Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 8,937 posts.
Life, Learning & Writing
Any year
I assume I’m below average (2010)
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.
Greg
A lot of people ask me what the ideal cofounder looks like. I now have an answer: Greg Brockman. Every successful startup I know has at least one person who provides the force of will to make...
A solution to The Onion problem of J. Kenji Lopez-Alt (2021)
Kenji López-Alt posed a mathematical problem on his YouTube channel about how to best cut an onion. I present a detailed solution.
Why are you so busy?
Thoughts and more by Tom Lingham
I became the world's most prolific DJ, using code
Or a clickbait title: How I became the world’s most prolific DJ, using code.This week I stumbled across a cool project: All The Music.Damien Riehl (programm...
Rules for writing software tutorials
It's easier than you think to write an exceptional software tutorial. You can stand out in a sea of mediocre guides by following a few simple rules.
How to Think
Read this article to discover how chess is used to teach people how to think. "It’s uncomfortable to focus so intensely on what you’re bad at."
Malicious compliance by booking an available meeting room
In 2011, Larry Page became CEO of Google and tried to fix meetings. But his new policies were no match for Google Calendar pedants.
Feynman’s Breakthrough: Disregard Others
Feynman (just off centre) at Wangerooge in 1987 I started my career as a theoretical physicist, and in the late-80s I co-organised a specialist workshop on a small island, Wangerooge, off the coast…
Loss of cell identity drives human aging: Two new papers
That’s What Biological (Epigenetic) Aging Clocks Are Measuring
Learning needs to be effortful to be effective
Online content makes edutainment the norm among curious and intelligent people, who don't realize that they aren't actually learning what they think they are.
How to Network as an Introvert
A calm guide to networking as an introvert—learn how posture, presence, and small signals can help you connect meaningfully without faking extroversion.
Give 100 Percent?
Working at a daycare has shown me many things and given me much insight into how children behave, and more specifically, how they learn. The kids that I work with are so incredibly eager to learn,…
Coding Stories: Me vs. the VNC Guy
The story of how I finally got revenge on The VNC Guy back in my college days.
Critical theory is radicalizing high school debate
New rhetorical tactics are creating a generation of nihilists
Apple Music is the most buggy and annoying software I use
There is no other software that I use and pay for that can compare to Apple Music when it comes to severe bugs and annoyances. The worst of the Apple Music clients is that on macOS.
Conspiracy: In Theory and Practice
Would you like to know a secret?
15-year search for a band that charted once and vanished
15 years ago, a band called Salvage dropped an epic song, and then vanished without a trace. Until now.
What to Learn
It's common to see people advocate for learning skills that they have or using processes that they use. For example, Steve Yegge has a set of blog posts where he recommends reading compiler books and learning about compilers. His reasoning is basically that, if you understand compilers, you'll see compiler problems…
Notes on Tajikistan
Over the summer, I spent about two weeks in Tajikistan, mostly in Dushanbe (the capital) and various points along the Pamir Highway, which borders Afghanistan and later leads into Kyrgyzstan. This …
Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain
From chronically sore to chronically curious about the mind 🧠
A nicer voltmeter clock
Sometimes, electronic circuit design is mostly about wood
Are You Trading or Gambling?
How to not be a degenerate trader
I tried to adjust the time on my alarm clock
Now it's not even wrong twice a day.