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The most popular blog posts about life, learning & writing on Hacker News. 668 posts.
I really enjoy procedural generation, especially systems designed to work with hardware outputs. After starting work at Formlabs in September of 2023 and gaining access to much nicer printers than I was used to, I started wanting to tackle some large algorithmic structure projects. Complexity is free in 3d printing…
From my last blog post , I am now using KDE as the desktop environment for my gaming rig. The reason is because I want a reasonably easy to use Linux desktop for when my wife needs to use the PC for something other than gaming, and this was the reason why my "traditional" Sway setup was a no-go.
A story of a 150-year-old font you have never heard of – and one you probably saw earlier today.
The difference can be subtle
How Preston Thorpe went from a prison cell and a college program to a full-time database engineering role at Turso, working on the SQLite rewrite in Rust.
We used to control apps like Facebook and Instagram with our own choices. They became daily comforts, making the world seem a little bit smaller and closer by bringing the people that we cared about together in to one place.
That NPM attack could have been so much worse.
Why you should write more toy programs
randomized and blinded, N=1
More than a decade ago, when I was applying to graduate school, I went through a period of deep uncertainty. I had tried the previous year and hadn’t gotten in anywhere. I wanted to try again, but …
How I helped Claude AI extend its capabilities only for the same AI to reject my job application.
Thank you to Bucknell University for inviting me to be this year's commencement speaker. And congratulations to the Class of 2025! Watch the speech on YouTube. Thirty-two...
How things have changed
on starting, doing, being, and becoming.
When people talk about the value of paying attention and slowing down, they often make it sound prudish and monk-like. But we shouldn’t forget how interesting and overpoweringly pleasurable sustained attention can be.
OR: why your brain needs a boxcutter
You can’t. That’s because toddlers don’t understand what an argument is and aren’t interesting in having one. Toddlers (which includes defensive bureaucrats, bullies, flat e…
How silicon valley is putting a price tag on your attention - and relationships
I thought about this when reading a mastodon post which commented on a news where a project adopted a "use Generative AI but disclose it" policy, because it is "the future" and "people are going to use it anyway".
How We Lost Communication to Entertainment par Ploum - Lionel Dricot.
I stumbled across a Reddit bot posting emotional rants about how bots are ruining Reddit; just to sell AI-generated books through affiliate links. A perfectly dystopian grift for the dead internet.
A public service announcement
I work from home everyday, I am susceptible to eye strain, eye pain, and dizziness. Having a working environment that’s as easy on my eyes as possible is of critical importance. I'd like to share what I've learned over the years in hopes that it can be helpful to you if you work from home, and like many, have…
Running around in the woods, firing small plastic pellets at other people, in pursuit of a contrived-to-be-fun mission, turns out to be, well, fun.
The path to creative mastery begins with years of silence. Publish anyway.
