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Write Code Like You Write a Recipe
It starts innocently enough - the business needs you to write a program to automate creating peanut butter cookies (yum).
Topics /
Life, Learning & Writing
The most popular blog posts about life, learning & writing on Hacker News. 8,940 posts.
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The mystery of my desktop that locks up when it gets too cold
You're probably reading this page because you've attempted to access some part of my blog (Wandering Thoughts) or CSpace , the wiki thing it's part of. Unfortunately you're using a browser version that my anti-crawler precautions consider suspicious, most often because it's too old (most often this applies to versions…
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The Most Expensive Eating Disorder
Disclaimer: I have never personally met Bryan Johnson. Reading this again, I realized that this article is quite harsh at times. Overall, I do like him and I am grateful that someone like Bryan exists as he is propelling the whole field of longevity forward by making it more popular. I also like the way […]
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Mathematical Jargon Failures
From the highly eclectic blog of Mark Dominus
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On Really Trying (2009)
What are the true limits to motivation?
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Just Build It...
Thoughts on building, shipping and iterating quickly
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Non-Creepy Networking: Party Etiquette
Note: This is Part 1 in a series of articles about non-creepy networking. There’s just too much to say to get it all out in one article. <p...
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Cognitive distortions that undermine clear thinking
Leaders are paid to think clearly. And a big impediment to clear thinking is what CBT/REBT calls Cognitive Distortions: errors in thinking or thinking traps we commonly fall for. Most high-performers are not pathological, but instead fall for them when upset or in high-stress situations. In this
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Reversing Tooth Decay with Good Diet
In the last post, I discussed the research of Drs. Edward and May Mellanby on the nutritional factors affecting tooth formation. Dr. Mellan...
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CDs Curated by Steve Jobs and the iPod Team (2016)
The Apple event tomorrow morning (US Pacific time), takes place at Town Hall, Building 4, Apple, Inc. in Cupertino. It has been almost 15 years since I visited there the last time. 'Hint: It&...
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How becoming a pilot made me a better programmer
Two years ago I trained for my private pilot license over the course of nine months. Besides be...
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The Curse of Increasing Marginal Work Utility, or Why I Work So Much
Academics constantly complain about being overworked, yet they also praise their freedom to decide how and when to work as one of the great ...
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I've just learned Rust and I think I'm in love
I’ve decided to learn some Rust recently while working on the Stanford’s experimental course on operating systems. R...
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Why do we eat grains? Thermodynamics
For generations their people had collected the seeds of tall grasses, which they cooked and ate to supplement their diet of foraged fruits, vegetables, and leaves, and hunted game, fish, and seafood.
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The Broken Chain Problem
The Emperor’s Nose (Richard Feynman) A village in a remote corner of an empire decided to erect a statue of the emperor. The village scu...
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The Strength of Being Misunderstood
A founder recently asked me how to stop caring what other people think. I didn’t have an answer, and after reflecting on it more, I think it's the wrong question. Almost everyone cares what...
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My experience trying to write human-sounding articles using Claude AI
You can use AI tools like Claude to help you write full-length content. By going paragraph-by-paragraph, you can direct the AI while seemingly maintaining your own voice and ideas. However, despite my attempts to use AI with writing, I’ve found that it’s harder to pull off than I thought. I can get close, but due to…
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Resist the urge to punish everyone for one person's mistake
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.
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The lazy way to being outstanding: go after hard things
Doing the hard things is both the best thing for the company, for you and counterintuitively – your lifestyle.
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The Markdown Mindset
Over the last year, I have moved all my non-code writing to Markdown format. I don’t even have Microsoft Word installed on my laptop anymore. Here’s why:
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It's cool to care (2025)
Caring deeply – about art, my friends, and shared experiences – has brought me so much joy.
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Notes on Resonance
Resonance occurs when two sources of excitation fall completely in sync, and reinforce one another endlessly. In this state, the sources convey an unbounded amount of energy over time.
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Practicing 2000 hrs (The Dan Plan: a 10,000 hr deliberate practice experiment)
One year, 5 months and four days = 2,000 hours (strange math, but it adds up) of deliberate practice. 2,000 hours spent literally over a ball working on something in my swing/putt and learning how to play golf. 2,000 hours of aha moments, setbacks, mini-triumphs and determination to get better. 2,000 hours of…
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My eBook build process and some PDF, EPUB and MOBI tips
In case you missed it, last month I self-published an eBook about Ruby internals called Ruby Under a Microscope . To date I’ve sold over 600 copies - thanks everyone! I’ve never written anything so ambitious before, and I’m grateful for your support. I hope it’s been a fun read, and that you come away with a better…
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Shit I Learned Burning through My Family's Life Savings on a Failed Startup
I wrote this three years ago after burning through my family’s life savings in a failed startup, but never posted or published it – as frankly it hurt too much. After all, no one ever …
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Skip The Water
I told this story to an entrepreneur last weekend and she loved it. So I figured I should tell it to everyone here at AVC. I was a mechanical engineering major (course 2) at MIT. One of the best classes in the mechanical engineering curriculum at MIT is 2.70, Introduction To Design. And the highlight […]
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