HN is easily one of the most valuable "tools" I have in my toolchest. 20-30 minutes a day of front page browsing and the occasional post is like having a secret weapon in my tech arsenal. The number of times topics (not just tech) have come up in my professional life that I heard about first, and usually only, on HN...and then my ability to engage reasonably intelligently on those topics because of HN is countless.