Apart from the liberal use of noprocras, I apply a few simple guidelines to everything I read on HN:

1) If the title contains 'X ways/steps/secrets to Y' I skip.

2) If the article is longer than 1500 words and appears interesting, I mark both article and comment thread as toread in my del.icio.us for reading at the end of the day.

3) If the article is linkbait, or is about a fad, I skip.

4) If the article is derivative and/or adds nothing new to the discussion (e.g.: Why you should have a co-founder), I (usually) skip.

I used to do the delicious toread thing as well, until (via a link on HN, natch) I discovered the wonders of InstaPaper - it's a wee bookmarklet that creates a to-read list for you, strips out a lot of the ugly formatting, can send you batches of stuff to read when you're bored, exports to e-reader formats...

And for bonus points, they'll take either a username or email for signup - and that's it.