Albert Einstein and Kurt Gödel were once "lowly undergraduates with no influence."

Truth. When I cross-post something on my blog that gains traction on HN, a huge spike from HN dominating my traffic origins appears in my Blogger stats.

>... HN has millions of visitors who never log in...

That's something I hadn't considered; when something appears that gains no traction and vanishes in minutes from the "new" front page, that fleeting 30-45 minute-long residency may well catch the eyes and minds of individuals in a position to look more deeply and act.

Only like 3% of readers poast. That's why there's a concentration on the web of the extremely knowledgeable, extremely witty, extremely belligerent, and the extremely mentally ill.

> may well catch the eyes and minds of individuals in a position to look more deeply and act.

Of course sometimes that act is "post as many comments as you can to this thread without upvoting it," or "grab about 20 dormant accounts to upvote it, post top-level positive, but dumb, comments, have those same accounts upvote those, and get detected as a voting ring."

that's basically every forum on the Internet. Reddit had the same levels of engagement

JUMP!

paperback $127.30 here: https://www.amazon.com/Biology-Cancer-Robert-Weinberg-dp-039...

ebook $100.64 here: https://www.vitalsource.com/products/the-biology-of-cancer-r...

Retired anesthesiologist here. I'm buying Weinberg's book based on your review as soon as I finish this comment. Thanks!

>China on track to launch Mars sample-return mission in 2028: 'If accurate, this represents a Sputnik moment' [Sep. 9, 2026]

https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/china-on-track-to-launc...