
Ask HN: Who are some of the most inspiring people/users you've come across on HN - wilsonfiifi
I felt the need to pose this question after discovering <i>@rdlecler1</i> and doing a bit of background reading about said user’s journey through life. It’s been an inspiring discovery to say the least and I would like to know if there are any more such people on HN.
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totheside
New account because I don't wish to identify my affiliation publicly.

A user who posted before the New Year regarding his financial situation is
someone I quickly found myself aspiring to. I didn't have alot of work for him
but he was more than helpful for my project. After I learned a bit more about
his background, family situation and journey to getting where he is now, I
felt compelled to try to help him more.

During one of our many conversations I casually mentioned how my funded
startup is suffering from an influx of chargebacks and fraud purchases. I
regret not mentioning it sooner because this it was a problem we have been
struggling to solve and in no time at all he solved it. He helped us and
showed us some of the "carder tricks and tips."

Unfortunately because we (startup) are bound by certain financial regulations
we couldn't hire him full time because of mistakes he made as a kid. I know he
is still looking for work. I urge anyone who has any kind of work to contact
him, I know he could desperately use it still.

Post in question is
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10813746](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10813746)
and here is his follow up for anyone who is curious.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10921576](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10921576)

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Mandatum
cperciva. Originally "found" him when a user by the name of "sanj" responded
to cperciva, pretty much flaming him and asking him if he won the Putnam, an
annual math competition held in the US and CA for undergrads.

cperciva was making a few "bold" statements and sanj replied "Did you win the
Putnam?" to which cperciva replies, "Yes, I did." and later goes on to gloat a
little bit saying, he considered his earlier score of 53 his most impressive
considering he was 14 at the time.

A user called dbosson proceeds to calls him out on his gloating and talks
about helping others. He replies with this:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35120](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35120)

The thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35015](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35015)

It was one of the few times I've seen News.YC/HN delve into the usual internet
forum banter and not being disappointed with it.

You might know of cperciva also as the creator of Tarsnap. He's very open
about not being money-driven and the service continues to keep to its roots as
a product only made for technologists. He's not concerned with developing the
product for Enterprise, nor marketing. He's also someone who hasn't bent to
external pressure to further develop his product for anyone else. Everyone
else is business-minded, the likes of patio11 included, who are practically
screaming for him to take advantage of his brand and following to build up a
company.. But he just doesn't want to.

To me, he's someone who's truly gifted, not humble about it but doesn't gloat
in such a way that you feel like he's going overboard. His claims are valid,
he's matter-of-factly saying statements that are all true. Akin to McGregor, a
UFC fighter who always seems to predict how he'll put the other fighter down
in the interviews:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJeziuaShow](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJeziuaShow)

Sure there are an insane amount of people here I can admire and I follow
incessantly because they're such valuable sources of knowledge. But cperciva
especially I can respect, because he just doesn't seem to worry about whatever
anyone else thinks or expects from him.

~~~
cperciva
_goes on to gloat a little bit saying, he considered his earlier score of 53
his most impressive considering he was 14 at the time_

Just to set the record straight -- that wasn't gloating. That was me being
annoyed with how people focus on the "Putnam fellow" bit to the exclusion of
all else.

------
meric
I've found many of the users the other comments mentioned quite inspiring in
their own way, each towards some aspect of life. A little embarrassed to say
this, but _sivers_ is the user I would nominate because he's a person who
inspires how to _experience_ life. Checkout his blog at
[http://sivers.org](http://sivers.org).

~~~
SyneRyder
Derek Sivers is super inspiring. He has a book called Anything You Want about
his days running CD Baby, it's my favorite business book (and also my favorite
audiobook). I think I've bought at least 10 copies now, I've given several
copies to clients & friends.

He gave a talk at WDS 2015 that includes some of the highlights from his book
& blog:
[https://player.vimeo.com/video/134968996](https://player.vimeo.com/video/134968996)

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akulbe
patio11 - bar none.

This guy is a successful businessman, and provides so much value with so much
of what he writes. For free. Go read his stuff, I dare you.

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xiaoma
I found hugely inspiring/interesting things written by pg, spolsky, pmarca,
zedshaw, AndrewWarner, dhh and others.

None of them comment here much these days. This is natural as HN has become a
much, much larger and more mainstream site.

Interestingly, it's not like the shifts away from Slashdot and Reddit, where
there's a new forum where people have moved to (except their own personal
communities). If there's a place that has sucked up most of the conversation,
it would be Twitter.

~~~
onedev
> If there's a place that has sucked up most of the conversation, it would be
> Twitter.

The conversations on Twitter are unfortunately not of the same fidelity as the
ones on a traditional forum where you can actually compose full thoughts.

Perhaps it's better to say that Twitter has sucked up most of the attention of
those same people.

Subtle distinction but huge difference imo because I can't go follow those
same people on Twitter and expect the same type of conversation as they would
have made on HN.

~~~
Mz
_Perhaps it 's better to say that Twitter has sucked up most of the attention
of those same people._

I suspect the cause and effect relationship runs the other way: Most likely,
people are going to Twitter because HN does not have the same quality of
atmosphere it had when I joined.

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blacksmythe
patio11, tptacek, tzs, cperciva, WalterBright, ChuckMcM, Animats, rayiner,
RogerL, jerf, jacquesm, nostrademons, mark_l_watson, edw519, lmm

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alashley
dangrossman, creator of improvely.

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threeseven37
Brudgers

