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Ted Chiang: The Secret Third Thing
I really like Ted Chiang’s writing.
Topics /
Life, Learning & Writing
The most popular blog posts about life, learning & writing on Hacker News. 602 posts.
242
I'm a laptop weirdo and that's why I like my new Framework 13
It turns out I've always done weird things to my laptops.
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The origin of the cargo cult metaphor
The cargo cult metaphor is commonly used by programmers. This metaphor was popularized by Richard Feynman's "cargo cult science" talk with a...
244
How I Use Kagi
My block list and some fun search lenses. Don't @ me that damn article about the guy whinging about Kagi.
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On doing hard things
I've never been known for my coordination, balance, or cardiovascular enthusiasm. In team sports, I was invariably the last one picked – probably only becaus...
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Times New American: A Tale of Two Fonts
A less romantic truth is that aesthetic standards rarely travel alone; power tends to follow in their wake. An episode at the U.S. State Department this month makes exactly this point.
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The scariest "user support" email I've received
Hi, it's Takuya. As your app grows in popularity, you occasionally start to attract attacks aimed directly at you—the developer or site owner. Just the other day, I got one that was honestly terrifying, so I'd like to share it. The Email Subject: Cookie consent prevents platform
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I just want to code (2023)
I have an angel and a devil sitting atop each shoulder. The angel says, "Just code for fun! What you make can be just for your enjoyment and that's --" the devil interjects, "not enough to get ahead, loser. If you're not coding your next startup then how're you gunna get rich? Coding for fun? Pfft, sounds like the…
250
The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis
It's understandable why the guys who had big tech startup successes in the 90s and early aughts think that "DEI" is the cause of all their problems. Not understandable in the "gotta hand it to em" sense, but in the sense that it's not hard to follow the stupid mistake they all make.
251
I bought a £16 smartwatch just because it used USB-C
Look, I'm an idiot. I know that, you know that, and the man on the moon knows that. Let's not get into why I'm an idiot; let's just accept that I have my peculiarities and you have yours. My idiocy is a quest to make sure all my portable electronics can recharge using USB-C. Modern smartwatches are tiny and they do a…
252
When is it better to think without words?
Non-verbal, blurry thinking is faster and can search in a broader way, but it is more error-prone than verbal thought.
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Narcolepsy is weird but I didn't notice
There are certain kinds of experiences that most human beings know very little about because a) they are rare, b) they can only be felt from the "inside", i.e., by the people who have them, and c) not all of those people choose to, or are good at, writing
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Social anxiety isn't about being liked
There’s this popular idea that socially anxious folks are dying to be liked.
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The cost of interrupted work (2023)
You’ve likely read lots of blog posts stating that it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to work after an interruption, context switch, or meeting. Thus, “do you have five minutes” ends up not only costing those few minutes, but instead about half an hour. But where does that number come from?
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Beyond the Front Page: A Personal Guide to Hacker News
HN should be treated as an external comment section for the internet to the extent that it can’t substitute for the internet, much less for your own thinking. At its best, HN is a map to new questions and a window onto new angles. The landscape itself remains elsewhere.
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I ditched Spotify and set up my own music stack
{/ truncate /}
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Spaced repetition memory system (2024)
A spaced-repetition memory system combines the Testing effect and the Spacing effect to enable efficient memorization of many thousands of facts ( Spaced repetition memory systems are extremely efficient ). Some people also use them for a broader set of tasks (see below). Spaced repetition memory systems make memory a…
260
Discworld Rules
And LOTR is brain-rot for technologists
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The Programmer Identity Crisis
On AI, Creativity, and Craft
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Compression culture is making you stupid and uninteresting
why the death of nuance should scare you -your fav gen z philosopher xx
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Altoids by the Fistful
"In evolution, a maladaptation is a trait that is (or has become) more harmful than helpful, in contrast with an adaptation, which is more helpful than harmful." I went to Wikipedia to look that up, not a large language model.
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One year of keeping a tada list
Sometimes called a to-done list.
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Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug
Plus: How to save 100 million lives with 1/400th of our income
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Babel is why I keep blogging with Emacs
Every time I look at someone’s simple static site generation setup for their blog, I feel a pang of envy. I’m sure I could make a decent blogging engine in 2,000 lines of code, and it would be something I’d understand, be proud over, able to extend, and willing to share with others.
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The story of my home made pipe organ (2000)
As the course progressed, I discovered that some of this stuff was actually logical, and also kind of fun. I found myself using the piano room just to play around. I never cared much for attempting to play sheet music, but the idea of hitting keys and getting a sound that was sometimes harmonious was strangely…
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Take something you don’t like and try to like it
it offers lessons on your nature
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I should have loved biology too
How I went from hating it to being obsessed, the allure of great writing, and a post-scuba-dive moment of clarity