Ask HN: What's the best writing you've ever seen online? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's the best writing you've ever seen online?

13 pointsvisakanv9 comments

If you had to point to one thing as "Something Everyone Else Should Read", what would it be, and why?

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None of these are to be taken super seriously, but they are nonetheless very brain tickling.

Three Worlds Collide

http://robinhanson.typepad.com/files/three-worlds-collide.pd...

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect

http://localroger.com/prime-intellect/mopiall.html

The Last Question

http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

The Last Answer

http://www.thrivenotes.com/the-last-answer/

Let's Help Germinate This Seed

http://www.thrivenotes.com/lets-help-germinate-this-seed/

The Egg

http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html

It seems your link for The Last Question is dead, which is a shame because it's surely my favorite out of the ones you listed.

An alternate mirror can be had here: http://www.thrivenotes.com/the-last-question/

Good call. I just yanked this comment from an old reddit comment I made on a similar post.

The first thing which came to mind is Spiderweb Software's role playing video games. I've been playing them since the 90s. On the surface they're just another turn-based isometric CRPG, but once you start playing, you're drawn into an excellently written tale of intrigue and conflict and fictional politics which is never boring. For me, the writing is just as good as a book which cannot be put down.

I'll start. My personal submission is The Information: How the internet gets inside us, by Adam Gopnik, for The New Yorker.

When I read this piece I got overwhelmed with jealousy at the this guy's ability to navigate ideas. It encapsulates all the perennial arguments for and against technology, with most if not all of its nuance, and I finished it feeling "full" and more clear-headed, which is something I rarely encounter when reading online.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/02/14/110...

George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

While it's nothing new, it offers context into writing well that is as sophisticated and thought provoking as i've ever seen. English/American prose have changed dramatically in the last century and it's important to understand why.

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm

Oh wow, this was precisely the sort of thing I'm looking for. Thank you so much!

http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/ghost.html

__why's guide to ruby. It's like if Vonnegut was a programmer.

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