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Topics /
Life, Learning & Writing
The most popular blog posts about life, learning & writing on Hacker News. 7,743 posts.
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Why should children program? A review of Seymour Papert's Mindstorms
This is an essay about what it means to teach a kid to program, using Seymor Paperts groundbreaking book Mindstorms as a reference.
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70 job interviews in 17 days
When I was but a wee lad, I dreamed of being a janitor for NASA. There's just something awesome about playing a part, no matter how sma...
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Don't be afraid to be wrong
Being afraid of being wrong can hold you back - know how to deal with it.
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The Test
Jensen Huang, the NVIDIA CEO and wearer of the most midlife crisis looking leather jackets in the world, was on Ezra Klein’s podcast. Now I don’t really want you do go through all of what was being said in that recording/writeup. It’s painful. You feel your mental capabilities decaying with every minute of listening ……
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Writer: An Open Digital Typewriter (2018)
TL;DR: A digital typewriter based on a Raspberry Pi and an E-Ink screen. The code/build instructions are available on GitHub .
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Digital Echoes and Unquiet Minds
There's a psychological burden of digital life even heavier than distraction.
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Tracking Blood Sugar
Fasting glucose and A1C tests done over the past few years show me at low risk for diabetes. But these tests don’t necessarily capture how much blood sugar “spikes” after meals–something that may be a better predictor of disease risk . Such blood sugar spikes can be minimized with a suitable diet, but what that diet…
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How I Learned to Program
How I learned to program, and my advice for beginners: use Linux, want it badly, build small command line programs, write a lot, join IRC, have fun.
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The Sphere
Las Vegas’ $2.3 billion immersive flagship takes a distressingly prophetic look inward.
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A Hacker Writes a Children's Book
[2018 Update: After posting this article and making it to the top of r/programming and HackerNews sales of the book increased noticeably. The book is now nic...
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Everything You Should Know About Sound (2016)
We all know what sound is. Except actually, no we don't. Let's fix that.
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Books of a Highly Effective Programmer (2009)
Like many programmers, I’m always on the lookout for the perfect programming book. Over the years I have tried to enumerate a few key examples , however after reading them all I am still left wanting. However, I recently came across a couple interesting blog posts [^motivation] that motivated me that the only way to…
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A better way to teach technical skills to a group
Thank for you sharing this method – it sounds great, and I’m keeping it mind for the next time I have to do some teaching like this (which doesn’t come up so often for me).
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Early Retirement (2006)
The joys, challenges, and some practical aspects of retiring young.
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Intravenous Caffeine
If there’s a hole in your body, you can put drugs into it.
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I was terrified of an eyeball injection
I needed medication to preserve my sight, and it had to be injected directly into my eyeball. It’s a real thing and not just something they do in horror films.
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Thanks Mr. Jobs, But it Seems I Can Use a Linux Laptop Now
So, back in 1997 I installed my first copy of FreeBSD. I had to do some major research to get X Windows up and running, and the next computer I bought I very carefully selected a video card to make things easier. I was happy, I was able to use gcc, but getting online via
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My 2020 desk setup
I generally enjoy reading the uses this blog, and recently people have been talking about desk setups in my bubble (and on my Twitch stream), so I figured I’d write a post about my current setup!
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How to graduate your PhD when you have no hope
a.k.a. Richard Hamming vs. Richard Feynman
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The Home Computer Generation
A seemingly frightening realization regularly dawns on various pundits these days: Being a digital native doesn't automatically mean you're computer savvy. Due to a gradual transformation from general purpose tools to digital appliances, computers are now more than ever perceived as magical boxes by their users. Many…
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I Used Netscape Composer in 2024
The story of a geeky twist on "Party like it's 1999".
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Elitism as the mid-career growth engine
Technical excellence begins in wonder but is honed by disgust
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My Preferred Smart Home Vendors
A non-exhaustive list of smart home devices that work well with Home Assistant