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Do the Real Thing
Success in most things boils down to a simple, but easily ignored distinction: do the real thing and stop doing fake alternatives instead.
Most cited
Posts that commenters keep linking to, ranked by how many different people have cited them in Hacker News comments. 1,030 posts.
Life, Learning & Writing
Any year
722
The teen mental illness epidemic is international – Part 1: The Anglosphere
Why did mental health fall off a cliff at the same time and in the same way in the USA, The UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand? Part 1 of 3.
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Climbing the Wealth Ladder
On the 6 levels of wealth and why affluence increases in steps.
725
Most lives are lived by default
Jamie lives in a large city in the midwest. He's a copywriter for an advertising firm, and he's good at it. He's also good at thinking of reasons why he ought to be happy with his life. He has hea...
726
A blog post is a long and complex search query to find people (2022)
When writing in public, there is a common idea that you should make it accessible. This is a left over from mass media.
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Down the Rabbit Hole: The world of estranged parents' forums (2015)
This page doesn’t apply to all estranged parents, only to estranged parents who are members of estranged parents’ forums. Read why.
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Princeton Bitcoin textbook is now freely available
The first complete draft of the Princeton Bitcoin textbook is now freely available. We’re very happy with how the book turned out: it’s comprehensive, at over 300 pages, but has a conversational style that keeps it readable. If you’re looking to truly understand how Bitcoin works at a technical level and have a basic…
729
Can I Talk to that William Fellow? He was so Helpful (2009)
Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.
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Blogger Finger
Great to see you back Steve! I'm sorry to hear about your hand troubles, and glad that there's a 95% approval rating. The interweb just got slightly better again. Welcome back.
732
Calculate the day of the week for any date in your head
The Doomsday Algorithm gives the day of the week for any date (and you can do it in your head)
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Death Note: L, Anonymity & Eluding Entropy
Applied Computer Science: On Murder Considered As STEM Field—using information theory to quantify the magnitude of Light Yagami’s mistakes in 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑡𝘩 𝑁𝑜𝑡𝑒 and considering fixes
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Some people who take psychedelics continue hallucinating indefinitely
[Related to: Relaxed Beliefs Under Psychedelics And The Anarchic Brain, HPPD And The Specter Of Permanent Side Effects] I. Hallucinogen persisting perceptual disorder is a condition where people wh…
737
How I made the print and eBook versions of my web book
It’s a funny feeling to spend nearly six years making something and then finally hold it in your hand. It’s simultaneously, “This is it! ” and “Is this it?” How can it be so small when it feels like such a big piece of my life?
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The Egg (2009)
It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.
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Most books don't sell only a dozen copies
A little post on why publishing statistics are so confusing
740
A Failure, but Not of Prediction
I. Vox asks What Went Wrong With The Media’s Coronavirus Coverage? They conclude that the media needs to be better at “not just saying what we do know, but what we don’t know”. This rai…
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Dumb and Gets Things Done (2010)
Someone once asked Napoleon how he decided where to assign soldiers. Napoleon's reply was that it's simple: soldiers are either smart or dumb, lazy or energetic. The smart and energetic I make field commanders. They know what to do and can rally the troops to do it. The smart and lazy I make generals. They
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Curl is just the hobby
Jan Gampe took things to the next level by actually making this cross-stitch out of the pattern I previously posted online. The flowers really gave it an extra level of charm I think. As a cross-stitch As a pillow This quote is from a comment by an upset user on my blog, replying to one … Continue reading curl is just…
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Cancer Progress: Much More Than You Wanted To Know (2018)
Official statistics say we are winning the War on Cancer. Cancer incidence rates, mortality rates, and five-year-survival rates have generally been moving in the right direction over the past few d…
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Create optimal conditions for lucky things to happen to you (2020)
Your entire worldview changes when you realize you can create luck.
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Advice
Every now and again, someone emails me and asks for very general advice. ("How do I change the world?") With the caveat that I've only lived a fraction of one life, and am still trying to figure things out, here's the advice I'd give past me.
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Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction
Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) is a condition in which sexual function does not return to normal after the use of SSRIs and related antidepressants.
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Get Running with Couch to 5K
NHS Couch to 5K will help you get off the couch and gradually work you up to running 5km in just 9 weeks.
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Teach, Don't Tell (2013)
This post is about writing technical documentation. More specifically: it's about writing documentation for programming languages and libraries.