I have no idea about MySQL, but what I always remind people is that HN is more GQ/Vogue than the NYT. It focuses on novelty and aspiration more than on coverage of what the industry is actually doing. Like others, I enjoy it because it's aspirational/inspirational, but I try not to confuse it with a reflection of reality. E.g. there's little correlation between programming languages that are discussed a lot on HN and those that achieve (or don't achieve) big and long-lasting success.

In fact, much of the software industry, which writes the software that matters to our lives the most and holds most of the value delivered by software in general - the software that processes your credit-card transactions, runs your bank, sorts your mail, routes your phone calls, manages the manufacturing of your car and the shipping of your packages, holds your healthcare information, schedules and tracks your flights, and manages your law enforcement and your government - is barely represented here because the organisations that write most software aren't software companies, and they don't tend to publish technical blogs.

Where do you find more nuanced discussions?

I don't think the issue is nuance. The issue is what people enjoy talking about. E.g. here's what the industry probably looks like in terms of how many people work in different languages: https://www.devjobsscanner.com/blog/top-8-most-demanded-prog... Now compare that to the languages most frequently talked about on HN. The stuff on HN isn't a reflection of the industry, just like Silicon Valley doesn't produce most of the world's software (or most of the world's software value).

People come to HN because they want to hear or talk about things that most people don't usually do; it's more interesting because it's different! I'm not saying they always say positive things, but positive or negative, this is what we like talking about online. This is why people buy GQ or Vogue. If you want to talk about boring work stuff, talk to people at work :)

Ah okay. That's a good insight! and something to keep in mind. There is a reality distortion lens to it all in the end. As you say, people want to explore the frontier of technology

Ironically the worst parts of .NET today are the things it copied from Java and now can't get rid because of backwards compatibility (stuff like covariant yet mutable arrays, for example).