I never read the front page. I scroll through "newest" because there are many real gems that make it well worth the effort.

Quick check, I read only one post on the home page yesterday and today.

Interesting. I do the opposite, starting with the front page (of the first 3) and then going to /newest.

Agree that sometimes newest has some really good stuff, but I've found the front page always has something to read.

Why not the front page and new too? That's what I do.

It's quite a journey through newest, and I am done for the morning. But I'll give your suggestion a try. I did it today.

How can you claim that "HN is not a marketing plan", when the entire post is literally about how to market via HN

Because just submitting stuff to HN is haphazard. HN is fickle. So it can be part of a marketing plan, but is a very poor marketing plan if it is the main effort.