14 ms·

Ask HN: What are good solo developer blogs that you enjoy reading?

621 points by lucasfdacunha 7y ago

Hey guys, I like to read blog bosts about developers that run some kind of project (rentable or not) and usually are pretty open about its development and how things are going. However, it's really hard to find some of those, unless you found those somewhere. Hacker Newsletter today had a pretty good article https://mtlynch.io/solo-developer-year-2/ I'm mostly looking for something similar since this kind of blog post can give some good insights. Thanks.

codevscolor 7y ago
1. http://www.oilshell.org/blog/ http://www.oilshell.org/blog/ 2. http://fragmentedpodcast.com/ http://fragmentedpodcast.com/ 3. https://blog.stylingandroid.com/ https://blog.stylingandroid.com/ I have more than 30 blogs on feedly. btw, I blog on https://www.codevscolor.com https://www.codevscolor.com
SlyShy 7y ago
Indiehackers.com has tons of these. Enjoy!
sandov 7y ago
https://drewdevault.com https://drewdevault.com
- deleted 7y ago
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- spectramax 7y ago
  I quite enjoy reading what Drew has to say. Something about his transparency, his intense honesty, his approach, minimalism, objectivity and slight tinge of libertarianism - it is quite refreshing. Not to mention all of this through the lens of software engineering.
- yuri91 7y ago
  I second this, but all of his posts hit the front page of HN anyway, no need to actively follow it! (/s)
dhardenb 7y ago
I started a blog last year with the intent of sharing my journey to build an online game as a solo developer. My activity dropped off but I’ve recently committed to push forward again so plan to get back to blogged several times a week. I’m working on a post right now to talk about my experience of having my game reach #2 here at HN at what that was like. Should have it out tomorrow. Anyway, you might find it interesting: https://blog.spacefrigates.com https://blog.spacefrigates.com
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ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago
I write about Swift and various development topics. I’m getting ready to start a new series about Core Bluetooth. https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany
- xenihn 7y ago
  Looking forward to the Core Bluetooth series.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago
    I'm beginning now. It may take a while before it's done. If you want to look at it while I still have it up on blocks, I could always use feedback. Feel free to contact me (See my HN ID - https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ChrisMarshallNY https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ChrisMarshallNY . I have details therein).
jacobobryant 7y ago
Here's mine: https://jacobobryant.com/ https://jacobobryant.com/ Can't vouch for if it's any good though ;)
new_here 7y ago
Here’s a curated list of engineering blogs, anchored to the individual category: https://github.com/kilimchoi/engineering-blogs/blob/master/README.md#individualsgroup-contributors-1 https://github.com/kilimchoi/engineering-blogs/blob/master/R... Might be some names you recognise or want to explore. I also wrote a basic script to rank domains by HN upvotes if you want to distill the list a bit more: https://github.com/RhettTrickett/hacker-news-rank https://github.com/RhettTrickett/hacker-news-rank
gmcquistin 7y ago
https://overreacted.io https://overreacted.io - Dan Abramov's blog
visualphoenix 7y ago
Nicholas Frechette[0] has a deeply technical blog about building his MIT licensed animation compression library for game development... [0] https://nfrechette.github.io/ https://nfrechette.github.io/
SyneRyder 7y ago
Cliffski's blog is one of the only ones I follow that is still active. Not every post is on development progress, but enough that I find it worth following: http://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/ http://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/ A couple of recent posts I liked: https://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2019/12/16/stability-productivity/ https://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2019/12/16/stability-p... https://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2020/01/14/trying-to-avoid-the-small-indie-valley/ https://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2020/01/14/trying-to-a...
lhnz 7y ago
https://wordsandbuttons.online https://wordsandbuttons.online
_bxg1 7y ago
John Carmack tweets pretty regularly, often about projects. Right now he's taking a solo swing at AGI https://mobile.twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack https://mobile.twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack
rounakdatta 7y ago
One of the sweetest Distributed Systems blogs I have ever read: http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com And yes, also my favorite 101 explainer blog: https://arjunsreedharan.org https://arjunsreedharan.org
kmatthewc 7y ago
https://vorpus.org/blog https://vorpus.org/blog I was particularly influenced by this post. https://vorpus.org/blog/notes-on-structured-concurrency-or-go-statement-considered-harmful/ https://vorpus.org/blog/notes-on-structured-concurrency-or-g...
- eitland 7y ago
  Reading the last one now. Haven't made up my mind yet but the writing is great so far.
joshwcomeau 7y ago
Shameless self-plug: I blog about React, interaction/animation, and remote work. It's a bit of a pot pourri, but people seem to like it! https://www.joshwcomeau.com/ https://www.joshwcomeau.com/
rammy1234 7y ago
https://www.staticfire.site https://www.staticfire.site
simonw 7y ago
I started posting weeknotes a few months ago and it's really helped me get back into the habit of posting at least once a week: https://simonwillison.net/ https://simonwillison.net/ Weeknotes archive here: https://simonwillison.net/tags/weeknotes/ https://simonwillison.net/tags/weeknotes/
koenigdavidmj 7y ago
Joey Hess: http://joeyh.name/ http://joeyh.name/ Lives out in the sticks and codes embedded stuff in Haskell, usually to automate his life in the backwoods of East Tennessee.
- philsnow 7y ago
  I had never looked into who ran olduse.net, turns out it's Joey Hess. Joey if you're reading this, thank you, I love it!
- mark_l_watson 7y ago
  Thanks for posting that. I went down a rabbit hole reading his off the grid material. I live in a fairly small mountain town but still with a civilized lifestyle: I can easily walk to two health food stores, movie theater, library, and the local food bank where I enjoy volunteering. My wife and I talked about moving ten miles outside of town but decided against it. I also like Joey’s Haskell projects. Good stuff.
- Topgamer7 7y ago
  His fridge build is pretty great!
Pmop 7y ago
I used to read Joel's Joel on Software a lot. Also, Graham's . Another hidden jewel is the Elias Daler's blog. Edit: I have to add Steve Corona's blog to the list. He's more on the motivation and guidance side. Everyone gonna hear and read stories about people getting straight out of their college with a six-figure job, working for SV startups. But the truth is, you're more likely to struggle, a lot, specially if you live outside of the developed world. Instead of success, Steve's story is of one who dropped out of the college at 19 and had to sleep in his car for while.
- lucasfdacunha 7y ago
  Do you have the link to those that you've mentioned?
  - yori 7y ago
    Really easy to find with a quick search: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/ http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html
dinkblam 7y ago
if you are into obj-c/swift, there is a list of the most useful blogs here: https://apple-developer.org/resources/online-resources.html#blogs https://apple-developer.org/resources/online-resources.html#...
avinassh 7y ago
I love the blog posts of Julia Evans - https://jvns.ca/ https://jvns.ca/ they are quite informative and very enjoyable to read.
- ganstyles 7y ago
  I really enjoy these, but they're really for an entry level audience. See, e.g., how to do a select query in SQL. Good to know, for sure, and helpful if you're unfamiliar with SQL, but definitely really basic. Love the drawings though, and I could see if I were just getting into being an SWE or aspired to be one, they could be a good starting point.
  - icebraining 7y ago
    They're for an entry level audience, but not just for aspiring SWEs. I've been a professional developer for a while, yet I'm part of the entry level audience for XDP programs[1] or for the ML bias-variance tradeoff [2]. Her posts are "entry-level" because she's so good at making complex stuff easily understandable for beginners of all kinds. [1] https://jvns.ca/blog/2017/04/07/xdp-bpf-tutorial/ https://jvns.ca/blog/2017/04/07/xdp-bpf-tutorial/ [2] https://jvns.ca/blog/2016/01/02/winning-the-bias-variance-tradeoff/ https://jvns.ca/blog/2016/01/02/winning-the-bias-variance-tr...
    - njitbew 7y ago
      I recently came across her "Perf zine" [1] and immediately bookmarked it because I enjoyed it so much. It may target entry-level engineers, but it's still a joy to read for anyone. [1] https://jvns.ca/perf-zine.pdf https://jvns.ca/perf-zine.pdf
lucasfdacunha 7y ago
A good friend of mine is a very talented frontend engineer and has a very cool blog/website. https://rafaelcamargo.com/stories https://rafaelcamargo.com/stories
- rcamargo 7y ago
  Thanks bro!
shaklee3 7y ago
For low-level software, these are great: https://eli.thegreenplace.net/ https://eli.thegreenplace.net/ https://travisdowns.github.io/ https://travisdowns.github.io/ https://preshing.com/ https://preshing.com/
- huhtenberg 7y ago
  Good blogs, but I wouldn't call them focused on "low-level" software. The material is more of a conventional desktop software development.
  - shaklee3 7y ago
    Maybe I just don't read all the articles, but the ones I've seen on there are definitely for low-level programming. Things like release/acquire semantics, writing a game engine, and AVX512 penalties.
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Mojah 7y ago
If you’re into Laravel and PHP, Freek is very open about all his code: https://freek.dev https://freek.dev I also blog about code and the financial side of running your own business: https://ma.ttias.be https://ma.ttias.be
- deleted 7y ago
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kamaal 7y ago
Not exactly a blog but as fresher I used to read https://www.perlmonks.org/ https://www.perlmonks.org/ PerlMonks. The Original StackOverflow. I still at times discover cool programming ways. Its a treasure mine.
- montyhallpy 7y ago
  What is a "fresher"? Freshman?
  - joeberon 7y ago
    Freshman are called fresher in other countries, at least in UK
kndjckt 7y ago
I love Matthew Rocklin’s (the maintainer of Dask) blog https://matthewrocklin.com/ https://matthewrocklin.com/
brianpgordon 7y ago
Looks like nobody has mentioned https://daringfireball.net/ https://daringfireball.net/ yet.
- rahuldottech 7y ago
  That's hardly a developer blog though. It's mostly commentary on Apple's business practices and products.
  - brianpgordon 7y ago
    It's Apple-focused but it's definitely from the perspective of a developer. It's not generic macrumors-type reporting for the layman.
    - AsyncAwait 7y ago
      I'd argue it's from the perspective of the Apple marketing department. At least often.
chandureddyvari 7y ago
I personally enjoy https://jalammar.github.io/ https://jalammar.github.io/ and https://mlexplained.com/- https://mlexplained.com/- For machine learning & deep learning stuff
person_of_color 7y ago
Dan LeMire John Regehr
spawarotti 7y ago
www.yegor256.com
- yakshaving_jgt 7y ago
  Ah, yeah. I’ve met Yegor. Charismatic, but has some incredibly stupid opinions. His latest post for example explains that if you ask your boss what you should be working on next, you are a loser. I would never call any of my employees a “loser”. If your boss thinks of you as a loser, you should fire your boss.
  - floatdrop 7y ago
    > you should fire your boss This not how it works in our world.
    - yakshaving_jgt 7y ago
      Sure it does. Software development is a seller’s market. There’s plenty of opportunity out there for any half decent programmer, and nobody should be compromising on their dignity for the sake of a pay check.
ivanech 7y ago
This is a true solo developer: http://pketh.org/archives/ http://pketh.org/archives/ It looks like this thread is turning into general blog recommendations. I like these, and they haven't been listed: https://macwright.org/ https://macwright.org/ https://tonsky.me/ https://tonsky.me/ https://nadiaeghbal.com/posts/ https://nadiaeghbal.com/posts/
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travmatt 7y ago
For reverse engineering, Rolf rolles.
gengstrand 7y ago
Whenever I evaluate a technology stack for microservice architecture viability, I implement the same feature identical polyglot persistent microservice then run it through the same load test as all the others. In that way, I can compare and contrast these various technology stacks. I blog about the results here. http://glennengstrand.info http://glennengstrand.info So far, I have covered clojure on ring, scala on finatra, java on dropwizard, javascript on node, python on flask, scala on scalatra, java on spring boot, go, and typescript on apollo (graphql).
- BossingAround 7y ago
  Please implement TLS on your website. I am interested in the content, but don't want to spend time on a plain-http website.
  - BossingAround 7y ago
    It's strange to see the downvotes. Why static websites need https [1]. Discussion just two weeks ago at [2]. If I make a polite suggestion with a reason behind my suggestion, I find it incredibly sad that it's a cause for downvotes here at HN. [1] https://www.troyhunt.com/heres-why-your-static-website-needs-https/ https://www.troyhunt.com/heres-why-your-static-website-needs... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22146291 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22146291
    - skrebbel 7y ago
      It wasn't a polite suggestion. It was a demand for the author, who is giving you something for free, to accommodate your preferences.
      - maxymajzr 7y ago
        Unless I'm reading it wrong, the text says "Please implement TLS". Not everything is evil, toxic and in need of your downvote hammer. There's no injustice to be fixed here.
avindroth 7y ago
Designer/gamedev/makes interesting tools https://xxiivv.com/ https://xxiivv.com/
- hokumguru 7y ago
  I think he’s living off the grid on a boat in the South Pacific. Incredibly cool dude.
yakshaving_jgt 7y ago
Here’s a good one: https://stevelosh.com/ https://stevelosh.com/ And here’s mine: https://jezenthomas.com/ https://jezenthomas.com/
cpach 7y ago
Brent Simmons has a good blog where he writes about the development about the RSS reader Netnewswire https://inessential.com/ https://inessential.com/ (Netnewswire itself is not a solo project though)
kccqzy 7y ago
Small Cult Following, for Rust core language development: http://smallcultfollowing.com/babysteps/ http://smallcultfollowing.com/babysteps/ It's far from a solo project but he presents unique insights into the language. I personally really enjoyed his discussion of associated type constructors and high-kinded types, a series back in 2016(!), back when I started toying with Rust and somewhat frustrated by the lack of HKT.
yori 7y ago
Here's a good one: https://susam.in/ https://susam.in/ Stumbled on this when his domain was hijacked accidentally due to an anti-botnet operation and his post about it came on HN (check the "Sinkholed" post). Since then I've subscribed to his blog, read the older posts and enjoyed the newer posts too. He mostly posts about technology and mathematics. The reason why I got hooked to this blog is that they are mostly about offbeat topics that I wouldn't normally come across on my own. So there is something new to learn from every post. And they are very well written with great attention to detail.
- polyphonicist 7y ago
  Sinkhole incident: https://susam.in/blog/sinkholed/ https://susam.in/blog/sinkholed/ HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21700139 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21700139 Pretty scary stuff for domain buyers!
- peterapps 7y ago
  How does a domain get hijacked accidentally? Don't domain transfers take a few days and require approval from current domain owner?
  - OJFord 7y ago
    Presumably the approval was the accident. (Or not renewing yet, so perhaps no approval necessary.) Also, 'transfer locks' are a good idea, but not supported by all TLDs.
  - Qub3d 7y ago
    The blog post states that the domain was erroneously flagged as belonging to a botnet system by a German law enforcement org, which took control of the domain to "sinkhole" what they assumed was botnet traffic.
bra-ket 7y ago
https://lemire.me/blog/ https://lemire.me/blog/
rahuldottech 7y ago
Not always strictly dev related, but nice: https://codinghorror.com https://codinghorror.com https://shkspr.mobi https://shkspr.mobi
ashnehete 7y ago
http://rachelbythebay.com/w/ http://rachelbythebay.com/w/
wikunia 7y ago
If I'm allowed to self promote my own blog: https://opensourc.es https://opensourc.es Currently building a constraint solver from scratch and in a few days there will be a post about how to build an Enigma and how to crack it
ryeguy_24 7y ago
https://tyler.io https://tyler.io
epicgiga 7y ago
Awesome comment feed. Specific to CSS, Chris Coyier's stuff is good https://css-tricks.com/author/chriscoyier/ https://css-tricks.com/author/chriscoyier/ Fairly sure he's solo enough and blogger enough to count.
winrid 7y ago
Oh good, more things to add to my rss reader :) The Dolphin blog is good. https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/ https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/ It might have what you're looking for. Not single dev though, but very personal. John Carmack on Twitter is good as well. Here's my own: https://blog.winricklabs.com https://blog.winricklabs.com
bdg 7y ago
I am working towards a side-project but it's not live yet. I hope to launch it in the summer. I plan to document the process and release some posts about it "kalzumeus style" once I start it. My main blog right now is https://statagroup.com/ https://statagroup.com/
vzhou842 7y ago
shameless self plug: https://victorzhou.com https://victorzhou.com has a mix of machine learning, web development, and other topics. You may have seen some posts from there on HN in the past
sixhobbits 7y ago
I had a similar question the other day. I asked a few people and no one seemed to have a good collection to point to. I specifically like reading posts by people who post regular retrospectives (weekly, monthly, or yearly). So I started [0]. It only has three entries right now (including the one you mention above), but I would love to see contributions via pull requests. [0] https://github.com/sixhobbits/technical-writing/blob/master/retrospectives.md https://github.com/sixhobbits/technical-writing/blob/master/...
ndri 7y ago
https://rubenerd.com/ https://rubenerd.com/ is a dude from Australia who posts about BSD, anime and various tech-related stuff.
klden007 7y ago
AWS Lambda lead Articles about distributed systems and more http://brooker.co.za/blog/ http://brooker.co.za/blog/
DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
I really love Jesse Frazelle's[1] blog. She posts things about low-level (firmware/open-hardware/system) security. Her work is already well known here on HN[2]. A few more of my fav: The grugq (NatSec, Tradecraft, OpSec): https://gru.gq/ https://gru.gq/ Pinboard (aka Maciej Cegłowski): https://idlewords.com/ https://idlewords.com/ Adam Aelkus: https://aelkus.github.io/ https://aelkus.github.io/ Bert Hubert: https://berthub.eu/ https://berthub.eu/ ____ [1] https://blog.jessfraz.com/ https://blog.jessfraz.com/ [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=jessfraz.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=jessfraz.com
666lumberjack 7y ago
http://danluu.com http://danluu.com is excellent.
huhtenberg 7y ago
http://www.tinytouchtales.com http://www.tinytouchtales.com covers both the process and the results, including the $ numbers. Great games too :) https://bvckup2.com/wip https://bvckup2.com/wip covers mostly technical parts, but gives a good view into what's involved in making a software product from A to Z, especially in the parts further down the page.
EliRivers 7y ago
Steve Yegge's old rants are good. I can never tell for sure which parts are him trolling me.
- jcalabro 7y ago
  Agreed, though I don't think he's trolling. Here's the link to his classic "Drunken Blog Rants": https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/ https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/
narrowtux 7y ago
Very good articles about Elixir and Erlang https://www.theerlangelist.com/ https://www.theerlangelist.com/
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hopia 7y ago
As for developers building projects, you might like: https://www.derrickreimer.com/ https://www.derrickreimer.com/
EvanKRob 7y ago
Nothing fancy but the content is really good. https://talktechnical.net/ https://talktechnical.net/
ponana 7y ago
https://kyletruong.com https://kyletruong.com I recently quit my job to become a solo dev and just started blogging about the process. If my content is of any value, please consider visiting.
victorleungtw 7y ago
I blog about my learning journey here if you're interested: https://victorleungtw.com https://victorleungtw.com
unixhero 7y ago
Hacker News!
dorumus 7y ago
rusu.io tracks the challenges, lessons and successes in the development of a solo developer. It won't overflow you with content that you cannot keep up with, but you'll get good insights into how a stoic approach to life and development works
akoutmos 7y ago
https://akoutmos.com/ https://akoutmos.com/ I started a blog the middle of last year and have written mostly about topics related to Elixir. But have also covered topics like RabbitMQ, Prometheus, Grafana, and PostGIS. I find my own blog very useful as I often reference the associated GitHub tutorial projects to remind myself how I did something :D. Next week's post is about using Loki for structured logging!
fendy3002 7y ago
Not solo but factorio: https://factorio.com/blog/ https://factorio.com/blog/ team has blog which is maintained every friday and very insightful
enriquto 7y ago
I follow regularly these people, these are mostly slow-going blogs or websites: 1. Fabrice Bellard: https://bellard.org/ https://bellard.org/ This is not really a blog, but a traditional website with links to the work of its author (who is probably one of the top programmers ever). It updates rarely, but when it does, it is to expose yet another monumental piece of computing work that will blow your universe. 2. Linus Akesson: https://www.linusakesson.net/ https://www.linusakesson.net/ He's always onto some funny crazy things: obfuscated programming, underhanded programming, c64 emulation, chiptunes... 3. Uriel l'Étranger: http://cat-v.org/ http://cat-v.org/ The only self-described "philosopher of software" that I have ever seen. His website is of course not updated anymore, but you can re-read it many times and always learn something new. 4. Ted Unangst: https://flak.tedunangst.com/ https://flak.tedunangst.com/ Nice to follow some cool news about openbsd development 5. Andy Chu: http://www.oilshell.org/blog/ http://www.oilshell.org/blog/ Who has embarked in an amazing quest to turn the unix shell into a cleaner tool 6. Jens Gustedt: https://gustedt.wordpress.com/ https://gustedt.wordpress.com/ If you really want to be up to date about the evolution of the C language
- notjustanymike 7y ago
  Did I just run Windows 2000 on my Pixel???
  - rcamargo 7y ago
    lol
skiril 7y ago
https://www.starterstory.com/ https://www.starterstory.com/ Its like Indie Hackers was back then. Before it changed ownership and became boring....
wesleybatista 7y ago
https://www.indiehackers.com/ https://www.indiehackers.com/ The founder also runs a podcast.
fulldecent2 7y ago
Here is my list of solo developer blogs. Usually they are on topic. This does not include personal blogs I follow that happen to be developers. @mdo (Bootstrop) - http://markdotto.com/ http://markdotto.com/ Keith Cirkel - https://www.keithcirkel.co.uk/ https://www.keithcirkel.co.uk/ Coding – Corbin's Treehouse - https://www.corbinstreehouse.com/blog https://www.corbinstreehouse.com/blog Aaditya Purani – Ethical Hacker - https://aadityapurani.com/ https://aadityapurani.com/ Ben Balter - http://ben.balter.com/ http://ben.balter.com/ fulldecent - https://privacylog.blogspot.com https://privacylog.blogspot.com Orange - http://blog.orange.tw/ http://blog.orange.tw/ Cocoa with Love - http://www.cocoawithlove.com/ http://www.cocoawithlove.com/ Mark Otto - http://markdotto.com/ http://markdotto.com/ Moxie Marlinspike's Blog - http://www.thoughtcrime.org/blog/ http://www.thoughtcrime.org/blog/ hueniverse - http://hueniverse.com/ http://hueniverse.com/
- brandon272 7y ago
  I stumbled upon Corbin's Treehouse back in the late 90s when I was a kid researching... treehouses! Was enthralled by his treehouse construction and still visit from time to time for all the other content.
eternalny1 7y ago
Raymond Chen's The Old New Thing: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/ https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/
bullen 7y ago
I'm trying to get a forum about MMO development started by posting to my own blog from here: http://reddit.com/r/mmodev http://reddit.com/r/mmodev
sillycube 7y ago
Solo developers are too busy with the business. I once started a series called "from 0 to 0.1: the journey from 0 to 1,000 customers. But I was too busy with other works like dev or marketing towards my target customers. https://blog.seo-product-optimizer.com/index.php/2017/01/11/from-0-to-0-1-the-journey-of-bootstrapping-a-small-ecommerce-plugin-to-a-scalable-business-part1/ https://blog.seo-product-optimizer.com/index.php/2017/01/11/...
wafflez180 7y ago
Declan Hopkins: https://dooskington.com/ https://dooskington.com/ His latest Antorum game blogs have been real interesting
firemelt 7y ago
This thread os great Google really kill personal site like these
Arnie0426 7y ago
I love reading these two for Python/Recommender Systems: 1. Ben Frederickson: https://www.benfrederickson.com/blog/ https://www.benfrederickson.com/blog/ 2. Erik Bernhardsson: https://erikbern.com/ https://erikbern.com/ And for pure ML: 1. Ferenc Huszár: https://www.inference.vc/ https://www.inference.vc/ 2. John Langford: https://hunch.net https://hunch.net (although he hasn't written a technical post in a while)
app4soft 7y ago
1. Alex Pakhunov: https://blog.not-a-kernel-guy.com/ https://blog.not-a-kernel-guy.com/ Alex Pakhunov (aka 'Not a kernel guy') is Sr. Software Engineer, Flight Software at SpaceX. He born and graduated in Ukraine, but now is U.S. citizen.[0,1] [0] https://twitter.com/alexeypa/status/958886120825081856 https://twitter.com/alexeypa/status/958886120825081856 [1] https://blog.not-a-kernel-guy.com/about/ https://blog.not-a-kernel-guy.com/about/
- app4soft 7y ago
  2. Eric Buijs: http://homehack.nl/ http://homehack.nl/ Eric Buijs about himself:[0] > I’m an privacy, free/libre software, open data and open standards advocate. I’m holding a grudge against Big Tech, big IP holders and authoritharian governments. Furthermore I’m a 3D designer, 3D printer, webdesigner and overall DIY guy. But most of all I’m a free man. > In addition I'm also a bicycle enthusiast. The bicycle is one of the most energy efficient ways of transportation and as far as I'm concerned the most fun way. On top of that riding a bicycle is an excellent way to lose weight, increase strenght and improve overall health. Now get on your bicycle and have fun. [0] https://fosstodon.org/@ericbuijs https://fosstodon.org/@ericbuijs [1] https://homehack.nl/about/ https://homehack.nl/about/
edem 7y ago
I think what you are looking for is Indie Hackers: https://www.indiehackers.com/ https://www.indiehackers.com/ They have a plethora of interviews with one-man projects you can learn from.
rcamargo 7y ago
Very nice post! A lot of awesome references here.
darkangel140613 7y ago
I am what you would call a freelancer developer, I am fairly new to this cyber security systems
darkangel140613 7y ago
I'm still pretty New
thallavajhula 7y ago
Here are some of the blogs I follow: https://tjcx.me/ https://tjcx.me/ https://blog.vjeux.com/ https://blog.vjeux.com/ https://zachholman.com/ https://zachholman.com/ https://rsms.me/ https://rsms.me/
boobo94 7y ago
Hi, I'm Boobo and I have a dev blog: https://boobo94.xyz https://boobo94.xyz Hope you subscribe there. Thanks
irockzz 7y ago
Personally i follow codeburst.io
buboard 7y ago
the twitter of the maker of nomadlist , levels.io . He doesn't seem to have time to write blog posts, but he 's actively against the VC and publishes his company's financials 100% in the open He gives real advice rather than wannabe advice
darekkay 7y ago
I've been building a Dashboard web app for almost one year now and I'm blogging [1] about it from the first day. [1] https://dashboard.darekkay.com/docs/blog/ https://dashboard.darekkay.com/docs/blog/

chrisseaton 7y ago

I don't know if you're not a native English speaker, but 'please do X' is not a polite way to ask someone to do something in English. I know it looks like it is if you look up 'please' in the dictionary, but it really doesn't sound like it in practice to native ears. You made a blunt demand, not a polite request. Also since your username is 'BossingAround' and you were literally bossing someone around in your comment they may think you're a troll account.

fastball 7y ago
I am a native English speaker and it seemed polite enough to me. How would you phrase the request?
- chrisseaton 7y ago
  > Hi this is a great article! I don't know if you've ever considered adding TLS to your personal site? I know a lot of people like me really appreciate even small websites having this.
  - aguyfromnb 7y ago
    This sounds as fake as "marketing-speak". There's nothing wrong with asking "Please do <something>" in the English language, it's plenty polite.
    - chrisseaton 7y ago
      It's not marketing speak. It's getting off on the right foot by saying you like the person's work. Then it's asking more carefully if they've considered it before, in case they have and decided against or weren't able to. Then it's saying you'd appreciate it rather than you require it. Just saying 'please do X' sounds like an email I'd get from a German who doesn't know English very well. It's grammatically correct but it's really all wrong.
      - mac_was 7y ago
        Are you from UK?
        chrisseaton 7y ago
        Lol yes.
      - njitbew 7y ago
        I'm Dutch speaker, we're known to be very direct, but I too believe adding "Please" in front of a request does not per se make it more polite. Another example that bothers me quite a lot is adding "Thanks" to a request without awaiting a reply. Writing "Can you please do xyz? Thanks" makes it come over as an instruction instead of a request, even though the author may have had the best intentions (express his gratitude). Or maybe I'm just overly sensitive ;)
        noir_lord 7y ago
        One of the things I love about some European cultures is that they carry over their natural bluntness when they speak English, my partner is Hungarian and to English ears her way of speaking is blunt to the point of trauma, I think it’s great, I far prefer people just get to the point particularly when they are asking for something. I am really not a fan of saccharine sweet false politeness.
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
        figomore 7y ago
        We Brazilians use it. It’s because it is the way we talk in Portuguese.
        goblin89 7y ago
        With a Slavic language as my first, I generally feel like adding “please” or “thanks” makes a request canned-polite; essentially it distances the speaker from the receiver. That said, the effect could be adjusted with carefully chosen intonation. Often a direct request would feel friendlier, unless receiver is particularly insecure/on the defensive. Sandwiching it between appreciative words is most foolproof, but I find it time-consuming to do in a genuine way.
      - kranner 7y ago
        I'm just curious what you would consider marketing-speak then. To my eyes, your phrasing seems to veer off into the other extreme towards seeming patronising and insincere. And it is pretty clear that you want essentially the same thing as the person who said "please do X". Maybe "please consider adding TLS because ... " is a good compromise? Still not a foot-stomping demand but you're stating why it would be better for all involved while not treating the subject as a child. Personally I would even leave off the "because ..." because I'm a non-native speaker and happy to be taken as a little abrasive.
      - randomdude402 7y ago
        Counterpoint, I often enjoy conversing with Europeans because it less often sounds like they are bullshitting and more often they just directly say what they mean, compared to fellow American born folks.
    - a9h74j 7y ago
      Saying "Could you kindly ..." is explicitly less demanding than "Please ...".
  - bouk 7y ago
    The shit sandwich always works!
  - randomdude402 7y ago
    Seems like unnecessarily much ass kissing for a simple request. IMO, "Please x" is a plenty polite way to ask for x in English, and "I am not going to x" is not rude at all I always fail to understand when people shy away from simplicity in communication. How long until we replace `wontfix` tags with `I totally would but I already have a thing that day`
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - dang 7y ago
      They're not shying away from simplicity, but from ambiguity, especially when the range of possible interpretations includes being a jerk. We don't have nonverbal channels to communicate in this format, unlike in person, where positive intent has many easy ways to come across. Here the only channel we have is words, so it needs to be explicit in words. The burden is on the commenter to disambiguate. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20burden%20disambiguate&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... (Doubly so when the message is off-topic and double again when it's a cliché.)
hliyan 7y ago
Thanks for this. Non-native speakers of English trip this one up a lot. This entire phenomenon of "please" is worthy of its own article.
spectramax 7y ago
Completely disagree as a native English speaker. "Please do foo" is polite. "Please pickup milk after work", "Please forgive me", "Please create a SSL cert for your website". Tangentially: Same thing happens in code reviews. People become extra soft at objective reasoning!!! The onus is on the offendee, not the offender. Stop being offended so much all the time, you'll live a healthier, happier life. Special treatment, feeling of being entitled for politeness is a slipper slope where everyone is being nice to each other and no one can criticize. Nothing gets done. We don't make progress together like this. Advice to the sender: Be polite, but assertive. Don't make personal attacks. Advice to the receiver: Assume good intentions, focus on problem at the hand, accept harsh criticism, don't be offended at little things. The world would be a better place.
- chrisseaton 7y ago
  I think I’d always say ‘would you mind picking up some milk’. ‘Please pickup milk’ sounds blunt to the point of mocking sarcasm! Maybe it’s cultural.
  - spectramax 7y ago
    I think the amount of energy you've spent on this thread convincing others of what you find offensive is worrying, but you've also taken my comment out of context. Yeah I agree, if you end the sentence abruptly it sounds blunt. Just replace it with "Please pick up milk on the way home" and it sounds normal. But that's not what I said. I can't believe we all have spent so much energy, downvotes, and bikeshedding including myself. This is surely not efficient. Instigator is the offendee. What a disgrace!
- strokirk 7y ago
  Why would the onus be on the offendee? The person making the request or giving the feedback is the person that has the most opportunity to choose their method of affect their communication. The receiver has very little choice, except sucking it up stoically. If you really want to communicate an idea, it's in your own best interest to adapt your approach to the listener.