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Productive Procrastination
Productive procrastination is real. But understanding why we avoid the work we actually love might be the key to getting more of it done.
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The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 7,740 posts.
Life, Learning & Writing
Any year
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Filing the corners off my MacBooks
I file the sharp corners off my MacBooks. People like to freak out about this, so I wanted to post it here to make sure that everyone who wants to freak out about it gets the opportunity to do so.
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Code is run more than read (2023)
Code is read more than written, code is run more than read. I think this line of thought can be extended beyond code-writing, and used as a rule of thumb to identify problems and make decisions.
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Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead
Why the poorest people in the world spend fortunes burying their dead
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Netflix Prices Went Up Again – I Bought a DVD Player Instead
As of this month, Netflix prices are going up again.
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A Tour of Oodi
A library reaching for the future
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They're made out of meat (1991)
Copyright, Terry Bisson, 1991 Originally published in OMNI, 1991, and featured in HARPER’S and around the internet since. It has even made its way into several books on consciousness and brain science. I’m surprised, pleased, and proud. But please do not reprint, perform, alter or adapt in any way without first…
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Protect your shed
Constructing a skyscraper is a massive undertaking. You need architectural blueprints, council permits, and safety audits before the first piece of steel is even ordered. It requires hundreds of people coordinating over months or years. You can’t just throw up some drywall and hope the building holds weight. Then…
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After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites (2025)
Soon after I launched this blog in February 2005, I signed up for Google AdSense. My goal was to make a little money and learn about the industry from the inside. In particular, if I was going to cover the...
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What does it mean to “write like you talk”?
Subordinate clauses, phrasal modifications, and metadiscourse
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Book review: There Is No Antimemetics Division
Personal blog of Stephen Diehl - Software engineer writing about technology, programming, and the future
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What being ripped off taught me
Expensive lessons
434
How to get better at guitar
Years ago, I watched a video where guitar teacher Justin Sandercoe explained a way to get better at guitar. It has changed my playing, and it might change yours, too. This isn’t my idea; it’s Justin’s. You should watch his video and visit his website. Why am I writing about it, then? Because I think it’s an invaluable…
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The threat is comfortable drift toward not understanding what you're doing
On AI agents, grunt work, and the part of science that isn't replaceable.
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Shooting down ideas is not a skill
Criticism can prevent mistakes. It can never create value. Only ideas can do that. The two are not equal contributions, and most meetings get this backwards.
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Advice to young people, the lies I tell myself (2024)
Discover insightful advice for young people, emphasizing choices, confidence, and personal growth through lived experiences.
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Why the most valuable things you know are things you cannot say
The Dimensionality Problem
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The Clock
(If you fancy a puzzle, go look at The Clock first, try to figure out how it works, then come back here for the explanation.) Inspired b...
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Some Unusual Trees
One of my favorite pastimes is exploring old bookstores.
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The Last Quiet Thing
Your possessions came alive. Now they won't stop talking.
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Fake Fans
into the digital marketing agency that creates your music taste
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Improving my focus by giving up my big monitor
Thoughts on an experiment that I've been running for about a month.
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A dot a day keeps the clutter away
The simplest organization system I've tried is a sheet of colored dot stickers. It's also the best.
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Nobody is coming to save your career
I waited years for someone to invest in my career. Nobody came.
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Gone (Almost) Phishin'
This is a little embarrassing to share, but I’d rather someone else be able to spot a dangerous scam before they fall for it. So, here goes. One evening last month, my Apple Watch, iPhone, and Mac …
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Take better notes, by hand
Researching a topic is hard, because not only are you trying to puzzle together the causes and effects of a given problem or historical series of events, you're also looking out carefully for leads and new threads to pull. Falling down rabbit holes is common—and encouraged—but eventually you need to pull yourself back…
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Bird brains (2023)
A kea parrot in New Zealand learned to drag traffic cones onto a highway so cars would stop and humans would feed it. That sent me down a rabbit hole on how we actually measure bird intelligence.
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Do your own writing
When you write a document or essay, you are posing a question and then answering it. For example, a PRD answers the question, “What should we build?” A technical spec answers, “How should we build it?” Sometimes the question is more difficult to answer—“What are we even trying to accomplish?” And with every attempt at…