541
Deadlines as Technology
Confession: I’ve never felt like a very productive person. During the mobile app explosion, circa ~2009, I remember trying all kinds of different…
Topics /
Life, Learning & Writing
The most popular blog posts about life, learning & writing on Hacker News. 669 posts.
542
Against Automaticity
An explanation of why tricks like priming, nudge, the placebo effect, social contagion, the “emotional inception” model of advertising, most “cognitive biases,” and any fiel…
543
Mindblowing dissertations
We don’t generally see PhD dissertations as an exciting genre to read, and that is wholly our loss. As the…
544
Zoom fatigue unpacked
Zoom fatigue is a real phenomenon, resulting from prolonged virtual meetings. This post explores its causes, including cognitive overload and lack of movement, and provides practical tips to combat it. Learn how to improve your virtual meeting experience and increase productivity.
545
546
Oil-Canning
Flat sheetmetal is the hardest to fabricate - and keep flat! There is a reason old cars were rounded. When I was a student at GMI, one of o...
547
548
When I have a slower publishing cadence my blog grows faster
When I started writing online, the advice I got was to publish frequently and not overthink any single piece. The logic was this: the outcome for blog posts is a heavy-tailed statistical distribution—most pieces will be read by barely anyone, but a small subset of outliers will do hundreds if not thousands of times…
549
My solar-powered blog is now on lithium iron phosphate
In my last blog post I discussed how a small solar project - to power this blog on a Raspberry Pi - escalated into a full-blown off-grid solar setup, large enough to power the computer I use at the moment to write this update 1 . In this update, I want to discuss my battery upgrade.
550
Button Pushes You (2022)
From reconfiguring the system to reconfiguring the user.
551
The B Lane Swimmer (2009)
A number of years ago, I joined a Master’s swim team. I was doing triathlons at the time, and the swim was my weakest leg. The team I joined divided the pool into four lanes: A (fastest swimmers), B (next fastest), C (next fastest) and D (slowest.) Workouts were organized accordingly; faster swimmers were assigned…
552
553
Trying to become a better developer by learning more about aviation
In the last few months, I started geeking more about aviation-related topics. Mostly by watching A LOT of videos explaining how things…
554
555
Alien Artefacts
The purpose of this blog post is to introduce the concept of alien artefacts 1 , a subcategory of legacy code. I use the term to describe particularly complicated and important pieces of software written by very smart engineers that are no longer working for the company—and thus not available to support it. The…
556
557
558
The quest for a simple smartwatch
My trusty old smartwatch recently stopped working. It was a Garmin Vivomove HR, a minimal hybrid watch with regular watch hands and a tiny hidden screen that showed notifications and messages. It served me well for quite some time but unfortunately the hidden screen has stopped working and it would cost me as much to…
559
Telling your inner critic to chill
Self awareness, mindfulness and affirmations can help calm your inner critic when triggers arise. Check out these tips for more.
560
How blogging is different from tweeting
Over the last few years I’ve gradually given up on Twitter. This has been a long term process because of how deeply my professional and intellectual life was embedded into the service. Not on…
561
Let me repeat that back to you
Two-phase commit for humans
562
563
Weird things you can buy online
It’s April Cools! It’s like April Fools, except instead of cringe comedy you make genuine content that’s different from your normal stuff.1 For example, last year I talked about owning a microscope. This year I debated doing another hobby but settled on a much dumber topic. Have you ever seen those lists of weird…
564
Ten Thousand Ways to Use Chopsticks
How many different ways do people use chopsticks to pick up food? Here's your pictorial map to ten thousand grips.
565
Stratechery Year in Review
The most popular and most important posts on Stratechery in 2023.
566
When to Shut Up: A Visual Guide (With Included Algorithm)
Use these rules to avoid boring your audience
567
Omega-3s: Are “Brain-Boosting” Effects Scientifically Backed?
No, but they’re probably good for you.
568
How I ruined my SEO
In October 2022 traffic to my blog dropped like a stone. What happened?
569
570
Gamification, life, and the pursuit of a gold badge (2021)
Gamification works too well on me. I'll do anything for a high score, to complete a progress bar, or to unlock an achievement.