751
Topics /
Life, Learning & Writing
The most popular blog posts about life, learning & writing on Hacker News. 7,740 posts.
752
The Real Luxuries In Life
Labor Day weekend has always been the back to school marker for me. I'm 60, closing in on 61, and thinking a lot more about what I actually care about. Amy texted me a list yesterday.
753
754
The curious case of the missing period
When Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is not simple
755
I'm not burned out, I'm pissed off
(Hey HN/Reddit/Lobste.rs! I didn't expect this to take off, there are a couple of unclear things in here. The biggest seeming to be my ha...
756
Why I love FreeBSD
A personal reflection on my first encounter with FreeBSD in 2002, how it shaped the way I design and run systems, and why its philosophy, stability, and community still matter to me more than twenty years later.
757
758
Friendships form via shared context, not shared activities
You’re one among millions, not one in a million.
759
This photograph is free
I've just read This photograph is not free on Petapixel.com, and I should explain why I disagree with the author and decided to give away the picture below: The photo above is
760
I heat my home by mining crypto currencies
Personal Blog of Christian Haschek
761
762
Writing Is Thinking: Learning to Write with Confidence
Learning to write is learning to think, because writing is thinking. They are two peas in a powerful pod. This article goes over my writing process, focused on minimizing the activation energy to get started.
763
I rebooted my social life
Some self-help for the New Year
764
765
The April Fools joke that might have got me fired
Everyone should pull one great practical joke in their lifetimes. This one was mine, and I think it's past the statute of limitations. The s...
766
767
An Apology to my European IT Team
In 2008 when we were opening the US office for a European maker of membrane production equipment, we had all of the early IT choices someone has to make when first opening a business. How should we…
768
Why I don't discuss politics with friends
March 2025
769
How to write stuff no one else can
Last week, I wrote a piece about five of the key hires who took Morning Brew to $40 million in revenue .
770
How to live on $432 a month in America
(For All Expenses)
771
Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade
As of today, I've been using the same Arch Linux installation for ten years on my main computer. I don't have much to say, but I'm writing this because my experience doesn't match the common notion that Arch Linux is unstable. 1
772
98% isn't much
98% sounds like a lot. If someone wins the lottery 98% of the times they play, they are clearly blessed. Getting a top mark (e.g.: 10/10) on exams 98% of the time will likely lead to an honour diploma.
773
Ground control to Major Trial
When a $130M aerospace company chooses to endlessly abuse free trials instead of typing git pull, you start to question gravity, or at least common sense.
774
September 2026: The world today, as seen by one Polish guy
How a Pole sees the world in September 2026: a scrolling essay that follows one closed strait into fuel, food, bonds, defence and demography.
775
I put a toaster in the dishwasher (2012)
JD Stillwater, Science Ambassador's blog.
776
Hunter S. Thompson on Finding Your Purpose (1958)
Discover what Hunter S. Thompson's letter on finding your purpose, revisited today, teaches about choosing a way of life over chasing any fixed goal.
777
Markov chains are funnier than LLMs
Predictability machines and personality
778
779
Death Note: L, Anonymity and Eluding Entropy (2017)
Applied Computer Science: On Murder Considered As STEM Field—using information theory to quantify the magnitude of Light Yagami’s mistakes in 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑡𝘩 𝑁𝑜𝑡𝑒 and considering fixes
780
Four thousand weeks
A tribute to the book by Oliver Burkeman, an exploration of time management in the face of human finitude, and addressing the anxiety of “getting everything done.”