Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 8,939 posts.
Life, Learning & Writing
Any year
How I stay motivated working on my long-term project
Becoming successful online doesn't happen overnight. If you want to make it, you need to commit to your goal for at least a few years. See how the three year rule can help you stay motivated on your long-term project.
How I motivate myself to write
Since leaving Uber a year ago, in October 2020, I've been making a living from writing - one with comparable income [https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1449075825329020932] to when I was employed. None of this would have happened if I did not start to write this blog several years ago.
Communicating Advanced Mathematics to Kids
I’ve often thought that we could do a lot better job of explaining “advanced” mathematics concepts in simple language for the benefit of a wider audience. As a student, I never liked being told, “We’ll explain that to you next year.” As a teacher, I’ve always wanted be able to give real answers to students’…
The white furnace test
What;s up with those empty renders in rendering research papers? The white furnace test, one of my favourite rendering debug tools. It can be used to check several levels of implementation, not just the BRDF, but also the sampling and the Monte Carlo integration loop, Continue reading →
The reMarkable as a notebook and eBook reader
The reMarkable is a premium e-ink notebook. Imagine a Kindle, but you can write on it. It has become my daily notebook. I take all my meeting notes on it, dump my ideas and designs, and carry it with me everywhere. As a bonus, it also has replaced
Money, money, money (and investing) (2015)
A comprehensive introduction to investing in stocks, mutual funds (managed and index), short-selling, and stock options.
Our phones are killing our ability to feel sexy (2024)
Eros, desire, instinct, eternity
Assume positive intent
Chris could have become my worst nightmare.
Trying out the Pinebook Pro – a $200 ARM Laptop
The Pinebook Pro is a $200 laptop with ARM processors that promises a lot. Does it deliver?
Value is created by doing
Value is created by doing. It’s easy to forget this. A lot of stuff feels like work—commenting on HN, tweeting, reading about other companies’ funding rounds, grabbing coffee, etc [1]—is not...
How I prepare a talk for a tech conference (2022)
By the way, you can listen to me read this post aloud on my Patreon, which starts at $1/month! My 🌶️ spicy take 🌶️ is that I don’t like seeing tech talks live. I get very little out of 95% of…
The Serenity of a 5pm Bedtime
We know of tangled sleep schedules, and we have all had your struggles with them. But sometimes sleep schedules can become so twisted, that they just happen to morph into something quite ordered. The...
A Kantian Critique of "Sorry" by Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber's "Sorry" is a song about regret, asking for forgiveness, and wanting another chance after having hurt someone. But philosophically speaking, what exactly makes an apology morally meaningful?
A Man from the Future: Why Johnny Can't Stop Abstracting
I have come to suspect that to most people thinking is painful. Some of us are addicted to thinking. Some of us find it a necessity. Johnny ...
The value of not getting to the point (2015)
I read somewhere recently, I forget where, that the purpose of people getting together for a conversation over a beer or coffee or lunch or dinner is that it the food and drink spare us from the burden of needing to have something to say throughout the whole conversation.
Software engineering is a learning process, working code is a side effect
I have come to the conclusion that Software Engineering is primarily a learning endeavour, the working code is rather a side effect. This quote is actually not mine but I am paraphrasing Alberto Brandolini who is making this very point in Event Storming (he was actually talking about Software Development, but I do not…
Repair a ship’s hull still in the river in -50˚C (2022)
Despite these hard times, we continue our work saving the world from all manner of cyber-maliciousness. We adapt; we carry on. Meanwhile, I hope my travel notes and photos will bring a little cheeriness to all who view them – because there’s hardly a better way to do that than with the beauty of nature
Push, push, push. Expanding your comfort zone
Derek Sivers official site. Thoughts on philosophy, culture, self-improvement. Author of Useful Not True, How to Live, Hell Yeah or No, Anything You Want.
I Have Created 50 Games in 2014
I have created 50 mini browser games this year. This is it. Click the image to play the game. Games are roughly placed as follows.
The Dark Night of Mathematics
What are we really doing?
I don't like computers (2016)
Welp, I kinda gave up waxing personal on this blog a while ago, but what the hell, why not make an exception once in a while. So in the last couple of years I've been thinking about work and stuff a