
| As mentioned in another comment, I think it's sad if one writes
| an amazing article but it stays unrecognized or gets little
| traction simply because the title was a bad choice.
|
| But at the same time, we have lived long enough with clickbait
| to know it works (unfortunately), and this shouldn't become a
| place where people are lured into low-quality posts.
| valtlfelipe wrote:
| And you made it again! :D Nice writeup. Very interesting
| analysis.
| wirtzdan wrote:
| I thought it would be nice to immediatly do a write-up.
|
| Otherwise I push it into the future and it never happens.
|
| Happy that I found some time this week.
| stevage wrote:
| I'm torn between "nice writeup" and "ugh, a guide to making viral
| content on HN?"
| wirtzdan wrote:
| Yes, fair point!
|
| I tried to reflect on some lessons from this, because I learned
| from the experience that small things (e.g. the title) can make
| large differences.
|
| Which means that often good ideas or nice articles might get
| unrecognized, because they lack a good "packaging".
|
| Making sure those things are on point helps.
|
| But that should be it.
| rscho wrote:
| One just needs to write "LLM" to get the same effect ;-)
| dylan604 wrote:
| at this point in time, but the rule is too specific.
|
| "One just needs to write $currentTrendingFad to get the same
| effect"
|
| Not too long ago it could have been crypto/blockchain, or
| rewriting $app in $lang
|
| That's the thing of viral is it is just trend following, so
| recognizing the trend helps the changes of going viral
| cafeinux wrote:
| Being viral, for content, is not always bad: it can make an
| otherwise boring or tedious subject engaging and enjoyable (and
| on the other side, a fun subject might appear boring if badly
| written), which I think is what this article is about :-).
| numinix wrote:
| The title "I've acquired a new superpower" might have the
| most virality, but it's not a great title for users. Chasing
| viral content doesn't _have_ to be bad, but you do often get
| this imbalance between clicks vs UX.
| Liquix wrote:
| something not mentioned is the importance of timing. for example
| a link posted on saturday 11:00PM pacific will not receive nearly
| as much attention as the same link posted on a friday at 7:00AM
| pacific.
| qianli_cs wrote:
| I've seen several blog posts trying to analyze HN data on the
| best time to post. However, the results are all over the place.
| For example, the below ones have different recommendations
| (weekend vs weekday).
|
| - https://blog.rmotr.com/the-best-time-to-post-on-hacker-
| news-...
|
| - https://medium.com/@mi.schaefer/what-is-the-best-time-to-
| pos...
|
| But the precondition is that you're submitting high quality
| content.
| wirtzdan wrote:
| Yes, I think so too.
|
| At least for this post, I made sure to post it in the
| afternoon. To have an overall between Eurpean and US time. (I'm
| based in near Amsterdam)
| SethMLarson wrote:
| Love it, having an "aha-moment" is always a great indicator that
| it's something worth sharing! I encourage others to share their
| ahas so we can all learn together.
| wirtzdan wrote:
| 100%!
| block_dagger wrote:
| The "try-it-yourself element" was what got me. Very close to the
| top of the article was a simple exercise that the reader could
| perform themselves, and when it "clicked," it was magical. I
| upvoted it for this reason.
|
| EDIT: Typo
| fallinditch wrote:
| Ooops you did it again! Good analysis.
|
| It makes me think: we may be living in a golden age when human
| analysis and thought still produce the most interesting content.
| Soon AI-assisted content generation processes will take the next
| evolutionary step: doing proactive analysis and concept
| development with the human being more like the back seat driver
| and director.
|
| AI powered writing assistants, music generators, life coaches,
| etc, will get so good that authentic solo human creation may
| become a rarity.
|
| (Tangentially, if you ask Perplexity for tips on writing blog
| posts that are likely to go viral on HN you'll get the above
| post, only 6 hours old, as a reference)
| wirtzdan wrote:
| Don't you think there could be a world where the link to
| something human might triumph what an AI can generate.
|
| For example: Music is not only about how good it sounds. But
| also a lot about who the singer is. Their history. What they
| stand for and what story is behind a album or song.
|
| With AI, I don't see that we will ever reach that dimension.
| Expect maybe when AI becomes sentient?
| jarenmf wrote:
| the technique itself is very interesting and not very well known
| to many people. also the writing was clear and to the point
| vunderba wrote:
| The fact that this article (which follows none of its own advice)
| is steadily making its way to the top of hacker news sort of
| invalidates all the actual recommendations in the article itself.
| AndrewStephens wrote:
| My highest rated HN link was a sarcastic troll post about the
| MacBook Touch Bar in 2016. Nothing I have written since has even
| gotten close to the same level of attention. Someone reposted a
| more recent article from my blog over the weekend that gathered 4
| upvotes and a few hundred views. It's nice to be noticed but I
| don't live for attention.
|
| I think that unless you want to form a cabal to get something on
| the front page, there is a great deal of luck in what takes off
| on HN (and other similar sites). Unless a post quickly gets those
| all-important few dozen upvotes it will languish on the second or
| third page wastelands.
| Dilettante_ wrote:
| Not having a link to the original article in the write-up seems
| like a bit of an obvious oversight, in a piece about reader
| engagement no less ;)
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-01-20 23:00 UTC)