1981
Becoming a Full-Time Creator as a Software Engineer
I'm a full-time creator. With remote work becoming more common in tech, I get more messages from people asking: how can they do what I do?
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Life, Learning & Writing
The most popular blog posts about life, learning & writing on Hacker News. 7,742 posts.
1982
The benefits of learning in public
Learning in public helps me grow as an engineer and seems to benefit others too. Here's why I should do more.
1983
Letter to Myself in Late 2008
[I originally wrote and distributed this post to Y Combinator founders and have been encouraged to share it publicly, so here it is.]
1984
1985
1986
How I'm fighting the AI brain fry
If you work with Claude Code or Codex from the terminal, you know this one.
1987
I Got My Attention Back (2017)
There are a thousand beautiful ways to start the day that don’t begin with looking at your phone. And yet so few of us choose to do so. Technology is commanding our attention in infinite, insurmountable loops. A country trip off-grid helped me escape.
1988
1989
1990
After 15 years of practice..
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.
1991
William Gibson Reads Neuromancer (2004)
The author Ray Bradbury is one of the early science fiction authors that moved science fiction into a literary form. As a writer Bradbury constructs beautifully written stories and novels. Bradbury's writing is in stark contrast to Bradbury as a speaker. The first time I heard Ray Bradbury speak was at the Association…
1992
1993
Why some governments appear not to be acting on the Covid-19 threat
The post conclusions contain speculation on my part. By now, you've heard of the Corona virus, otherwise known as SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19.
1994
A world without power
The 14th of August, 2003 was an interesting day in many ways. I’d just taken the family down to Toronto to spend a day there and pick up our newly minted passports at the Dutch embassy. We had some fun in the city seeing the sights, visited Niagara Falls and were on the way back on a sunny August thursday afternoon…
1995
1996
I live my life a quarter century at a time
So, we are coming up on a little anniversary for me this weekend. On the 5th of January 2000, Steve Jobs unveiled the new Aqua user interface of Mac OS X to the world at Macworld Expo. The Age of A…
1997
Design Thinking Books (2024)
An updated list of design thinking books and papers to understand the principles underpinning the design thinking process and its practice.
1998
1999
I Was Told I Was Very Smart
Your life is the best story! Just start your blog today!
2000
Estimating square roots in your head
Imagine we want to compute the square root of a number n n n . The basic idea of Heron’s method , named after the mathematician and engineer, Heron of Alexandria, is to find a number g g g that is close to n \sqrt{n} n and to then average that with the number n / g n/g n / g , which corrects for the fact that g g g…
2001
2002
I wired up my bike's GPS to order me pizza during a gravel race
As harvest season begins here in the Midwest, I once again celebrate by grinding Nebraska gravel at the Gravel Worlds Long Voyage bike race. As in previous years ( 2021 ) ( 2022 ), I spent more time writing code for a marginally-useful project than I did training. But hey, I finished!
2003
Hacking The Status Game
I was taking an improv class, and the instructor gave us a game to play before getting on stage, so that we can turn off our over-rationalizing minds and get into the flow. The game was called Status , and it went like this:
2004
MMM Receives Legal Threats
Sigh. I suppose this was bound to happen sometime. This blog is approaching its third birthday and has been blessed with over 62 million page views from 5.2 million people and counting. Many people…
2005
Sex, Circuits and Deep House
Cari with the Institute Blinky Badge at Burning Man 2015. Photo credit: Nagutron.
2006
2007
2008
40 Days Without Booze
Recently, as a “kick-in-the-butt” motivator, I promised myself that I would abstain from alcoholic beverages until I finished the first draft of a novel I’ve been working on. I had set a target date for completing the project (June 30th), with the idea that if I didn’t finish by that date, I’d stop drinking booze […]
2009
The Tough Decision to Leave the Classroom
Why do teachers quit? As I make the tough decision to leave the classroom, I highlight some of the issues that force quality teachers to leave public education.
2010
Interview with gwern
Legacy & Anonymity in the Age of AGI