How would you react if someone in real life asked if you've heard of HN?

As for me, I would simply respond ”sure, I’ve been a member for ages”. I have no comments here that I would be ashamed of.

Most clients I work with read HN. It's completely normal in my circles.

I made a RL friend here from HN - he just emailed me saying he was in the same region, and we clicked on stuff.

I also work at a YC company these days. HN is mentioned a lot at work. My username is really obvious to those who work with me. I try not to comment on HN threads trending at work, because my HN comment history is cringe.

On the twist side, most other friends don't know about HN. This is also the group of friends who ask "is Amazon a good place to work for tech?" The word hacker does put people off.

"no, what's that? Sounds like a shady website or something." And let them explain it to me. Knowing how someone perceives a thing would inform me on if I should admit to already be using the thing.

Handshake? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqxZ3H5nAy0

'Oh you mean the Orange Site where very smart people exchange techne all day and heavily critique everything new in the tech world'