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Topics /
Life, Learning & Writing
The most popular blog posts about life, learning & writing on Hacker News. 394 posts.
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All of my side-projects from 2012
One of my favorite pastimes as a programmer is to work on personal projects outside of work. I use side-projects as a creative outlet to work on new and interesting things. I also use them as a learning exercise. If I start a side-project, there must be "one new thing" about the project I don't know how to do already…
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How to defend yourself when your photo is ridiculed on Reddit
I was going to write a rant. But I'm tired. Plus it's better to be nice in situations like these. And I can't take on any more of the Inte...
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Why I Just Closed My LinkedIn Account
Python, Linux, Bicycles, Books, Games, Etc.
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How I published a fake paper, and why it is the fault of our education system
I am currently too upset to be able to do a good job of writing this article concisely and effectively, so please be patient and read the whole rambling thing. Note also: I’m not upset about the existence of one such conference – the real problem are the publish-or-perish rules in colleges/universities that are…
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Why I am always on the lookout for a PayPal alternative
Yash Gadhiya's personal blog
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How IPython Notebook and Github have changed the way I teach Python
I teach in a small high school in southeast Alaska, and each year I teach an Introduction to Programming class. I recently learned how to use IPython Notebook, and it has completely changed the way…
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Without even knowing: the HN post I missed
On the day after Christmas, my city-mapping project Majuro.js appeared on the front page of Hacker News. It would be a few days before I found out, because I was out of internet, cell phone, or even radio contact on Arno Atoll, a razor-thin string of tropical islands in the Pacific Ocean.
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I'm Slowly Losing My Mind
I say a lot of things. I avoid lying at all costs, and instead prefer to simply leave out a lot of... details. Like why I started a game dev...
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Can I Be Trusted?
Slashdot asks the question: I’m a big fan of Bruce Schneier, but just to play devil’s advocate, let’s say, hypothetically, that Schneier is actually in cahoots with the NSA. Who better to reinstate public trust in weakened cryptosystems? As an exercise in security that Schneier himself may find interesting, what…
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Design
I chose images from 1973 deliberately. It's easier to tell good design from bad when you're not looking at current fashions. (Try looking at the haircuts in an old high school yearbook.) Good design is timeless, and if you want something timeless you can't pander to the limitations of some hypothetical "average" user…
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Things You Can Do That Will Make You Happier
Happiness is so interesting, because we all have different ideas about what it is and how to get it. It's also no surprise that it's the Nr....
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Learn to code like it's 1996
I’ve been meaning to write up my take on the learn to code movement for quite some time now, but for one reason or another haven’t managed to get around to it. Now that the president is endorsing Computer Science and telling Americans to learn to code, this post has jumped to the top of my priority list.
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Why Markdown Is Not My Favourite Language
programming, language design, and human factors
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What is algebra?
NOVEMBER 20, 2011. We hear a lot about the importance that all children master algebra before they graduate from high school. But what exactly is algebra, and is it really as important as everyone …
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“Printcrime” by Cory Doctorow
This story appears in my collection Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present , 2007
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Where my mouth is
For many years, i've been convinced that programming needs to move forward and abandon the Algol family of languages that, still today, dampens the field. And that that forward direction has been signalled for decades by (mostly) functional, possibly dyna...
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