The industry keeping a diary… without realizing it
I just finished analyzing 1.14 million Hacker News posts, spanning 2006 all the way to 2026.
And honestly?
It doesn’t feel like I analyzed a forum.
It feels like I unearthed a time capsule.
Because when you zoom out far enough, you can actually watch the software world age not in a vague “tech changes fast” way, but in clear, distinct eras. Whole seasons of obsession rise, peak, cool off, and fade into the background… replaced by the next wave that everyone suddenly can’t stop talking about.
And somehow, Hacker News captured all of it in real time.
The Ages of Hacker News
If you run your finger across the timeline, you can almost feel the shift in the air.
- 2006–2009 — Web 2.0 + Hacker Culture
- 2010–2012 — Mobile Goes Mainstream
- 2013–2015 — Startup / VC / Growth Era
- 2016–2018 — Cloud + DevOps Takes Over
- 2019–2021 — Data + Systems + Pandemic Shock
- 2022–2026 — Generative AI + Policy/Safety Era
2006–2009 — Web 2.0 + Hacker Culture
This was the early internet optimism era.
The web felt smaller, scrappier full of experiments, weird ideas, and hacker pride.
You could sense the energy of people building things just because they could.
2010–2012 — Mobile Goes Mainstream
Then came the smartphone tsunami.
Suddenly the center of gravity moved.
Everything was mobile now. Everything had an app. Everything had to fit in your pocket.
HN didn’t just notice it, it mirrored the obsession.
2013–2015 — Startup / VC / Growth Era
The gold rush.
Startups. Venture capital. Growth hacks. Social media expansion.
It wasn’t just about building cool things anymore. It was about building things that could scale, win, dominate.
You can almost hear the pitch decks in the background.
2016–2018 — Cloud + DevOps Takes Over
Then the tone changes again.
The magic wears off and reality sets in:
systems, reliability, infrastructure, shipping code every day, keeping services alive.
Cloud and DevOps didn’t just arrive they staged a coup.
2019–2021 — Data + Systems + Pandemic Shock
By this point, “data” wasn’t a niche topic. It was everything.
But then something else happened.
The real world broke through the wall.
Pandemic shockwaves hit the tech conversation like an earthquake suddenly dominating the front page, regardless of what tools or frameworks were trending.
HN became a kind of digital campfire: engineers, founders, researchers, everyone trying to interpret what was happening in real time.
2022–2026 — Generative AI + Policy/Safety Era
And then…
Everything changes again. Not gradually. Not subtly.
Generative AI explodes.
It doesn’t just become “a topic.”
It becomes the topic , the thing that pulls attention from every other corner of the industry.
But what surprised me most is that HN isn’t only fascinated by new models anymore.
It’s wrestling with bigger questions,
- What rules do we even need?
- Who enforces them?
- What happens if we get this wrong?
Since around 2022, AI policy, safety, and ethics don’t just trend — they skyrocket.
Nothing Ever Really Disappears
Here’s the part that feels strangely beautiful:
On Hacker News, topics don’t die.
They don’t get deleted or replaced.
They just get buried.
Like layers of rock.
Web 2.0 never vanished. Mobile never vanished. Startups never vanished. Cloud never vanished.
They’re still there… humming quietly in the background while the spotlight moves on.
And every so often, an old obsession breaks back through to the surface again.
“Show HN” vs “Ask HN” — A Quiet Shift in Culture
One of the clearest signals over time is the balance between Show HN and Ask HN.
For years, Ask HN stayed strong — the classic HN style: people coming with questions, advice, and deep discussions.
But around 2024, Show HN starts rising fast. By 2025–2026, it shoots past Ask HN.
It feels like HN shifts from talking about what’s coming to shipping it in public ,especially in the fast-moving AI era.
And Sometimes the World Hijacks the Conversation
Tech has its rhythms. But history doesn’t care.
Every now and then the outside world shows up like a wrecking ball:
- wars
- pandemics
- elections
- social upheavals
- economic shocks
Suddenly the usual flow of product launches and programming debates gets overwhelmed by something bigger, louder, more urgent.
HN becomes less like a tech forum and more like a real-time record of how builders react when the world shifts under their feet.
Even the Writing Style Tells a Story
Over time, the headlines change too.
HN leans toward shorter, punchier titles now, usually 4–8 words. And the posts that win the most attention are rarely vague.
They’re statements. Bold claims. Strong opinions. Clear declarations.
Questions still do well , but they’ve moved downstream.
The real questioning happens in the comments now.
A Forum That Accidentally Became a History Book
HN is more than a place to swap links.
Because if you look at it across two decades, it becomes something else:
A crowdsourced, data-verified history of modern software.
Written live.
By the people building it.
That’s the part that feels kind of unreal.
It’s not just discussion.
It’s the industry keeping a diary… without realizing it.
And to everyone who posts, comments, argues, shares links, and keeps showing up year after year, thank you, you’re the ones who keep this living diary alive.
More details:
https://hn.insight.syigen.com/
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