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Please be dying, but not too quickly, part 2: The patient's perspective
The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing: from investigator calls to taking back (almost) all the bad things I've ever said about New Jersey
Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 8,944 posts.
Life, Learning & Writing
Any year
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Work on unimportant problems
It seems obvious that some problems are important to solve and some aren't, as in, curing cancer is more important than delivering social gaming. Often, people lament the abundance of tech firms working on ultimately unimportant stuff, and advise to work on important problems and not just chase the money.
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The secret lives of snowblowers
Yes, they throw snow. But the mechanical design of residential snowblowers is more interesting than it seems.
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How to Make a Hotbed for the Earliest Sowings (2020)
Hotbeds are horticultural alchemy. But what is a hotbed and what makes them so magical?
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The importance of offtopic
My first big job in the industry had me as one of two people in Warsaw, with the rest of the team in Oslo. I’ve never seen any of my Norwegian co-workers at that point, but one the first pieces of direct feedback I got from my manager was: “the teammembers like you; they feel like you’re part of the team.”
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Open call – your field recordings of obsolete sounds wanted
Recordings of disappearing, obscure and obsolete sounds wanted for new global collaborative sound project Obsolete Sounds.
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A Codebase Is an Organism (2014)
Here's what no one tells you when you graduate with a degree in computer science and take up a job in software engineering:
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“Your program is stupid. It doesn't work,” my wife told me (2010)
<img src="http://stevehanov.ca/blog/wheel1.png"/>
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The emotional trial of clinical trials: like online dating with death risk
Part 1 is mostly about what happened as Bess and I raced against tumor growth to find a new clinical trial that might keep me alive. Part 2 is here, and it is mostly about how this process feels an…
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Inspired by the 180 websites I will understand 52 academic papers in 52 weeks
Hi 👋 you're reading a pretty old post! I started writing on here back in high school and this page may not reflect my current views. Recommend checking out related articles and categories down below, I've likely published more recent thoughts on this topic.
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Don't Waste a Single Moment
I’ve embarked on a new adventure as CEO & Cofounder of Referly – a startup that is helping anyone earn rewards for referring products they love and generat...
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My two year old taught me constraint solving
My two-year-old son used a Brio wooden train set to explain constraint solving to his silly Dada.
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How I stay happy making open source software
Over the past month I have become aware of multiple people either stepping away from open source or trying to figure out how not to burn out from it [1 [http://www.drmaciver.com/2015/08/throwing-in-the-towel/], 2 [http://ryanbigg.com/2015/11/open-source-work/], 3
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Leveraging Introversion as a Career Strength
Being an introvert doesn’t mean you lack great management potential—but you need to play to your strengths
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To write non-fiction, draw the trunk, then the rest of the tree
– an owl mid flight I saw last summer. try drawing it. “You should have failed this class. I’m going to make accommodations so that no student can pass next semester the same way you did.” This is what my Ancient History II professor told me when my group and I got our final group project essay handed out. Every group…
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Using Models to Stay Calm in Charged Situations
When polarizing topics are discussed in meetings, passions can run high and cloud our judgment. Learn how mental models can help you see clearly from this real-life scenario.
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How to Be Wrong (2016)
“To be wrong, or not to be wrong?” That is the wrong question. You are going to spend a lot of your time being wrong, especially if you become a scientist or mathematician. The question…
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Make your own microforest (2025)
The Miyawaki method of reforestation inserts small, densely packed wild acreage into urban environs. It’s proving wildly successful.
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Review: Learn You a Haskell for Great Good
Learn You a Haskell for Great Good! (A Beginner's Guide) by Miran Lipovača, published by No Starch Press (2011). No Starch was kind enough to send me an advance copy for review.
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