I have a pet theory that lisp posts are weighted higher on here.

My gut feel is posts like that are very new and have gotten a few upvotes in a short time.

Protip: every post hits the front page. Some posts just stay there longer.

Not every story. But some stories are cherrypicked by the mods to be shown for a short time in the front page. It's like a second chance for some good submissions.

Old explanation by dang: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10705926

* if it receives at least 4 upvotes before falling off the "new" page.

OK, I'll look at the algorithm :)