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Life, Learning & Writing

The most popular blog posts about life, learning & writing on Hacker News. 8,940 posts.

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8283

Why Is Everyone So Boring?

Upon seeing the adult world in detail, teens often lament “But it’s all so boring!” And in a standard trope of fiction, a spark of art infuses life, energy, and vitality into dull adults whose lives have lost all meaning.

8291

What's Wrong with Students?

Former philosophy professor and successful humorist Dennis Fried sent me some poignant comments on my piece in The Atlantic. Reprinted with Fried’s permission. Dear Dr. Caplan, I just read your article in Atlantic magazine and was blown away by the brutal honesty displayed there, especially coming from someone whose…

8305

You Want Technology with Warts

I normally skip presentations because I prefer reading, but Building the Hundred-Year Web Service (YouTube) was worth the time. 1 1 Note that despite “htmx” featuring in the title, very little of the presentation is actually about htmx. It is about choosing and using technology in such a way that it won’t require…

8307

Really Prolific?

Well, it’s been a while since the FTDI fuckup so I guess it was a time for another IC supplier to go bonkers. Yes, it’s again time for a chip manufacturer to mess with your computer drivers. Story starts with me searching for 5V USB cable with a 3.3V…

8310

Riding the Writing Wave

“Writing is its own reward.” – Henry Miller Writing doesn’t just communicate ideas; it generates new ones. Writing forces you to think. It’s nature’s way of telling you how sloppy your thinking is. The ultimate test of how well you understand something is how clearly you can explain it in writing — clear writers are