Ask HN: What essay/blogpost do you keep going back to reread? - swyx
======
zulak
Joel Spolsky, "Things You Should Never Do, Part I":
[https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-
should-...](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-
do-part-i/)

It seems like common sense, but every few months I need a reminder that I
should prefer to incrementally refactor/re-architect the codebase I have,
rather than start from scratch.

~~~
jetti
I wish I had seen that (or if I had seen it before just remembered that) a few
months ago. I work on an internal project that is core to part of our business
and we are on our 3rd iteration of our platform in less than a year. An when I
say iteration, I mean from scratch re-write. I will say it was probably
necessary to go from the first to second platform with a re-write because the
first one was half baked and didn't do much of what was needed. However, the
2nd to 3rd platform was not necessary and like Joel says, could have been
refactored instead of scrapped entirely. Our QA person was super pissed too
since they had put in so much time and effort into creating test cases for the
platform we had and now they are completely wasted. Not to mention, because we
are writing the newest iteration from scratch we missed deadlines because we
had to deal with more than just business knowledge (which the team lacks as
all but one of us is new to the specific domain in the health care realm) but
putting together a new platform that could be extensible (just like the
previous version of it was supposed to be) for future clients and outputs.

------
gfredtech
Not exactly a blogpost, but this is Randy Pausch's last lecture about
achieving your childhood dreams. He was a CS professor at Carnegie Mellon, who
passed away roughly a decade ago. I watch it from time to time:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo)

~~~
TheAlchemist
Oh yes !

There is also a book, quite short but there are some things that are not in
the lecture. Good read

------
jaredandrews
It has nothing to do with programming but I find myself rereading Smedley
Butler's essay, "War is a Racket", quite often:

[https://archive.org/stream/WarIsARacket/WarIsARacket_djvu.tx...](https://archive.org/stream/WarIsARacket/WarIsARacket_djvu.txt)

------
imartin2k
What You Can't Say
[http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html)

The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority
[https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-
dict...](https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-
of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15)

------
steven_noble
This response to someone on StackOverflow asking how to parse HTML with regex:
[https://stackoverflow.com/a/1732454/145684](https://stackoverflow.com/a/1732454/145684)

~~~
shubhamjain
I used to love this answer but after I realised that it's same irrational
peddling of best practices as "don't-use-goto". There can be many cases where
parsing HTML with Regex is abuse, but equally others where it's the best
available solution. I wasted countless hours in working with lame HTML
libraries, their limited options for selectors, their frustrating failures
with invalid HTML, all because of this advice. Looking back, I think Regex
would have worked just fine.

~~~
arvinjoar
Yes, a thousand times this. First of all, regex in the wild (e.g. Perl regex)
is much more powerful than the CS version (that can only handle regular
languages). This point is often conceded though from the "don't use regex to
parse HTML" side, but some don't realize this.

Another thing is that you don't really need to handle HTML at all, only a
small subsection that might be totally fine with a regex, even a simple one,
for a lot of cases.

The true enemy is parsing something that might change over time, and that's
totally unrelated to the regex issue.

~~~
tmaly
I have done plenty of regex parsing of xml with Perl. It has been very useful.
Over time I have also used things like the index function to eck out some
additional performance.

Recently I replaced this with a xml tokenizer I wrote in Go that can deal with
invalid or corrupt xml. On top of this I have used a state machine to make it
possible to handle different situations.

------
krat0sprakhar
Jay Kreps’ article on the log abstraction -
[https://engineering.linkedin.com/distributed-systems/log-
wha...](https://engineering.linkedin.com/distributed-systems/log-what-every-
software-engineer-should-know-about-real-time-datas-unifying)

~~~
IvanVergiliev
I've had this open in my browser for about two years now. I've read it maybe
1.5 times and I know I want to re-read it, but it's so long that I rarely
actually get to it.

If you enjoy the subject, these two are good reads as well: \-
[https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/the-world-beyond-batch-
streami...](https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/the-world-beyond-batch-
streaming-101) \- [https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/the-world-beyond-batch-
streami...](https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/the-world-beyond-batch-
streaming-102)

------
mannanali413
Joel Spolsky - "Strategy Letter V". The article serves as an economics primer
for any individual(though its much more relevant to software developers). Key
Takeaway-- commoditize your products complement

[https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-
letter-v/](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/)

------
shubhamjain
What should a four-year old know?
[https://magicalchildhood.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/what-
shoul...](https://magicalchildhood.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/what-
should-a-4-year-old-know/)

It's common for parents to be daunted by the fact that their kids are being
left behind. This fear leads to high-pressure parenting and its symptoms are
much worse in an Indian society (in which I grew up). What kids need more is
freedom to explore their own interests and inquisitiveness rather than forced
lessons. I keep revisiting this article to remind myself what kids needs the
most to grow.

------
TheAlchemist
Richard Hamming: You and Your Research

[http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html)

~~~
EdwardCoffin
If you like this, I _highly_ recommend Hamming's book _The Art of Doing
Science and Engineering_. This is the write-up of a graduate course he taught
at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. There is also a complete set of video
recordings of his lectures from his 1995 teaching of that course on YouTube
[1].

The talk _You and Your Research_ is actually the final chapter/lecture in the
book/course.

I can't personally recommend the lectures, since I have not watched them, but
I have carefully read the book and taken notes: it is pure gold.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2FF649D0C4407B30](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2FF649D0C4407B30)

~~~
TheAlchemist
Thanks !

I can't find it in paper version though - only PDF. Any idea where could I buy
it ?

~~~
EdwardCoffin
Alas, it is long out of print, and the few used copies out there are
expensive. I just did a search on AbeBooks [1], and the cheapest is about $300
USD, which is greatly down from the outlandish $700 that the two available
copies were going for five or six years ago. You can buy it as a Kindle ebook
though, and there used to be an Adobe DRM'd PDF available (which is what I
have) but I don't know that you can buy that one any more.

I _did_ have the opportunity to compare my PDF with a genuine original book,
and found no differences. Even the typos I found in the PDF that I thought
must be OCR errors turn out to be in the original as well.

[1]
[https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?isbn=97890569...](https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?isbn=9789056995010)

~~~
TheAlchemist
Thanks. I will go will the PDF then, which is too bad since I much prefer
paper versions. I've seen some used at around $300 USD indeed. That would make
it the most expensive book I've ever bought I guess ! (currently it's "Poor
Charlie's Almanack", by Charles T. Munger - I think I've paid something like
150$ some years ago. Best money ever spent !)

~~~
EdwardCoffin
Given your liking of Munger's book, you might find this interesting: in the
_Stress-influence tendency_ chapter (page 434 or thereabouts, I think), Munger
mentions a "description of Pavlov’s last work in a popular paperback, written
by some Rockefeller-financed psychiatrist". This is probably Battle for the
Mind [1] by William Sargant [2].

The Wikipedia entry on Sargant says things like "his reliance on dogma rather
than clinical evidence have confirmed his reputation as a controversial figure
whose work is seldom cited in modern psychiatric texts.", and others
"described him as 'autocratic, a danger, a disaster' and spoke about 'the
damage he did'".

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Mind-Brainwashing-
Evangelists-...](https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Mind-Brainwashing-Evangelists-
Psychiatrists/dp/1883536065)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sargant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sargant)

------
austenallred
How to make wealth by PG
[http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html](http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html)

Why Amazon has no profits and why it works by A16Z
[https://a16z.com/2014/09/05/why-amazon-has-no-profits-and-
wh...](https://a16z.com/2014/09/05/why-amazon-has-no-profits-and-why-it-
works/)

------
Iv
(NSFW) "The Others" I keep it in a bookmark with the title "never forget". It
is in French but it is mostly for the pictures of civilian victims in Syria.

[https://making-of.afp.com/les-autres](https://making-of.afp.com/les-autres)

Remember how privileged we are. Remember how quickly these privileges can go
away. Remember how unfair the world is.

Focus on what is important. Focus on life. Yours and others.

------
whatyoucantsay
Paul Graham's essay _What you can 't say_ was one of the most enlightening
pieces I've ever read. It makes a strong case that whatever your current
ethics are, some of them will look strange or even barbaric to people in the
future, just as the beliefs of many compassionate rational people living 100,
500 or 1,000 years ago do to you. Then it talks about root causes of moral
fashions and what you can do to discover what heresies you might unconsciously
believe but be unable to speak without serious repercussions.

From this vantage point 13 years later, there are specific parts of the essay
that are objectionable now, and yet that reinforces rather than refutes the
core thrust of the essay.

[http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html)

------
james_eaton
I always find it stimulating to read

How to do Research At the MIT AI Lab [1] and Where's the Passion [2].

[1]:
[https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/41487](https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/41487)
[2]:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3093808/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3093808/)

~~~
arvinjoar
David Chapman, the author of "How to do Research at the MIT AI Lab" is
currently writing a book on meta-rationality over at meaningness.com. Highly
recommended.

A taste from the blog outside of the book:
[https://meaningness.com/metablog/stem-fluidity-
bridge](https://meaningness.com/metablog/stem-fluidity-bridge)

------
boramalper
Stevey's Google Platforms Rant

[https://plus.google.com/+RipRowan/posts/eVeouesvaVX](https://plus.google.com/+RipRowan/posts/eVeouesvaVX)

------
garethsprice
Luigi Rossolo's The Art of Noise, a 1913 futurist manifesto that talks about
how people adapt to technology, and that defines their aesthetic sensibilities
(and predicts electronic/industrial music).

[http://www.artype.de/Sammlung/pdf/russolo_noise.pdf](http://www.artype.de/Sammlung/pdf/russolo_noise.pdf)

Bob Altemeyer's The Authoritarians has gotten multiple re-readings (it's a
short book/very long essay, but is published free online) and has given me
great insight into the attitudes behind the right-wing populists currently
dominating politics in the West:

[https://theauthoritarians.org/](https://theauthoritarians.org/)

------
Hates_
Smart Guy Productivity Pitfalls

[http://bookofhook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/smart-guy-
productiv...](http://bookofhook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/smart-guy-productivity-
pitfalls.html)

------
cardmagic
14 years ago: the day Teller gave me the secret to my career in magic

[http://shwood.squarespace.com/news/2009/9/21/14-years-ago-
th...](http://shwood.squarespace.com/news/2009/9/21/14-years-ago-the-day-
teller-gave-me-the-secret-to-my-career.html)

------
mod
8 Years Today - Paul Buchheit

It's a very personal post about death & loss & mourning. It helped me navigate
through a tough time.

[http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2012/03/eight-years-
today.h...](http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2012/03/eight-years-today.html)

------
a_d
[http://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html)

"The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. It's to
look for problems."

I personally think this is an profoundly important piece of writing.

~~~
warrenm
aka - "scratch that itch"

------
flukus
Execution in the Kingdom of Nouns, Steve Yegge: [http://steve-
yegge.blogspot.com.au/2006/03/execution-in-king...](http://steve-
yegge.blogspot.com.au/2006/03/execution-in-kingdom-of-
nouns.html?_sm_au_=iVVs6jNjDn4QWTLs)

------
ydrol
Not tech related, but helped me realise how we subconsciously view others and
ourselves:

[http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/picture-yourself-as-
a-s...](http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/picture-yourself-as-a-
stereotypical-male)

------
zamalek
Let's Build a Compiler by Jack Crenshaw.[1] It's not really the content that I
enjoy, rather the form of instruction. To exaggerate, I'm sure that someone
who had never touched programming in their life could learn how to write a
compiler from this work.

[1]:
[https://compilers.iecc.com/crenshaw/](https://compilers.iecc.com/crenshaw/)

------
neic
Scott Adams, "The Day You Became A Better Writer", 2007

[http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/06/the_...](http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/06/the_day_you_bec.html)

~~~
chrisfinne
Half as long

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vRhOdf-6co](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vRhOdf-6co)

------
Swizec
You and Your Research by Hamming

[http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html)

It’s just spectacular in a way that is hard to summarize. My favorite part is
the lesson about closed vs open doors.

------
agnivade
I want to mention 2 of my all time favorite articles -

1\. How language influences emotion -
[https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/12/the-
book-...](https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/12/the-book-of-
human-emotions-language-feelings/420978/)

2\. The Kekule Problem - [http://nautil.us/issue/47/consciousness/the-kekul-
problem](http://nautil.us/issue/47/consciousness/the-kekul-problem)

Both of them very thought provoking and excellent articles.

------
aonsager
How to Be Polite, by Paul Ford: [https://medium.com/message/how-to-be-
polite-9bf1e69e888c](https://medium.com/message/how-to-be-polite-9bf1e69e888c)

------
fuzzythinker
Naval Ravikant on Reading, Happiness, Systems for Decision Making, Habits,
Honesty and More:

[https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/wp-
content/uploads/2017/02/...](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/wp-
content/uploads/2017/02/Naval-Ravikant-TKP.pdf)

audio: [https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2017/02/naval-ravikant-
read...](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2017/02/naval-ravikant-reading-
decision-making/)

------
aalhour
"This Is Water" speech, by David Wallace.

Link: [http://www.befreetoday.com.au/this-is-
water/](http://www.befreetoday.com.au/this-is-water/)

~~~
cousin_it
As a counterpoint, see Cushman's comment in this thread about DFW:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2909562](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2909562)

I've reread it probably hundreds of times, it might be the single most
insightful HN comment I've ever read.

~~~
sah2ed
Direct link to Cushman's comment:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2910381](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2910381)

------
SlightEdgeCoder
I find myself going back to "The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer
Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No
Excuses!)" by Joel Spolsky.

It's the basics that I forget often...

[https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2003/10/08/the-absolute-
minim...](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2003/10/08/the-absolute-minimum-
every-software-developer-absolutely-positively-must-know-about-unicode-and-
character-sets-no-excuses/)

------
erik_seaberg
Richard P. Gabriel, "The Rise of Worse is Better"

[http://dreamsongs.com/RiseOfWorseIsBetter.html](http://dreamsongs.com/RiseOfWorseIsBetter.html)

------
nohat
Meditations on Moloch. In which coordination problems are incarnated as
Ginsberg's Moloch. [http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-
moloch/](http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/)

~~~
gglitch
Came here to post this one too. He has so many wonderful essays, but this one
amazed me.

------
jv22222
Start Now. No Funding Needed. by Derek Sivers

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KLnXjqKL5g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KLnXjqKL5g)

------
a_imho
On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber

[http://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/](http://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/)

~~~
cglouch
That website seems to be under construction but I found an alternate link:
[https://libcom.org/library/phenomenon-bullshit-jobs-david-
gr...](https://libcom.org/library/phenomenon-bullshit-jobs-david-graeber)

------
brudgers
_Epigrams on Programming_ \-- Alan Perlis

[http://cpsc.yale.edu/epigrams-programming](http://cpsc.yale.edu/epigrams-
programming)

------
Cryptid
Ada Palmer's "On Progress and Historical Change"
[https://www.exurbe.com/?p=4041](https://www.exurbe.com/?p=4041)

"So when I tell people about this election, and they ask me “Does it always
have the same outcome?” the answer is yes and no. Because the Great Forces
always push the same way. The strong factions are strong. Money is power.
Blood is thicker than promises. Virtue is manipulable. In the end, a bad man
will be pope. And he will do bad things. The war is coming, and the land —
some land somewhere — will burn. But the details are always different. A
Cardinal needs to gather fourteen votes to get the throne, but it’s never the
same fourteen votes, so it’s never the same fourteen people who get papal
favor, whose agendas are strengthened, whose homelands prosper while their
enemies fall. And I have never once seen a pope elected in this simulation who
did not owe his victory, not only to those who voted, but to one or more of
the humble functionaries, who repeated just the right whisper at just the
right moment, and genuinely handed the throne to Monster A instead of Monster
B. And from that functionary flow the consequences."

------
rogual
Julia Evans' Linux Debugging Zine: [https://jvns.ca/debugging-
zine.pdf](https://jvns.ca/debugging-zine.pdf)

------
kfrzcode
"The Egg"

[http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html](http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html)

------
tgasson
The mythical 10x programmer - antirez
[http://antirez.com/news/112](http://antirez.com/news/112)

~~~
iamalchemist
me too :)

------
omosubi
this was posted on HN a month or two ago, but I've read it several times and
has motivated me to avoid mindless consumption of media and instead create
stuff.

[https://www.sophiaellis.co/blog/the-world-belongs-to-
those-w...](https://www.sophiaellis.co/blog/the-world-belongs-to-those-who-
create-vs-those-who-consume)

~~~
NumberCruncher
try this one:

[http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews](http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews)

------
maria_
Humdog's Pandora's Vox:
[https://gist.github.com/kolber/2131643](https://gist.github.com/kolber/2131643)
Every time I read it, it feels like the first time. I first read it one month
before graduating with my undergrad CS degree and it profoundly changed me.
She sure was ahead of her time.

------
alaties
Brendan Gregg's [linux
perf]([http://www.brendangregg.com/linuxperf.html](http://www.brendangregg.com/linuxperf.html))
posts.

They a great reference for linux tools and how to use them.

They are also a great guide to deductive reasoning when spelunking through a
system to find issues.

------
genjipress
Not programming related, just wonderful.

REFLECTIONS AFTER 25 YEARS AT THE MOVIES

[http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/reflections-
after-2...](http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/reflections-
after-25-years-at-the-movies)

------
sah2ed
The neatly itemized startup-howto advice in @jasonlbaptiste's very long
comment from 7 years ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1447467](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1447467)

------
dasboth
I have a couple of go to pieces on procrastination/getting things done:

Procrastination is not Laziness
([http://www.raptitude.com/2011/05/procrastination-is-not-
lazi...](http://www.raptitude.com/2011/05/procrastination-is-not-laziness))

6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person
([http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-
yo...](http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-
person/))

------
pm
Solitude and leadership [https://theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-
leadership/](https://theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/)

------
sanmon3186
Web design: The first 100 years.

[http://idlewords.com/talks/web_design_first_100_years.htm](http://idlewords.com/talks/web_design_first_100_years.htm)

------
wiml
On Scott and Scurvy:
[http://idlewords.com/2010/03/scott_and_scurvy.htm](http://idlewords.com/2010/03/scott_and_scurvy.htm)

------
unixhero
The Flinch | motivational |
[https://raouldify.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/2011_1203-the-...](https://raouldify.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/2011_1203-the-
flinch.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwiDw8T49NjWAhXDFJoKHQUZBGUQFgglMAA&usg=AOvVaw3AfF4dMDPUhM0i8Shw8Huw)

Self Reliance | inspirational |
[http://www.youmeworks.com/self_reliance_translated.html](http://www.youmeworks.com/self_reliance_translated.html)

------
dpeck
A recent article, but "WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS" has been bouncing around my head
and had several re-reads over the last month.

Its not about technology, and its not about football, though it uses that as a
backdrop. Read it twice.
[https://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2017/9/1/16233388/w...](https://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2017/9/1/16233388/when-
the-levee-breaks)

------
dayve
The top idea in your mind by Paul Graham

[http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html)

------
erik_seaberg
Derek Lowe, "Sand Won’t Save You This Time". My favorite entry from a drug
discovery chemist's _Things I Won 't Work With_ stories.

[http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/san...](http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time)

------
rtpg
"How to make breaking changes and not break all the things"

would love a poster version of this

[http://web.archive.org/web/20160411085134/http://matthew.mce...](http://web.archive.org/web/20160411085134/http://matthew.mceachen.us/blog/how-
to-make-breaking-changes-and-not-break-all-the-things-1315.html)

------
rajathagasthya
Yonathan Zunger's explanation of Paxos/consistency:
[https://hackernoon.com/how-your-data-is-stored-or-the-
laws-o...](https://hackernoon.com/how-your-data-is-stored-or-the-laws-of-the-
imaginary-greeks-54c569c17a49)

It's a lengthy read, but that's the one which helped me _really_ understand
Paxos.

------
IvanVergiliev
Meta-question: how do you keep track of these? Every now and then I come upon
something and I think "Oh, I should definitely re-read this!". But then,
eventually, I end up forgetting about it. Are these just things that often
come up and re-read them because you know they're worth it, or do you actively
keep track of them somehow?

~~~
spookyuser
I use Pocket, and after going through this thread my feed looks like this :P
[https://i.imgur.com/DOPpL0Z.png](https://i.imgur.com/DOPpL0Z.png)

Though if you start using pocket you will inevitably end up with thousands of
unread articles that you will "read later" which might be worse.

~~~
lesterzone
If you use Kindle you can use
[https://www.crofflr.com/](https://www.crofflr.com/)

------
pacificleo11
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13574916](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13574916)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14163905](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14163905)

------
muzani
Most of the ones by Paul Graham. They seem to condense things very well, and
no matter how many times I reread it, it has the same fresh impact.

One of the best is
[http://paulgraham.com/growth.html](http://paulgraham.com/growth.html)

------
akulbe
Pretty much anything by Patrick McKenzie. He goes by patio11 here. His writing
imparts so much value.

------
majjam
The Legion Lonely:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15000729](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15000729)
(I always keep the HN link for the comments but its the blog post Im talking
about)

------
shanecleveland
McSweeney's Decorative Gourd Season: [https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/its-
decorative-gourd-sea...](https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/its-decorative-
gourd-season-motherfuckers)

------
jules-jules
Why news is bad for you.

[https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-
ro...](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-rolf-dobelli)

------
taejavu
Electricity Misconceptions Spread by k-6 Textbooks:
[http://amasci.com/miscon/elect.html](http://amasci.com/miscon/elect.html)

------
sedzia
[https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3972-reconsider](https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3972-reconsider)

------
robin_reala
Black Triangles by Rampant Games:

[http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=7745](http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=7745)

------
knbknb
Is it OK to be a Luddite - by Thomas Pynchon

5-10 page long essay about "technology scepticism", from 1984 . A perspective
on digitization of society, then and now.

------
trevmckendrick
"Class"
[http://siderea.livejournal.com/1260265.html?format=light](http://siderea.livejournal.com/1260265.html?format=light)
or a Slate Star Codex summary: "Staying Class"
[http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/01/30/staying-
classy/](http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/01/30/staying-classy/)

About the differences between economic class and social class.

An example question to consider:

why are electricians and plumbers less respected than university professors
even though they often make far more money?

------
fiftyacorn
Freeman Dyson - he wrote a few books years ago on a lot of interesting
subjects. I flick through them occasionally

------
gr8karma
Anything by Peter F. Drucker. If you've never read Drucker, you owe it to
yourself.

------
cpufry
you and your research

[http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html](http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html)

------
megaman22
Programmer Interrupted

[http://blog.ninlabs.com/2013/01/programmer-
interrupted/](http://blog.ninlabs.com/2013/01/programmer-interrupted/)

