Ask HN: What's your favorite HN post? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's your favorite HN post?

59 pointsnotoriousarun28 comments

Been asked several times but interested to see references to more recent posts.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12496558

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2158116

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3996652

Have any Hacker News threads ever truly changed your perspective on life, or technology? Post them please.

View on HN

I like this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23890036

Stack overflow exception

If only you eliminated tail calls, then you would be in looping bliss.

Well, you don't have to open the link in a new tab.

Easily https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 and its comments

I was an early beta user of dropbox (%50). I thought it was rubbish.

A bit meta perhaps, but dang’s long-form moderation style is always great, and this is a prime example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15374190

And, since OP asked for recent comments, I'll add this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23308098

It expresses one of the main reasons I stay on this site, combined with our relative willingness to admit error.

I ran a smaller one-size-fits-all community for 15 year. I have two things to share:

First, running an open-for-all community empowers moderators and owners. You really feel like god, able to juggle people and opinions left and right.

Then, as it scales, you either automate or die. I have chosen to die. Many others did like me, but Zuck have chosen to automate. He continued the race to the bottom that so many of us, little kings of luttle universes, decided to abandon.

Thanks for that, it helped me appreciate HN more for what it is. I think everyone on HN should read it. Half of it deserves to be on the guidelines page.

I'm also a huge fan of dang's writing. The majority of the super-impressive comments I've read on HN have been his, I think! They're exemplars of thoughtfulness, emotional intelligence, fairness, patience, and plain good writing.

Did you win the Putnam?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079

This one does not get old.

I'm kind of impressed that the person who asked that question got over it and is still contributing!

He(?) even joked about it a few laters when it was brought up,calling it is twice-a-year moment of shame or something.

Do you have a link?

I found this: "I'm never going to escape that thread, am I?" "Neither am I!"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3997625

Finally found it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12501344

I'm actually impressed by sanj! What if we could all learn from our mistakes instead of either blaming the other or giving up.

Some recent ones I've bookmarked:

logfromblammo on code quality and professionalism: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23430173

hanoz on the best thing about buying a domain name: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23241917

megameter on the case for crime if you have bright mind: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23217434

This thread on outsourcing is probably my most cited HN post (I'm frequently citing it to remind upper management why hiring an outside firm -- usually a friend or business acquaintance's outside firm -- isn't magically going to solve all our problems): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15831784

I recently cited this comment elsewhere as probably my favorite HN comment ever: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10807897

Huh. logfromblammo again. Maybe I should subscribe to his newsletter.

This one - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21961560

Could you people please add the post title next to the link? I'm on mobile and it would be much nicer to go through the comments if I don't have to open a bunch of anonymous links just to see what they're about. Great idea for a thread though!

Alan Kay asks, “ What if "data" is a really bad idea?” Rich Hickey responds.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11945722

(Thread is from 2016; I first saw it much later.)

I really wish that had gone a bit further. Alan Kay's ideas are always intriguing but, to me, it feels like he presents them too vaguely and people just end up arguing weather the thing they did based on his idea is inline with his real point. If he replies to those questions at all, it's with some more thought-provoking, but still vague, stuff. Maybe that's the point, keep people thinking and questioning without giving a definitive, authoritative answer?

Agreed. They approach things so differently, and I could watch them debate it all day. I never got a clear idea of how message passing isn’t just data, and I thought that “just data” via message passing is what separates Kay’s OO vision from what we call OO today. This discussion left me more confused, in a pleasant way.

My current opinion of Alan Kay’s commenting style is mostly that he’s been thinking about this stuff for decades and still does not have many solid answers, just that he thinks “mimicking biological systems” is a necessary part. That’s a gross oversimplification and not intended as a slight: robust interplanetary-scale communication is a hard problem!

Larry Tesler has Died: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22361282

I had no idea who Larry was before I clicked on these comments, but the many stories from people who knew and worked with him. Obviously Larry was a brilliant guy who did great things, but the stories were pretty universally about what a fantastic person he was to work with. I think about that all the time with regards to how I interact with my coworkers.

I really like this one https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16411662

Interesting https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22280939

How to find new music. The blog linked has good resources, and the HN comments have even more. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22194107

Just look at favorite posts in my profile: https://news.ycombinator.com/favorites?id=fsflover

HN allows users to favorite posts, and to see the posts that any user has favored.

For the latter, just open a user's profile and click on "favorites".

Yeah, but it's too black/white, i.e. there's no rating, you can't sort by rating, etc.

I have the same problem with Spotify songs which you can either like or not like.

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