I've been here since 2015 and one thing I've noticed in the past couple of years is that simply browsing HN gives me a kind of dopamine fix. When I'm in a 'browse HN zone', I voraciously consume any and all content, often times just lightly skimming everything. This can sometimes go on for hours at a time and I'll often go over feeling extremely fatigued and having remembered little of it. This is somewhat similar to the author, because I've noticed the same arguments over and over again, enough that I get a kick out of watching oftentimes the same people bickering over the same viewpoints. As I'm so accustomed to all the bickering, I simply just consume them without thought anymore.

Weirdly, I get more pleasure out of using reddit nowadays because I can focus on subs related to my hobbies, discussions around how to get more enjoyment out of a particular activity rather than just jamming large amounts of general knowledge into my brain.