Best of 2012

The blog posts Hacker News loved most in 2012. 462 posts.

Life, Learning & Writing
376

Lean into the pain

When you first begin to exercise, it’s somewhat painful. Not wildly painful, like touching a hot stove, but enough that if your only goal was to avoid pain, you certainly would stop doing it. But if you keep exercising… well, it just keeps getting more painful. When you’re done, if you’ve really pushed yourself, you…

377

On Anonymity

Yesterday I encountered a blog whose comment section wasn’t linked up with Facebook or Disqus. It was just a pure email/display name system from years past – one where no one had any interest in tracking your activity across the entire interwebs. Putting in a display name that maybe wasn’t your full name – first and…

387

Two Things

[UPDATE, added 15 June 2004: This page has been linked in some prominent places recently, and as a result I've received many submissions for inclusion in The Two Things List. Although I can't respond to everyone individually, I want to thank you all for your contributions. I hope that I will be able to update the list…