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Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 8,938 posts.
Life, Learning & Writing
Any year
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How to be more productive without forcing yourself
Imagine you could work more and be wildly productive. And you wouldn’t need to force yourself to work.
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My cat alerted me to a DDoS attack
A few years ago, my cat gave me my most memorable middle of the night software engineering incident. I was working at a startup, and we didn’t have a formal on-call rotation yet. That was a deliberate decision, since being on-call is painful, and the team was good about just collectively keeping an eye out for urgent…
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How I taught my dog to text me selfies
Using an Arduino Yun, Twilio and a big red button, my dog texts me selfies.
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Writing better by answering why, what, how
Three documents I write (one-pager, design doc, after-action review) and how I structure them.
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Discworld Rules
And LOTR is brain-rot for technologists
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I use cheap notebooks
I've had my fair share of nice notebooks over the years, from Moleskines to Leuchtturms. And I love them: I love their smooth leather covers, thick sheets, a...
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The sky's gone dark
Back to: Brief hiatus | Forward to: Tanks! Why tank stories make great tech myths
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Three ways people respond to a problem (other than solving it)
Noticing responses to problems; there’s a whole set. The consultant’s reaction to each of these as they arise.
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TSA encounter at SAN
[These events took place roughly between 5:30 and 6:30 AM, November 13th in Terminal 2 of the San Diego International Airport. I'm writing t...
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How to Think: The Skill You’ve Never Been Taught
Thinking better isn't about learning more; it's about doing a few simple things that really help create unstoppable progress.
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One million people saw my dumbest tweet
Chris McCormick - News
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Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born (2023)
Solitary work, creativity and larval ideas
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Japan's Comfort Food: The Onigiri
Walk into any Japanese convenience store and you will always find a shelf dedicated to one item: onigiri. The onigiri, often translated as “rice ball”, literally means “grasping a fistful” and is in many ways Japan's original fast food, before fast food. Quick to make, quick to eat, easy
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It's Never Too Late to Be Successful and Happy
Don't give up on reinventing your career and life. Don’t ever feel like it’s too late to have what you want in life. Don’t give in to a feeling of hopelessness. History shows us that talented people are capable of having amazing success for the rest of their lives. Grit matters. I know people who are still pursuing…
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You're Worthwhile, Even When You Make Mistakes
My big secret ("My work isn't good enough") was finally out. Yet I wasn’t being fired. I was being offered help from someone I respected. I was still worth their time.
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Things I've quit doing at my desk
We do all sorts of activities at our desks that affect our ability to produce our best work.
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Stanford announces 16 free online courses for fall quarter
News, research, and insights from Stanford University.
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My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs
I treat my MacBook Pro laptop very well. It barely has a scratch and it’s never had any accidental drops or damage. Even so, my 4 years of owning it has resulted in:
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I taught the Iliad to Chinese teenagers (2021)
Several years ago I had the chance to lead two seminars with a group of high-performing Chinese high school seniors. Each seminar had between 20-35 kids; each of these students was a graduating sen…
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Why don't schools teach debugging? (2014)
In the fall of 2000, I took my first engineering class: ECE 352 , an entry-level digital design class for first-year computer engineers. It was standing room only, filled with waitlisted students who would find seats later in the semester as people dropped out. We had been warned in orientation that half of us…
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The Programmer Identity Crisis
On AI, Creativity, and Craft
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I asked GPT-3 for the question to “42”
Can GPT-3 compute the ultimate question about life, the Universe and everything?
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