For me, this is the crux: You can call up a year-old piece as easily as you can call up a day-old piece. And yet we hardly ever do so, because we are so hardly ever prompted to do so.
HN does a decent job of getting old stuff reposted and discussed on the front page, but the internet's main curation process (Google/major media sites) inhibits the discovery of old material. Walk into a library and you're immediately surrounded by old texts ripe for the browsing if you want to walk up and pick on off the shelf.
For me, this is the crux: You can call up a year-old piece as easily as you can call up a day-old piece. And yet we hardly ever do so, because we are so hardly ever prompted to do so.
HN does a decent job of getting old stuff reposted and discussed on the front page, but the internet's main curation process (Google/major media sites) inhibits the discovery of old material. Walk into a library and you're immediately surrounded by old texts ripe for the browsing if you want to walk up and pick on off the shelf.