17 ms·

Ask HN: What niche blogs are worthwhile to follow?

363 points by notomorrow 7y ago

I enjoyed reading Gwern and slate star codex's essays. I wonder if you can suggest another one. https://www.gwern.net/ https://slatestarcodex.com/ https://www.gwern.net/

wk0 7y ago
Ribbonfarm? A bit more flowery
wk0 7y ago
ribbonfarm? A bit more flowery
fr0do 7y ago
Meaningness by David Chapman, LessWrong.
weinzierl 7y ago
For programming and tech topics: Dan Luu's Blog https://danluu.com/ https://danluu.com/ Drew DeVault's Blog https://drewdevault.com/ https://drewdevault.com/ For a broader scope: Derek Sivers' Blog https://sivers.org/blog https://sivers.org/blog If you love books, Maria Popova's Blog https://www.brainpickings.org/ https://www.brainpickings.org/
BossingAround 7y ago
Wait but why is pretty neat... For example, [1] was quite nice. [1] https://waitbutwhy.com/2018/04/picking-career.html https://waitbutwhy.com/2018/04/picking-career.html
- palerdot 7y ago
  This is really nice ... Thanks for sharing ...
- zigzaggy 7y ago
  Thanks for the rabbit hole! Spend a few hours on this blog and his recommendations... and then theirs.
- xvzwq 7y ago
  Thanks for the link, I really needed this at this point!
- ashdotterweich 7y ago
  If you love Wait But Why, Randall Munroe's What If? blog has a similar semi-visual explainer style, but has more of a focus on scientific answers to ridiculous hypotheticals: https://what-if.xkcd.com/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/
bpodgursky 7y ago
If you're familiar with SSC, you may be familiar with Scott Aaronson: https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/ https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/ The Quantum Mechanics itself is generally over my head, but it's super well-written and interesting nonetheless.
npr11 7y ago
Dominic Cummings https://dominiccummings.com/an-index-of-blogs-articles-papers/ https://dominiccummings.com/an-index-of-blogs-articles-paper...
- npr11 7y ago
  I should have been more specific; I was thinking og the "Unrecognised Simplicities of Effective Action" blogs in particular.
- rosetrees 7y ago
  Hello Dominic You are looking for new ideas and I have several for the NHS which will save a lot of money and improve the service. I run Rosetrees a private family charity that has funded cutting edge medical research for 30 years using venture philanthropy - £40m of seed corn money has taken us more than half way to our target of £1bn of major Grants. Experts describe us as unique and every day we work on new ideas,available free to co-donors who now exceed £20m. Happy to meet/speak Richard Ross Rosetrees Trust Richard@rosetreestrust.co.uk Tel 0208 952 1414
ikeboy 7y ago
Here's my list of Feedly subscriptions that update reasonably often I put together. Should all be easy to find on Google. Shtetls optimised, slate star codex, xkcd, smbc, existential comics, put a num on it, don't worry about the vase, fake nous, overcoming bias, backreaction, preposterous universe, Krebs on security, the old new thing, torrent freak, Matt Levine Bloomberg, random critical analysis, Scott Sumner econlog, the money illusion, stratechery, freakonomics, Greg mankiw blogspot, the grumpy economist, crimestory.com, likelihood of confusion, Fred Wilson AVC
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
sterlind 7y ago
For the pharma industry, Derek Lowe's blog In the Pipeline: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/ https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/
michaelbuckbee 7y ago
I love reading Granola Shotgun, it's a blog focused on how to navigate the current macro trends in urban/suburban real estate design but from a very interesting and personal viewpoint. https://granolashotgun.com/ https://granolashotgun.com/
flipactual 7y ago
ribbonfarm - a longform blog devoted to unusual takes on both familiar and new themes. What we call “refactored perception.” https://www.ribbonfarm.com/ https://www.ribbonfarm.com/ meaningness - Better ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—around problems of meaning and meaninglessness; self and society; ethics, purpose, and value. https://meaningness.com/ https://meaningness.com/ Whereas sites like SSC and LessWrong are rationalist, both of these suggestions are predominately post-rationalist, but perhaps you’re like I was – reading the rationalist sites because I didn’t know there were post-rationalist sites
- andykx 7y ago
  meaningness seems really interesting, thanks for sharing!
- bayonetz 7y ago
  Meaningness is great. Thanks for that. Such deep concepts expressed so clearly with so few words.
  - eric_cc 7y ago
    > It is easy to fall into nihilism..... but, fortunately, it is difficult to maintain, and hardly anyone holds it for long. I guess I'm one of the few :\
- joseph2342 7y ago
  What is post-rational. His blogs are mostly support right wing views, religion. Is that what you meant by post-rational ?
johnmorrison 7y ago
These are my two favorite blogs of Q4`19: Pat Collison [1] (Co-founder, CEO Stripe) doesn't blog often, but is one of the most interesting and insightful people I have ever read I don't know much about Alexey Guzey [2] yet, but he also has some very good posts (he writes more often and more long form, and is more similar to Gwern and SSC, in part because I think those two blogs have influenced him heavily) [1] https://patrickcollison.com/ https://patrickcollison.com/ [2] https://guzey.com/ https://guzey.com/
- btrettel 7y ago
  Thanks, I'm not familiar with Alexey Guzey, but just scanning the list of pages I see quite a bit I'd find interesting or challenging.
  - johnmorrison 7y ago
    He's very good, I recommend the following: Follow up: https://guzey.com/follow-up/ https://guzey.com/follow-up/ What to do with your life: https://guzey.com/personal/what-should-you-do-with-your-life/ https://guzey.com/personal/what-should-you-do-with-your-life... How to make friends online: https://guzey.com/how-to-make-friends-over-the-internet/ https://guzey.com/how-to-make-friends-over-the-internet/ You should start a blog: https://guzey.com/personal/why-have-a-blog/ https://guzey.com/personal/why-have-a-blog/ (In fact, the latter has convinced me to begin posting more of my writing publicly on my own blog)
- wyclif 7y ago
  It's a shame neither of those blogs provide RSS. I'm not sure why. It's a trivial thing to do for your readers.
  - johnmorrison 7y ago
    I don't have RSS on my blog either, whoops
nathancahill 7y ago
Longform: https://longform.org/ https://longform.org/
jaxonrice 7y ago
Idlewords https://idlewords.com/ https://idlewords.com/ - Maciej Ceglowski of Pinboard's blog. His essays are always worth reading
reaperducer 7y ago
Not tech-related, but if you're into city issues, I enjoy these: Vital Vegas: https://vitalvegas.com https://vitalvegas.com Chicago Architecture: https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org Even though I don't live in either place, their cheeky writing styles can be a nice change from the pretense we see so often in blogs.
cobby 7y ago
https://beepb00p.xyz/ https://beepb00p.xyz/ - Dmitrii writes a lot about quantified self and building personal knowledge bases.
icebraining 7y ago
Two tech blogs of which I read every post: http://www.windytan.com/ http://www.windytan.com/ - Oona Räisänen - great hacker of signal-related stuff (audio, video, wireless, etc), graphics, and more. https://syonyk.blogspot.com/ https://syonyk.blogspot.com/ - a lot of hacking around batteries, off-grid energy, and teardowns and repairs of various devices. Non-tech related, Ken White at https://www.popehat.com/ https://www.popehat.com/ can be quite funny, though he hasn't been posting as much lately.
- IfOnlyYouKnew 7y ago
  Ken White now often writes at The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/author/ken-white/ https://www.theatlantic.com/author/ken-white/. It's much the same, only now he gets paid and far wider circulation. If you read only one of hist articles, make it https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/thirty-two-stories-jeffrey-epstein-prison-death/596029/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/thirty-two...
  - icebraining 7y ago
    Yeah, but even there, he hasn't posted since August :( nowadays I think the only regular public activity is his participation in the podcast All the President's Lawyers - besides @Popehat on Twitter, of course.
    - wutbrodo 7y ago
      Probably a matter of personal preference, but if you're not a fan of low-quality, intellectually dishonest shitposting in your feed, I'd avoid @Popehat on Twitter. I enjoy his columns and blog posts, but Twitter does weird things to some people's brains. OTOH, my tolerance for that stuff is extremely low, so the SNR may suit someone else.
- monoideism 7y ago
  Agreed that windytan is awesome. Another highly-technical blogger that I’ve enjoyed has been Ken Shirriff’s: https://www.righto.com/ https://www.righto.com/ Mostly focused on microcontrollers and vintage computing, but with other stuff mixed in (he did a great series in understanding the technical side of Bitcoin, although he’s definitely not a “cryptocurrency enthusiast”). I’ll have to checkout out syonyk.
jonasvp 7y ago
For understanding the world we're living in and expanding your horizons (substantially): https://www.ecosophia.net https://www.ecosophia.net
IfOnlyYouKnew 7y ago
Read https://pedestrianobservations.com https://pedestrianobservations.com and learn more about public transit than you ever wanted. You might enjoy seeing the complexity of optimising these systems that you know so well but only superficially. There may be articles about your region, and it will point out some huge mistake with the subway interchange at <x> that is totally obvious once you read about it. At that point you'll be sharpening some pitchfork and trying to find where that totally corrupt mayor from the 90s now lives. But on the way over to his nursing home you miss the connection at <x> and have enough time to finish the article, which gives a reasonable-but-not-totally-satisfying reason the problem couldn't be avoided. You turn around, and pretty soon you're back in a happy mood. Because at least you don't have to suffer some US transit system. (Sorry, I got slightly carried away in the narrative fiction there)
vinrob92 7y ago
On productized services: (https://www.productizedstartups.com https://www.productizedstartups.com) with interviews of productized service entrepreneurs.
jefftk 7y ago
Some I follow: https://apenwarr.ca/log/ https://apenwarr.ca/log/ - programming, high level perspective https://www.benkuhn.net/ https://www.benkuhn.net/ - programming, startups, effective altruism https://danluu.com/ https://danluu.com/ - programming, hardware https://pedestrianobservations.com/ https://pedestrianobservations.com/ - public transit https://sideways-view.com/ https://sideways-view.com/ - lots of interesting ideas, very eclectic And plugging my own blog: https://www.jefftk.com https://www.jefftk.com - effective altruism, contra dance, diy, not very focused
iandinwoodie 7y ago
I find Joel Spolsky's (CEO of Stack Exchange and Co-founder of Trello and Fog Creek Software) blog to be informative for software engineering and management (link: https://www.joelonsoftware.com https://www.joelonsoftware.com). I revisit his article "Things You Should Never Do, Part I" (link: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-...) every time I get the itch to rewrite code from scratch.
nrau 7y ago
For solid data points and analysis on how the US economy is performing I follow: https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/ https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/ The blog is authored by Bill McBride who correctly called the 2008 downturn and housing market blow-up. I find his data points and corresponding analysis to be much better than any coverage in major media organizations, and it has majorly influenced the financial decisions that I have made over the past decade. At the moment he is posting about a series of 10 questions about how the US economy will perform in 2020 that are worth checking out.
ceohockey60 7y ago
COSS Media (https://coss.media/ https://coss.media/) is a new blog that's focused on the niche of building companies out of open source software. Disclosure: I write for the blog from time to time.
squeakynick 7y ago
If we are allowed to self promote, then I'll put forward my blog http://datagenetics.com/blog.html http://datagenetics.com/blog.html There's currently about 360 articles about math, science, programming, data-mining, geekery ... in style similar to a hero of mine, the late Martin Gardner.
v3gas 7y ago
Marginal revolution! https://marginalrevolution.com https://marginalrevolution.com
tvaughan 7y ago
https://www.emptywheel.net/ https://www.emptywheel.net/, though just the posts written by Marcy Wheeler, a.k.a. emptywheel, herself. > Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist writing about national security and civil liberties. She writes as emptywheel at her eponymous blog, publishes at outlets including Vice, Motherboard, the Nation, the Atlantic, Al Jazeera, and appears frequently on television and radio. She is the author of Anatomy of Deceit, a primer on the CIA leak investigation, and liveblogged the Scooter Libby trial. > Marcy has a PhD from the University of Michigan, where she researched the “feuilleton,” a short conversational newspaper form that has proven important in times of heightened censorship. Before and after her time in academics, Marcy provided documentation consulting for corporations in the auto, tech, and energy industries. She lives with her spouse in Grand Rapids, MI.
tfehring 7y ago
https://www.interfluidity.com/ https://www.interfluidity.com/, on economics and economic philosophy
mannycalavera 7y ago
https://www.filfre.net/ https://www.filfre.net/ for an amazing trip trough the history of gaming!
lanecwagner 7y ago
Mine is https://qvault.io/blog https://qvault.io/blog I guess I'm quite biased though :P
quanticle 7y ago
If you're at all interested in ships, history, or the intersection of ships and history, I can wholeheartedly recommend Naval Gazing: https://www.navalgazing.net/ https://www.navalgazing.net/
hola_mundo 7y ago
In the beginning of 2019, I felt overwhelmed with information overload across Twitter, HN, and the dozen or so newsletters I subscribed to. I ended up unsubscribing from just about everything and now follow a handful of great curators instead. It's probably the best thing I did last year to find more signal online. My favorite is Stew's Letter: https://stewfortier.com/subscribe https://stewfortier.com/subscribe It's a short email that comes out every week or so and includes a funny/entertaining collection of ideas across a broad range of topics (AI, communication skills, evolutionary biology, etc.). David Perell sends out a similar email that I also enjoy: https://www.perell.com/newsletter https://www.perell.com/newsletter
mNovak 7y ago
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone has good coverage of geopolitics, defense acquisitions, and occasionally military history
Mikajis 7y ago
I'm biased, though... https://bassi.li/blog https://bassi.li/blog has short-form programming-related content. https://mikesgamingtrove.ca/archives/ https://mikesgamingtrove.ca/archives/ has long-form video game-related content.
ojkelly 7y ago
I’ve collated a bunch from various sources into a website I can go and check. It’s updated from the feeds throughout the day. https://goodengineering.dev https://goodengineering.dev
killbot5000 7y ago
rachelbythebay.com
gwern 7y ago
If you like my website, you may find my RSS subscriptions of interest: https://www.gwern.net/docs/personal/rss-subscriptions.opml https://www.gwern.net/docs/personal/rss-subscriptions.opml
Neo1109 7y ago
https://coincircle.com/l/2vQMzSQJET https://coincircle.com/l/2vQMzSQJET
hansmrtn 7y ago
If you're a resident of the Pacific Northwest, Cliff Mass -- an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington -- has an excellent regional climate and weather blog. https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/ https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/
TheAsprngHacker 7y ago
A blog that I recently discovered is the Sakuga Blog, which analyzes the process of anime production, the works of individual animators, and the state of the anime industry. The blog is very nuanced and has led me to better appreciate the artistic qualities of anime. The Sakuga Blog is a publication of Sakugabooru, a booru (image board, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imageboard#Danbooru-style_boards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imageboard#Danbooru-style_boar...) that collects the works of animators. https://blog.sakugabooru.com/ https://blog.sakugabooru.com/
gregdoesit 7y ago
Tech blogs I follow (and one I write): - Irrational Exuberance![1] by Will Larson (ex Digg, Uber, Stripe) - focuses on engineering management - Hillel Wayne’s blog [2] - software engineering and formal methods - The Pragmatic Engineer [3] - software engineering & tech lead topics, written by myself [1] https://lethain.com/ https://lethain.com/ [2] https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/ https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/ [3] https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/ https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/
harg 7y ago
I found Do the Math really good, especially the posts assessing various energy sources' abilities to provide mankind with its energy needs. There hasn't been a new post in quite a while but the ones there are well worth a read. https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/ https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/
smallcharleston 7y ago
I refuse to read any blogs.
- jauke 7y ago
  Why?
  - smallcharleston 7y ago
    Some vague feeling that if it were useful, correct, refined, and thought-out enough it would be in a book or periodical.
    - MperorM 7y ago
      Hmm, I see it somewhat oppositely. I find that most books are bloated and spend most pages regurgitating information I already know, where blog posts tend to present only the novel information, using hyperlinks to link to information required to understand the given post. If I know nothing about a topic I find books to be really valuable, but for topics I'm already knowledgeable on, they are terribly inefficient.
nestorherre 7y ago
https://dariusforoux.com/ https://dariusforoux.com/ on productivity, self improvement. https://fs.blog/ https://fs.blog/ mental models, critical thinking.
hispanic 7y ago
https://www.marksdailyapple.com/ https://www.marksdailyapple.com/ - Ancestral health and lifestyle https://earlyretirementextreme.com/ https://earlyretirementextreme.com/ - Financial independence. No longer adding new posts. https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/ https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/ - Travel "hacking" and the miles and points "game". https://jamesclear.com/newsletter https://jamesclear.com/newsletter - Habits and human potential. Email newsletter - not a blog, per se. https://blog.asmartbear.com/ https://blog.asmartbear.com/ - Startups and marketing https://recraigslist.com/ https://recraigslist.com/ - Appliance repair and entrepreneurship. No longer adding new posts.
lowdose 7y ago
https://stratechery.com/ https://stratechery.com/ Ben writes about technology companies from a business model perspective. He also has a good podcast where he weekly summarizes his blog posts about company specific platform and aggregator data/revenue models. Very insightful.
paulorlando 7y ago
If you're interested to learn about systems and complexity in a humanities style: https://unintendedconsequenc.es/blog/ https://unintendedconsequenc.es/blog/

363 points by notomorrow 7y ago

I enjoyed reading Gwern and slate star codex's essays. I wonder if you can suggest another one. https://www.gwern.net/ https://slatestarcodex.com/ https://www.gwern.net/

wk0 7y ago

Ribbonfarm? A bit more flowery

wk0 7y ago

ribbonfarm? A bit more flowery

fr0do 7y ago

Meaningness by David Chapman, LessWrong.

weinzierl 7y ago

For programming and tech topics: Dan Luu's Blog https://danluu.com/ https://danluu.com/ Drew DeVault's Blog https://drewdevault.com/ https://drewdevault.com/ For a broader scope: Derek Sivers' Blog https://sivers.org/blog https://sivers.org/blog If you love books, Maria Popova's Blog https://www.brainpickings.org/ https://www.brainpickings.org/

BossingAround 7y ago

Wait but why is pretty neat... For example, [1] was quite nice. [1] https://waitbutwhy.com/2018/04/picking-career.html https://waitbutwhy.com/2018/04/picking-career.html

palerdot 7y ago
This is really nice ... Thanks for sharing ...
zigzaggy 7y ago
Thanks for the rabbit hole! Spend a few hours on this blog and his recommendations... and then theirs.
xvzwq 7y ago
Thanks for the link, I really needed this at this point!
ashdotterweich 7y ago
If you love Wait But Why, Randall Munroe's What If? blog has a similar semi-visual explainer style, but has more of a focus on scientific answers to ridiculous hypotheticals: https://what-if.xkcd.com/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/

bpodgursky 7y ago

If you're familiar with SSC, you may be familiar with Scott Aaronson: https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/ https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/ The Quantum Mechanics itself is generally over my head, but it's super well-written and interesting nonetheless.

npr11 7y ago

Dominic Cummings https://dominiccummings.com/an-index-of-blogs-articles-papers/ https://dominiccummings.com/an-index-of-blogs-articles-paper...

npr11 7y ago
I should have been more specific; I was thinking og the "Unrecognised Simplicities of Effective Action" blogs in particular.
rosetrees 7y ago
Hello Dominic You are looking for new ideas and I have several for the NHS which will save a lot of money and improve the service. I run Rosetrees a private family charity that has funded cutting edge medical research for 30 years using venture philanthropy - £40m of seed corn money has taken us more than half way to our target of £1bn of major Grants. Experts describe us as unique and every day we work on new ideas,available free to co-donors who now exceed £20m. Happy to meet/speak Richard Ross Rosetrees Trust Richard@rosetreestrust.co.uk Tel 0208 952 1414

ikeboy 7y ago

Here's my list of Feedly subscriptions that update reasonably often I put together. Should all be easy to find on Google. Shtetls optimised, slate star codex, xkcd, smbc, existential comics, put a num on it, don't worry about the vase, fake nous, overcoming bias, backreaction, preposterous universe, Krebs on security, the old new thing, torrent freak, Matt Levine Bloomberg, random critical analysis, Scott Sumner econlog, the money illusion, stratechery, freakonomics, Greg mankiw blogspot, the grumpy economist, crimestory.com, likelihood of confusion, Fred Wilson AVC

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

sterlind 7y ago

For the pharma industry, Derek Lowe's blog In the Pipeline: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/ https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/

michaelbuckbee 7y ago

I love reading Granola Shotgun, it's a blog focused on how to navigate the current macro trends in urban/suburban real estate design but from a very interesting and personal viewpoint. https://granolashotgun.com/ https://granolashotgun.com/

flipactual 7y ago

ribbonfarm - a longform blog devoted to unusual takes on both familiar and new themes. What we call “refactored perception.” https://www.ribbonfarm.com/ https://www.ribbonfarm.com/ meaningness - Better ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—around problems of meaning and meaninglessness; self and society; ethics, purpose, and value. https://meaningness.com/ https://meaningness.com/ Whereas sites like SSC and LessWrong are rationalist, both of these suggestions are predominately post-rationalist, but perhaps you’re like I was – reading the rationalist sites because I didn’t know there were post-rationalist sites

andykx 7y ago
meaningness seems really interesting, thanks for sharing!
bayonetz 7y ago
Meaningness is great. Thanks for that. Such deep concepts expressed so clearly with so few words.
- eric_cc 7y ago
  > It is easy to fall into nihilism..... but, fortunately, it is difficult to maintain, and hardly anyone holds it for long. I guess I'm one of the few :\
joseph2342 7y ago
What is post-rational. His blogs are mostly support right wing views, religion. Is that what you meant by post-rational ?

johnmorrison 7y ago

These are my two favorite blogs of Q4`19: Pat Collison [1] (Co-founder, CEO Stripe) doesn't blog often, but is one of the most interesting and insightful people I have ever read I don't know much about Alexey Guzey [2] yet, but he also has some very good posts (he writes more often and more long form, and is more similar to Gwern and SSC, in part because I think those two blogs have influenced him heavily) [1] https://patrickcollison.com/ https://patrickcollison.com/ [2] https://guzey.com/ https://guzey.com/

btrettel 7y ago
Thanks, I'm not familiar with Alexey Guzey, but just scanning the list of pages I see quite a bit I'd find interesting or challenging.
- johnmorrison 7y ago
  He's very good, I recommend the following: Follow up: https://guzey.com/follow-up/ https://guzey.com/follow-up/ What to do with your life: https://guzey.com/personal/what-should-you-do-with-your-life/ https://guzey.com/personal/what-should-you-do-with-your-life... How to make friends online: https://guzey.com/how-to-make-friends-over-the-internet/ https://guzey.com/how-to-make-friends-over-the-internet/ You should start a blog: https://guzey.com/personal/why-have-a-blog/ https://guzey.com/personal/why-have-a-blog/ (In fact, the latter has convinced me to begin posting more of my writing publicly on my own blog)
wyclif 7y ago
It's a shame neither of those blogs provide RSS. I'm not sure why. It's a trivial thing to do for your readers.
- johnmorrison 7y ago
  I don't have RSS on my blog either, whoops

nathancahill 7y ago

Longform: https://longform.org/ https://longform.org/

jaxonrice 7y ago

Idlewords https://idlewords.com/ https://idlewords.com/ - Maciej Ceglowski of Pinboard's blog. His essays are always worth reading

reaperducer 7y ago

Not tech-related, but if you're into city issues, I enjoy these: Vital Vegas: https://vitalvegas.com https://vitalvegas.com Chicago Architecture: https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org Even though I don't live in either place, their cheeky writing styles can be a nice change from the pretense we see so often in blogs.

cobby 7y ago

https://beepb00p.xyz/ https://beepb00p.xyz/ - Dmitrii writes a lot about quantified self and building personal knowledge bases.

icebraining 7y ago

Two tech blogs of which I read every post: http://www.windytan.com/ http://www.windytan.com/ - Oona Räisänen - great hacker of signal-related stuff (audio, video, wireless, etc), graphics, and more. https://syonyk.blogspot.com/ https://syonyk.blogspot.com/ - a lot of hacking around batteries, off-grid energy, and teardowns and repairs of various devices. Non-tech related, Ken White at https://www.popehat.com/ https://www.popehat.com/ can be quite funny, though he hasn't been posting as much lately.

IfOnlyYouKnew 7y ago
Ken White now often writes at The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/author/ken-white/ https://www.theatlantic.com/author/ken-white/. It's much the same, only now he gets paid and far wider circulation. If you read only one of hist articles, make it https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/thirty-two-stories-jeffrey-epstein-prison-death/596029/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/thirty-two...
- icebraining 7y ago
  Yeah, but even there, he hasn't posted since August :( nowadays I think the only regular public activity is his participation in the podcast All the President's Lawyers - besides @Popehat on Twitter, of course.
  - wutbrodo 7y ago
    Probably a matter of personal preference, but if you're not a fan of low-quality, intellectually dishonest shitposting in your feed, I'd avoid @Popehat on Twitter. I enjoy his columns and blog posts, but Twitter does weird things to some people's brains. OTOH, my tolerance for that stuff is extremely low, so the SNR may suit someone else.
monoideism 7y ago
Agreed that windytan is awesome. Another highly-technical blogger that I’ve enjoyed has been Ken Shirriff’s: https://www.righto.com/ https://www.righto.com/ Mostly focused on microcontrollers and vintage computing, but with other stuff mixed in (he did a great series in understanding the technical side of Bitcoin, although he’s definitely not a “cryptocurrency enthusiast”). I’ll have to checkout out syonyk.

jonasvp 7y ago

For understanding the world we're living in and expanding your horizons (substantially): https://www.ecosophia.net https://www.ecosophia.net

IfOnlyYouKnew 7y ago

Read https://pedestrianobservations.com https://pedestrianobservations.com and learn more about public transit than you ever wanted. You might enjoy seeing the complexity of optimising these systems that you know so well but only superficially. There may be articles about your region, and it will point out some huge mistake with the subway interchange at <x> that is totally obvious once you read about it. At that point you'll be sharpening some pitchfork and trying to find where that totally corrupt mayor from the 90s now lives. But on the way over to his nursing home you miss the connection at <x> and have enough time to finish the article, which gives a reasonable-but-not-totally-satisfying reason the problem couldn't be avoided. You turn around, and pretty soon you're back in a happy mood. Because at least you don't have to suffer some US transit system. (Sorry, I got slightly carried away in the narrative fiction there)

vinrob92 7y ago

On productized services: (https://www.productizedstartups.com https://www.productizedstartups.com) with interviews of productized service entrepreneurs.

jefftk 7y ago

Some I follow: https://apenwarr.ca/log/ https://apenwarr.ca/log/ - programming, high level perspective https://www.benkuhn.net/ https://www.benkuhn.net/ - programming, startups, effective altruism https://danluu.com/ https://danluu.com/ - programming, hardware https://pedestrianobservations.com/ https://pedestrianobservations.com/ - public transit https://sideways-view.com/ https://sideways-view.com/ - lots of interesting ideas, very eclectic And plugging my own blog: https://www.jefftk.com https://www.jefftk.com - effective altruism, contra dance, diy, not very focused

iandinwoodie 7y ago

I find Joel Spolsky's (CEO of Stack Exchange and Co-founder of Trello and Fog Creek Software) blog to be informative for software engineering and management (link: https://www.joelonsoftware.com https://www.joelonsoftware.com). I revisit his article "Things You Should Never Do, Part I" (link: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-...) every time I get the itch to rewrite code from scratch.

nrau 7y ago

For solid data points and analysis on how the US economy is performing I follow: https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/ https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/ The blog is authored by Bill McBride who correctly called the 2008 downturn and housing market blow-up. I find his data points and corresponding analysis to be much better than any coverage in major media organizations, and it has majorly influenced the financial decisions that I have made over the past decade. At the moment he is posting about a series of 10 questions about how the US economy will perform in 2020 that are worth checking out.

ceohockey60 7y ago

COSS Media (https://coss.media/ https://coss.media/) is a new blog that's focused on the niche of building companies out of open source software. Disclosure: I write for the blog from time to time.

squeakynick 7y ago

If we are allowed to self promote, then I'll put forward my blog http://datagenetics.com/blog.html http://datagenetics.com/blog.html There's currently about 360 articles about math, science, programming, data-mining, geekery ... in style similar to a hero of mine, the late Martin Gardner.

v3gas 7y ago

Marginal revolution! https://marginalrevolution.com https://marginalrevolution.com

tvaughan 7y ago

https://www.emptywheel.net/ https://www.emptywheel.net/, though just the posts written by Marcy Wheeler, a.k.a. emptywheel, herself. > Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist writing about national security and civil liberties. She writes as emptywheel at her eponymous blog, publishes at outlets including Vice, Motherboard, the Nation, the Atlantic, Al Jazeera, and appears frequently on television and radio. She is the author of Anatomy of Deceit, a primer on the CIA leak investigation, and liveblogged the Scooter Libby trial. > Marcy has a PhD from the University of Michigan, where she researched the “feuilleton,” a short conversational newspaper form that has proven important in times of heightened censorship. Before and after her time in academics, Marcy provided documentation consulting for corporations in the auto, tech, and energy industries. She lives with her spouse in Grand Rapids, MI.

tfehring 7y ago

https://www.interfluidity.com/ https://www.interfluidity.com/, on economics and economic philosophy

mannycalavera 7y ago

https://www.filfre.net/ https://www.filfre.net/ for an amazing trip trough the history of gaming!

lanecwagner 7y ago

Mine is https://qvault.io/blog https://qvault.io/blog I guess I'm quite biased though :P

quanticle 7y ago

If you're at all interested in ships, history, or the intersection of ships and history, I can wholeheartedly recommend Naval Gazing: https://www.navalgazing.net/ https://www.navalgazing.net/

hola_mundo 7y ago

In the beginning of 2019, I felt overwhelmed with information overload across Twitter, HN, and the dozen or so newsletters I subscribed to. I ended up unsubscribing from just about everything and now follow a handful of great curators instead. It's probably the best thing I did last year to find more signal online. My favorite is Stew's Letter: https://stewfortier.com/subscribe https://stewfortier.com/subscribe It's a short email that comes out every week or so and includes a funny/entertaining collection of ideas across a broad range of topics (AI, communication skills, evolutionary biology, etc.). David Perell sends out a similar email that I also enjoy: https://www.perell.com/newsletter https://www.perell.com/newsletter

mNovak 7y ago

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone has good coverage of geopolitics, defense acquisitions, and occasionally military history

Mikajis 7y ago

I'm biased, though... https://bassi.li/blog https://bassi.li/blog has short-form programming-related content. https://mikesgamingtrove.ca/archives/ https://mikesgamingtrove.ca/archives/ has long-form video game-related content.

ojkelly 7y ago

I’ve collated a bunch from various sources into a website I can go and check. It’s updated from the feeds throughout the day. https://goodengineering.dev https://goodengineering.dev

killbot5000 7y ago

rachelbythebay.com

gwern 7y ago

If you like my website, you may find my RSS subscriptions of interest: https://www.gwern.net/docs/personal/rss-subscriptions.opml https://www.gwern.net/docs/personal/rss-subscriptions.opml

Neo1109 7y ago

https://coincircle.com/l/2vQMzSQJET https://coincircle.com/l/2vQMzSQJET

hansmrtn 7y ago

If you're a resident of the Pacific Northwest, Cliff Mass -- an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington -- has an excellent regional climate and weather blog. https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/ https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/

TheAsprngHacker 7y ago

A blog that I recently discovered is the Sakuga Blog, which analyzes the process of anime production, the works of individual animators, and the state of the anime industry. The blog is very nuanced and has led me to better appreciate the artistic qualities of anime. The Sakuga Blog is a publication of Sakugabooru, a booru (image board, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imageboard#Danbooru-style_boards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imageboard#Danbooru-style_boar...) that collects the works of animators. https://blog.sakugabooru.com/ https://blog.sakugabooru.com/

gregdoesit 7y ago

Tech blogs I follow (and one I write): - Irrational Exuberance![1] by Will Larson (ex Digg, Uber, Stripe) - focuses on engineering management - Hillel Wayne’s blog [2] - software engineering and formal methods - The Pragmatic Engineer [3] - software engineering & tech lead topics, written by myself [1] https://lethain.com/ https://lethain.com/ [2] https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/ https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/ [3] https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/ https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/

harg 7y ago

I found Do the Math really good, especially the posts assessing various energy sources' abilities to provide mankind with its energy needs. There hasn't been a new post in quite a while but the ones there are well worth a read. https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/ https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/

smallcharleston 7y ago

I refuse to read any blogs.

jauke 7y ago
Why?
- smallcharleston 7y ago
  Some vague feeling that if it were useful, correct, refined, and thought-out enough it would be in a book or periodical.
  - MperorM 7y ago
    Hmm, I see it somewhat oppositely. I find that most books are bloated and spend most pages regurgitating information I already know, where blog posts tend to present only the novel information, using hyperlinks to link to information required to understand the given post. If I know nothing about a topic I find books to be really valuable, but for topics I'm already knowledgeable on, they are terribly inefficient.

nestorherre 7y ago

https://dariusforoux.com/ https://dariusforoux.com/ on productivity, self improvement. https://fs.blog/ https://fs.blog/ mental models, critical thinking.

hispanic 7y ago

https://www.marksdailyapple.com/ https://www.marksdailyapple.com/ - Ancestral health and lifestyle https://earlyretirementextreme.com/ https://earlyretirementextreme.com/ - Financial independence. No longer adding new posts. https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/ https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/ - Travel "hacking" and the miles and points "game". https://jamesclear.com/newsletter https://jamesclear.com/newsletter - Habits and human potential. Email newsletter - not a blog, per se. https://blog.asmartbear.com/ https://blog.asmartbear.com/ - Startups and marketing https://recraigslist.com/ https://recraigslist.com/ - Appliance repair and entrepreneurship. No longer adding new posts.

lowdose 7y ago

https://stratechery.com/ https://stratechery.com/ Ben writes about technology companies from a business model perspective. He also has a good podcast where he weekly summarizes his blog posts about company specific platform and aggregator data/revenue models. Very insightful.

paulorlando 7y ago

If you're interested to learn about systems and complexity in a humanities style: https://unintendedconsequenc.es/blog/ https://unintendedconsequenc.es/blog/