Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 4,748 posts.
Stranger in a Strange Land: “Big Data” programmer meets HPC community
I attended the SIAM PP 2014 conference this week, because I'm developing an interest in MPI-style parallel algorithms (also, it was close b...
Notes on Shutting Down an S-Corp
Shutting down an S-Corp is complicated.
How To Get Experience Working With Large Datasets
There are data sources out there, but which data source you choose depends on which technology you wish to get experience working with. The experience should be of the technologies you are using, rather than what the data is. Certain datasets pair better with certain technologies. Simulating the data can be another…
From zero to hero: contributing to open source (2017)
Do you ever get the feeling that you are always a consumer and never a contributor to a library? Would you like to get more involved in open source projects and don’t know how? This is the&nb…
The right way to position against competition
Most startup founders either claim there is no competition (because they're soooo unique) or define themselves as a combination of the best traits of their competitors. Neither is a good strategy; here's what to do instead.
Beyond coupling and cohesion: strategies for un-fucking yourself
This post belongs in the ‘highly speculative’ category. It contains ideas that I’ve yet to flesh out and properly pin down. Reader beware!
Why Open Offices?
If one person is wrong, they’re wrong. If a lot of people, some of whom got extremely rich off of their wrong ideas, are wrong, there’s a good possibility I’m the wrong one. At …
Should you Work Hard? (2019)
Software engineer, etc etc
Why GitHub is not your CV
Two days ago, Ashe Dryden published an article I’ve been desperately wishing someone would write for months: The Ethics of Unpaid Labor and the OSS Community . It’s a detailed, well-researched take-down of the seemingly quite popular myth that open-source contributions are a useful way to screen candidates for…
I speak at Harvard as it faces its biggest crisis since 1636
Every week, I tell myself I won’t do yet another post about the asteroid striking American academia, and then every week events force my hand otherwise. No one on earth—certainly no one who reads t…
Why Many Smart Folks End up going Nowhere
Life Beyond Code - Personal and professional development for technology professionals.
Joel on Software: Anecdotes
Michiko Kakutani reviews Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book in the New York Times: “Much of what Mr. Gladwell has to say about superstars is little more than common sense: that talent alone…
Stop Saying ‘Let me know when works for you’
Vinicius Vacanti is co-founder and CEO of Yipit. Next posts on how to acquire users for free and how to raise a Series A. Don’t miss them by subscribing via email or via twitter .
Be more lucky
🍀 The science and the comedy of luck
Your biggest vulnerability is your shitty compensation
My fourth month of unemployment. I'm fresh off an interview with a senior technical role advertised with a decent compensation range whose upper end would let me make median rent, and whose lower range would not. At the end of an excellent interview, I am informed that said compensation
Steal These Freelance Business Ideas
Brian Casel's personal site, portfolio and blog. Brian Casel is a multi-time founder, software product designer and developer.
A Developer Culture Test
See a shorter, and updated version of this test here: The Pragmatic Engineer Test: 12 Questions on Engineering Culture [https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/pragmatic-engineer-test/]. I've talked with dozens of software developers about what they like and dislike about their workplace - team, and company …
Hacks for Engineering Estimates
Engineers often have to ask each other for “estimates”– rough projections for how long projects will take. While some teams do rigorous estimation rituals to varying degrees of success, many situation
Google taught me to turn Impostor Syndrome into an Advantage
My heart was racing. My palms sweating. I was going to be fired.\nPerformance reviews had just ended, and it was time to meet my manager and be told my results. Except I knew what it would say. How else do you rate a programmer who doesn’t code?
Tech worker resistance is crucial to preventing human rights abuses in the U.S
Hi, I am Valerie Aurora, systems archictecture consultant, writer, and cat appreciator. At Bow Shock Systems , I solve difficult systems problems in networking, file systems, and operating systems. In 2023 I moved permanently to Amsterdam after 20 years in the San Francisco Bay Area.