Ask HN: What kinds of mind does HN attract?
I know some people who are really hooked on to HN. There are others who did check out HN, but soon lost interest and never came back.
Both of the above groups contain programmers and people with other skills as well. People who are intellectually curious about a range of topics, who don't immediately trust existing authorities/common knowledge about said topics and the types who are willing to experiment with new things, building themselves if necessary. In other words, the traditional 'hacker' mindset associated with the site's title.