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Writing by hand is still the best way to retain information
Typing might be faster, but longhand stays with you better.
Topics /
Life, Learning & Writing
The most popular blog posts about life, learning & writing on Hacker News. 101 posts.
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How I regained concentration and focus
For years, I enthusiastically produced content: books, articles, blog posts, and talks – averaging a book and a half plus five articles per year. Since about 2020, my productivity has plummeted – leaving me totally frustrated. There were no external causes, even the pandemic didn’t affect me, thanks to a nice home…
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Be careful with that thing, it's a confidential coffee maker
Just keep it under wraps.
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75% of the time we spend with our kids in our lifetime will be spent by age 12
75% of the time we spend with our kids in our lifetime will be spent by age 12.
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One year as a solo dev building open-source data tools without funding
I quit my job as an engineering manager at Oracle in early June 2021. I had a bit of savings and a few contract opportunities so I decided to see how far I could get building an app I've wanted for years as a manager. I have never built my own app before and I've never built a desktop app before.
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5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)
Strength training for your breathing muscles? Daily High-Resistance Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training lowers blood pressure and improves vascular health as
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Internet spring cleaning: How to delete Instagram, Facebook and other accounts
So you’ve washed your sheets and vacuumed under the couch in the name of spring cleaning. But what about your online clutter? Apps that delight, inform a
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Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch
Time flies when you’re having fun. It’s been a year since our last blog post announcing the launch of the Rebble developer portal and in that time we’ve seen...
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Gödel, Escher, Bach: an in-depth explainer
[Thanks to Jacob Falkovich, Eric Neyman, and my LessWrong reviewer, among others, for their feedback on earlier drafts.] …
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Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom
Pandemic study shows distraction of social media may suck up the time and energy that allow us to find new passions
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Distributor cancelled an order and we need to move 30k bags of coffee [updated]
UPDATE, 10:56PM CT: THE POWER OF THE INTERNET SAVED THE DAY. All of the bags of caffeinated coffees sold out. That’s approximately 24,000 bags of coffee. You all are amazing! We are overwhelmed with gratitude and will update tomorrow. Hopefully we can find these lonely bags of decaf a good home, too. We’ve had a…
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No one cared about my spreadsheets
The most painful part of writing The Case Against Education was calculating the return to education. I spent fifteen months working on the spreadsheets. I came up with the baseline case, did scores of “variations on a theme,” noticed a small mistake or blind alley, then started over. Several programmer friends advised…
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5 Years of Pop _OS
Five years. Can you believe it? To celebrate, we’re looking back at where Pop!_OS started, how it’s grown, and where it’s going next. Thanks for joining us on this journey!
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Betting on things that never change (2017)
Amazon launched 22 years ago this week.
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Toxic Productivity
Create forms and surveys, take payments, automate workflows and send documents for signing, all from one easy, doc‑style form builder FOR FREE
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'Soleus pushup' fuels metabolism for hours while sitting
The soleus muscle in the calf can do big things to improve the metabolic health in the rest of your body if activated correctly. Now UH researchers are pioneering the “soleus pushup” which elevates muscle metabolism for hours, even while sitting.
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Preventing Burnout: A Manager's Toolkit
GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij shares 12 steps that managers can take to help employees avoid burnout.
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How to Do a Handstand
Beginner’s Guide to Handstands! Get your first handstand with this step-by-step handstand progression and handstand exercises.
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‘Anti-hunger’ molecule forms after exercise, scientists discover
Stanford Medicine researchers and their collaborators have identified a molecule that staves off hunger post-exercise.
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The Curse of Systems Thinkers
Somewhere between 15 and 20 years ago, I worked for a company. It was a very prestigious company, and it was a glorious and frustrating time. The company did amazing things. Literally unbelievable achievements - from my point of view anyway. But this was coupled with levels of chaos that led