I read "net news" - a lot. So much so that people comment on it. I always wondered if there was any value in "here's what is hot" in the tech world - like a personal link aggregator.
Yeah, I could share/blog/tweet (and I do, but not much) but often the things that are interesting later aren't things I share right away. Still trying to solve that problem.
One way in which I benefit from being a Hacker News junkie is that I have like third of (the better part of) the Internet cached in my head. Every now and then (usually many times a month) someone mentions a problem they're working on and I immediately chime in with "you know, two months ago there was this article on Hacker News, which described this tech/tool/advice that solves exactly this".
Among many others, I managed to positively affect my company this way by pointing my boss in the direction of good solutions and clarifying which of his ideas are actually feasible.
There could be in the future. Imagine you comment and construct your personal path through the Net that you share and others are allowed to search. Not just reddit/hn, but everything. And it is not just, I posted to hn or commented on hn, but your actual personal shared web history (with comments: yours and others)
Yeah, I could share/blog/tweet (and I do, but not much) but often the things that are interesting later aren't things I share right away. Still trying to solve that problem.