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The White Gold of Turda, Romania
Though today we take salt for granted, it was once as valuable as gold, and the Salina Turda Salt Mine in Romania was an important source for eastern Europe
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Life, Learning & Writing
The most popular blog posts about life, learning & writing on Hacker News. 588 posts.
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Profound Beliefs
This post previously appeared in EIX. In the early stages of a startup your hypotheses about all the parts of your business model are your profound beliefs. Think of profound beliefs as “strong opi…
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What I did not learn about writing in school
Surprising lessons I picked up from the best books, essays, and videos on writing non-fiction.
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Two types of C programmers
You're probably reading this page because you've attempted to access some part of my blog (Wandering Thoughts) or CSpace , the wiki thing it's part of. Unfortunately you're using a browser version that my anti-crawler precautions consider suspicious, most often because it's too old (most often this applies to versions…
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Math for kids outside of the Calculus Sequence
The Enrichment side of the "Accelerate vs Enrich" dichotomy in math education for kids who love math.
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Just Build It...
Thoughts on building, shipping and iterating quickly
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Cognitive distortions that undermine clear thinking
Leaders are paid to think clearly. And a big impediment to clear thinking is what CBT/REBT calls Cognitive Distortions: errors in thinking or thinking traps we commonly fall for. Most high-performers are not pathological, but instead fall for them when upset or in high-stress situations. In this
549
My experience trying to write human-sounding articles using Claude AI
You can use AI tools like Claude to help you write full-length content. By going paragraph-by-paragraph, you can direct the AI while seemingly maintaining your own voice and ideas. However, despite my attempts to use AI with writing, I’ve found that it’s harder to pull off than I thought. I can get close, but due to…
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What to do when you’ve ruined your life
Every now and then, life becomes unacceptable. What do you do then?
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Cut out everything that's not surprising (2019)
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.
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Grades of quality of Panama hats
Grades of Quality of Panama Hats by Brent Black, the world's leading designer of fine quality Montecristi Panaman Hats.
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Setting time on fire and the temptation of The Button
We used to consider writing an indication of time and effort spent on a task. That isn't true anymore.
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Thoughts on Video Editing (2022)
I’ve been thinking about editing for the last 5 years. Not just thinking, also editing. Trying out what works. You may have noticed different editing styles in the 65 videos I have posted to …
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Hoarding
Hoarding is a comfort behavior. It is done to reduce discomfort, pain, or anxiety, using some of the same 'pathways' as pleasure. It also is intertwined with attachment feelings.
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Notes on making a multiplayer "doing nothing app"
Projects, experiments and toys by Rafał Pastuszak
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Only Debate The Non-Linear
I sometimes feel like the course of my career has been one long vacillation1 between being too argumentative and too deferential. I’ve often struggled specifically in work contexts to discern when a debate was worth having. In the moment, it has often been difficult to suss out whether my
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All the Buns Are Blank
Damn! Remember when these buns had sesame seeds?
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A peek into Japan's convenience stores
Editor’s note: Due to the sheer amount of interesting material here we decided to break this into a two-part article. All across Japan, one sight remains ubiquitous – the convenience store. A far, far cry from their American cousins, convenience stores in Japan are without exception, spotless, well-stocked,
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Days of Awe: The clinical trial drug that might save my husband's life
"G’mar Chatimah Tovah” – May you be inscribed into the Book of Life
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When First Principles Thinking Fails (2020)
Thinking is split roughly into pattern matching against experience, and reasoning from first principles. Here's one argument for why you need both.
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Demystifying burnout – A deep dive into its symptoms and remedies
Discover the roots of burnout, its distinct symptoms, and key causes. Learn to identify potential signs and explore strategies to overcome this chronic syndrome.
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The time I yoga-balled an Apple store employee
My personal website and blog
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Aerobic exercise is good for the brain; easy wins for behaviour change
mood, memory, education; five easy wins for behaviour change
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The washing machine in my ear, and an empty boat
Over a period of about six months in 2022, I was nearing the brink of insanity; I would go to bed every single evening and hear a washing machine running in a neighbouring apartment.