2011
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 8,148 posts.
2012
The decline of deviance
Where has all the weirdness gone?
2013
2014
2015
Confessions of a Necromancer
Kind people already sent donations that will make my childrens' lives easier, when I'm not there any more. Thank you enormously! :-)
2016
Small Tech
I frequently see debates about whether it's better to be a cog at a giant semi-monopoly, or to take investment money in the hopes of one day growing to be head cog at a giant semi-monopoly.
2017
Senate Testimony on Privacy Rights and Data Collection in a Digital Economy
Idle Words > Talks > Privacy Rights and Data Collection in a Digital Economy (Senate hearing)
2018
We have a year to fix security everywhere
consumer-grade hardware can run an LLM that hacks the planet. we can stop it, but we don't have much time.
2019
Volkswagen and the Blame the Engineer Game
Volkwagen is a house in deep trouble. The dieselgate scandal just doesn’t seem to go away and even though the company is now under new management it seems that things are getting worse and worse as time goes by. What I really don’t get is this: Does Volkswagen actually believe the nonsense that they put out in order…
2020
Forget privacy: you're terrible at targeting anyway
I don't mind letting your programs see my private data as long as I get something useful in exchange. But that's not what happens. A forme...
2021
Rob Pike got spammed with an AI slop "act of kindness"
Rob Pike (that Rob Pike) is furious. Here’s a Bluesky link for if you have an account there and a link to it in my thread viewer if you don’t. …
2022
The internet wants to be fragmented
Throwing the whole world into a single room together doesn't work.
2023
A simple web we own
Today, the Web and Internet are owned and controlled by large for-profit corporations and a few governments 1 . Corporate ownership combined with government policies has left us as tenant and product. It has given us a surveillance economy and enshittification 2 .
2024
On All That Fuckery
Compare and Choose the Best Medical Lawyers What are you looking for? Search Search Search More Filters Review Radius Search Miles Apply Filters Reset Filters Find Trusted Medical Malpractice & Birth Injury Lawyers Near You Finding the right legal representation is crucial when dealing with medical malpractice and…
2025
An Honest Living
What is it like to go from a tenured professorship to an hourly wage driving buses? This piece tries to make sense of an unusual transition.
2026
2027
2028
Ross Anderson has died
This is not something I was expecting or ever imagining I would write; I’ve just heard. This is a tremendous loss for us all. Professor Ross Anderson, FRS, FREngOur dear friend and treasured …
2029
I'm skeptical about efforts to revolutionize schooling
A brief explanation of my pessimism about efforts to radically improve education.
2030
America vs. Singapore: You can't save your way out of economic shocks
Saving regret has less to do with procrastination than we thought, and more to do with whether your country absorbs economic shocks or lets them hit your savings
2031
Making an intersection unsafe for pedestrians to save seconds for drivers
How the redesign of a street in a walkable college town reflects our broader values for cars over people.
2032
2033
2034
Why is China smashing its tech industry?
Maybe because what countries think of as a "tech industry" isn't always the same
2035
Trump
I'm going to say something very unpopular in my world: Trump is right about some big things. He's right that many Americans are getting screwed by the system. He’s right that the economy is not...
2036
The LLM Critics Are Right. I Use LLMs Anyway
I almost agree with all of the LLM critics, yet I still use LLMs a lot. I know this sounds like I am delusional, but I don't think I am alone with it.
2037
Make More Land
We used to make land. We built long wharves for docking ships, and then over time filled in the areas between them. Later we built up mudflats wholesale to make even larger areas. Here's a map of Boston showing how much of the land wasn't previously dry: (Map reproduction courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map &…
2038
When thebiglebow.ski is blocked by Facebook
A website with The Big Lebowski quotes was blocked for no reason by Facebook. Looking for justice at a tech company that has automated the…
2039
2040
The quest for freedom and safety: Why I donated $100,000 to YesOn19
The common theme uniting most of my efforts is the desire to be free. One of the reasons I'm so interested in startups is that they give peo...