Ask HN: What are the most inspirational blog posts you've ever read?

About ten years beore he was famous for the his Last Lecture, he gave a fantastic talk on time management: https://archive.org/details/GabrielRobins_TimeManagement_byR....

He also gave a revised version of his time management lecture during his brief post-Last-Lecture fame, but I prefer the original.

christiangenco 12 years ago |

Mr. Money Mustache's account of how he retired at age 30: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-...

JoshTriplett 12 years ago | |

I'm a big fan of that blog, but I actually found the most inspirational post on it to be the one that crunched the critical numbers: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim...

The key realization from that post: spending less and saving more helps you retire early not just because you're saving faster, but because you need less to retire: your retirement savings only has to support your expenses, not replace your full income.

christiangenco 12 years ago | | |

Ahh yes! I go back and re-read that post about once a month for inspiration.

JoshTriplett 12 years ago |

"I won't be able to answer all your questions. Rather, I can show you how to be lost productively, and how to become comfortable not knowing things and teaching yourself." -- David Humphrey, Mozilla developer, http://vocamus.net/dave/?p=60

It's one of the most valuable skills you'll need to excel in a technical field, and when mentoring others its one of the most critical skills to impart.

tbirdz 12 years ago |

Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years by Peter Norvig: http://norvig.com/21-days.html

Red_Tarsius 12 years ago |

Kejia Zhu (http://kzhu.net/does-life-end-at-35.html) helped me to get through the delusional obsession for quick success. I gave it to read to all my friends and it's definitely a must for all HN folks.

The good ol' Raymond's How to Become a Hacker (http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html) will teach you the Hacker attitude, which you can apply to anything. It doesn't matter whether you're a programmer or not, either way you'll benefit from it.

"1. The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved.

2. No problem should ever have to be solved twice.

3. Boredom and drudgery are evil.

4. Freedom is good.

5. Attitude is no substitute for competence."

A Handyman’s Toolbox (http://ninjasandrobots.com/a-handymans-toolbox) taught me not to always chase the hot new tech and be confident in my skills. It may be common sense, but it's also well written and straight to the point.

Lastly, the following posts are all about traveling and/or alternative lifestyles. They show different POVs, but are all equally inspirational.

- http://alexwarren.co.uk/2013/06/27/how-i-live-and-how-i-work...

- http://jake-jorgovan.com/blog/remote

- https://medium.com/better-humans/6620882dde89

- http://blog.alexmaccaw.com/how-to-travel-around-the-world-fo...

brudgers 12 years ago |

I Assume I am Below Average

Derek Sivers: http://sivers.org/below-average

catinsocks 12 years ago | |

There's no speed limit.

http://sivers.org/kimo

giis 12 years ago | |

another one http://sivers.org/zipit

manojlds 12 years ago |

How to be more Productive, by Aaron Swartz - http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/productivity

merrua 12 years ago |

http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/0... http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/0... http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/0... http://sachachua.com/blog/2014/01/share-learn/

Sandman 12 years ago |

Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice

http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pro...

namzo 12 years ago |

Something small, every day. https://medium.com/think-different-think-stupid/c6ce326612c8

chestnut-tree 12 years ago | |

callum85 12 years ago |

Thoreau 2.0 https://static.pinboard.in/xoxo_talk_thoreau.htm

mproenza 12 years ago | |

Nice article. I liked the Eat The Donuts part. Very well written and really inspiring.

evolve2k 12 years ago |

"POOR, POOR CHILD. YOU HAVE NO IDEA. Programming is Hard" http://writing.bryanwoods4e.com/1-poor-poor-child

A brilliant article which lets you know that coding is hard cause it's hard not cause you are stupid and that something can be hard and fun at the same time.

I share this with every new coder I help out.

ek 12 years ago |

Microcosmographia Academica http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/iau/cornford/cornford....

It's not quite a blog post, but it's as close as one might have come in 1908.

I also like a whole host of articles from Matt Might's blog. I think my favorites are

12 resolutions for grad students

http://matt.might.net/articles/grad-student-resolutions/

and Responding to peer review

http://matt.might.net/articles/peer-review-rebuttals/

One last essay that I have enjoyed, also too old to be a blog post, is W.M. Turski's "I was a computer". It's here on Elsevier but fortunately it looks to be open access.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0167642395...

mindcrime 12 years ago |

pg's How Not To Die essay:

http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html

pmarca's The Only Thing That Matters post:

http://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html

Pretty much everything Steve Blank has written on Customer Development:

http://steveblank.com/category/customer-development/

Mark Cuban on How To Get Rich:

http://blogmaverick.com/2008/10/04/how-to-get-rich/

Mark Cuban on Success & Motivation:

http://blogmaverick.com/2007/12/24/success-and-motivation/

Jamie Zawinski's Groupware Bad post:

http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html

rsoto 12 years ago |

A few of them:

- Blueberry pancakes and battleships → http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/05/blueberry-pa...

- This Is All Your App Is: a Collection of Tiny Details → http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/05/this-is-all-your-ap...

- The Personality Layer → http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2012/07/18/the-personal...

- Asking Questions beats Giving Advice → http://insideintercom.io/asking-questions-versus-giving-advi...

raldi 12 years ago |

A Tale of Two Bridges: http://hintjens.com/blog:16

brickcap 12 years ago | |

Thanks for sharing this.

ilamparithi 12 years ago |

Almost all of Paul Graham's essays. Especially

How to Make Wealth - http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html How to Do What You Love - http://paulgraham.com/love.html Inequality and Risk - http://paulgraham.com/inequality.html

and Paul Buchheit's

My startup path - http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.in/2007/03/my-startup-path.html (I have actually printed a hard copy of this and have it my wallet. This is what finally convinced me to join a startup.)

mproenza 12 years ago | |

Paul Graham's How to make wealth: very very nice article. A must read for everyone. The part where he writes about leverage as a characteristic of technology jobs and it being the only way of multiplying your productivity (or diminishing it) is very illustrative.

Morendil 12 years ago |

But Y would I want to do a thing like this? http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/02/but-y-would-i-want-to-do...

tinger54 12 years ago |

McKenna said a lot of kooky stuff but this one really speaks to me.

http://zenpencils.com/comic/120-terence-mckenna-nature-loves...

daphneokeefe 12 years ago | |

And check out Zen Pencil's top 10 of 2013 list.

bennesvig 12 years ago |

- What Would You Do? http://thestoryoftelling.com/what-would-you-do/

- Reject the tyranny of being picked http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/03/reject-the-t...

- The World's Worst Boss http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/12/the-worlds-w...

nashequilibrium 12 years ago |

http://www.chrissiewellington.org/blog/taking-the-plunge/ Because i didn't know what was to come next and whether she would be successful. A snippet from the first blogpost:

"Could I be as good as them, if not better? Had I fulfilled my potential, or did I have more to give? Had I pushed my mind and body to the limit? If not, what were those limits? What stars was I capable of grabbing? Without giving it a shot I would never know. I never want to look back and say ‘what if’."

narenrulz 12 years ago |

Ang Lee and the uncertainty of success

http://jeffjlin.com/2013/02/23/ang-lee-and-the-uncertainty-o...

nick_urban 12 years ago |

A transcript of the brilliant speech by Heinz von Foerster titled "Ethics and Second Order Cybernetics". When I read this I found it truly amazing, because it effortlessly connected the existential questions I was facing with the formalism of mathematics and the insight of the humanities, all tied into a beautiful circle.

http://www.stanford.edu/group/SHR/4-2/text/foerster.html

marsay 12 years ago |

Miyamoto Musashi 21 rules to live your life: http://www.1000manifestos.com/miyamoto-musahi-21-rules-to-li...

Obstacle is the way: http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/stoicismtoday/2013/11/26/the-obsta...

guiambros 12 years ago |

"Lessons from Habitat" [1], by Chip Morningstar and F. Randall Farmer.

Not inspirational in the strict sense, but it's amazing to see a paper written more than 20 years ago and still with so many applicable insights in terms of psychology in gaming and virtual worlds. I keep going back and re-reading every couple of years.

[1] http://www.crockford.com/ec/lessons.html

deependersingla 12 years ago |

Its about story of YC incubated startup Zerocater founder, everytime I read this it makes me more stronger to work more hard. http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/06/how-i-started-zerocater/

nader 12 years ago |

"Don't half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing", i.e. "Kill early and often, keeping it alive is not good enough":

http://bondero.com/kill-early-and-often-startup-methodology

3stripe 12 years ago |

How to be the luckiest guy in the planet, in 4 easy steps

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/02/how-to-be-the-luckiest-...

zackboe 12 years ago |

"how to blog about code and give zero fucks" by Garann Means

http://www.garann.com/dev/2013/how-to-blog-about-code-and-gi...

giis 12 years ago |

Gustavo Duarte : Lucky to be a Programmer http://duartes.org/gustavo/blog/post/lucky-to-be-a-programme...

coldcode 12 years ago |

http://thecodist.com/article/all-i-need-to-know-to-be-a-bett...

wellboy 12 years ago |

"It's time to grow up, fuck no" http://appreneur-diaries.com/its-time-to-grow-up-fuck-no

andersthue 12 years ago |

How to Deal With Crappy People

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/06/how-to-deal-with-crappy...

Made my life easier

hkmurakami 12 years ago |

the complete guide to not giving a fuck

http://inoveryourhead.net/the-complete-guide-to-not-giving-a...

dominotw 12 years ago | |

His definition of not giving a fuck is wearing vibram fivefingers. weak.

rett12 12 years ago |

Why you will fail to have a great career by Larry Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKHTawgyKWQ

gesman 12 years ago |

http://swombat.com/2014/1/10/money-and-wealth

DavidMunroe83 12 years ago |

http://www.davidmunroeart.com/artists-blog.html

asselinpaul 12 years ago |

I always like to re-read these: http://worrydream.com/

trumbitta2 12 years ago |

The bits about creating and shipping products by Nathan Barry and Amy Hoy

dschiptsov 12 years ago |

http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html

michaelochurch 12 years ago | |

Every time I read something Paul Graham wrote before he became The Godfather I get sad. It may not show in the quality of moderation we see on HN, but he's clearly an extremely talented man.

S4M 12 years ago | | |

Yep, and I think the quality of his essays dropped recently. Before he became "The Godfather" his writing was really some out of the box thinking, while the recent ones seem to me almost like an ad to go to SV and get funded by YC to try to build the next Facebook.

PavlovsCat 12 years ago |

I'm not sure about "most inspiring", but this was the first time something on the internet blew my mind: http://www.arachnoid.com/lutusp/symbols.html