8 ms·

Ask HN: What are your favorite Essays/Longform blogposts

35 points by l1am0 4y ago

What are your favorite Essays/Longform blogposts you find yourself coming back to over and over again? Does not have to be entrepreneurship related! Heading out for a longer vacation and wanna stack up that Kindle

l1am0 4y ago
- https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/ https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/ - http://paulgraham.com/ds.html http://paulgraham.com/ds.html
matthew16550 4y ago
https://vorpus.org/blog/notes-on-structured-concurrency-or-go-statement-considered-harmful/ https://vorpus.org/blog/notes-on-structured-concurrency-or-g... https://www.infoq.com/articles/slow-down-go-faster/ https://www.infoq.com/articles/slow-down-go-faster/
yesenadam 4y ago
Essays of GK Chesterton, Hazlitt, Emerson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Santayana, Bertrand Russell, HL Mencken, Oscar Wilde, William James Almost everything they wrote, but some good starting points: Chesterton - Heretics, Varied Types Hazlitt - The Plain Speaker, Table-Talk Emerson - Essays: First and Second Series Stevenson - Virginibus Puerisque, Across the Plains Santayana - Little Essays ed. Logan Pearsall Smith Russell - Unpopular Essays, Sceptical Essays Mencken - Selected Prejudices Wilde - Intentions James - Talks to Students, Memories and Studies
- shime 4y ago
  I find older essays much better than contemporary ones, which is why I currently read Chesterton, Emerson and Montaigne the most. Thanks for this, I'll explore other writers from your list.
tangue 4y ago
From my Kobo vacation readings : - The internet didn’t kill counterculture — you just won’t find it on Instagram https://www.documentjournal.com/2021/01/the-internet-didnt-kill-counterculture-you-just-wont-find-it-on-instagram/ https://www.documentjournal.com/2021/01/the-internet-didnt-k... - Extreme Athleticism Is the New Midlife Crisis (10 min) https://elemental.medium.com/extreme-athleticism-is-the-new-midlife-crisis-d87199a18bed https://elemental.medium.com/extreme-athleticism-is-the-new-... - The Rise and Fall of Getting Things Done (19 min) https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-rise-and-fall-of-getting-things-done https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-rise... - On Aging Alone (19 min) https://thewalrus.ca/on-aging-alone/ https://thewalrus.ca/on-aging-alone/ - How an Unlikely Family History Website Transformed Cold Case Investigations (31 min) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/science/gedmatch-genealogy-cold-cases.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/science/gedmatch-genealog... - They Hacked McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines—and Started a Cold War (31 min) https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-makers-started-cold-war/ https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-... - Why Revolutionaries Love Spicy Food (14 min) https://nautil.us/issue/62/systems/why-revolutionaries-love-spicy-food-rp https://nautil.us/issue/62/systems/why-revolutionaries-love-... - For Hannah Arendt, totalitarianism is rooted in loneliness (13 min) https://aeon.co/essays/for-hannah-arendt-totalitarianism-is-rooted-in-loneliness https://aeon.co/essays/for-hannah-arendt-totalitarianism-is-... - The Olympics Is a Racket (18 min) https://jacobinmag.com/2021/07/olympics-politics-working-class-international-elite-sports https://jacobinmag.com/2021/07/olympics-politics-working-cla...
wjgilmore 4y ago
I greatly enjoyed working through this list a while back: https://kk.org/cooltools/best-magazine-articles-ever/ https://kk.org/cooltools/best-magazine-articles-ever/
superasn 4y ago
I really like this one The Night I Met Einstein by Jerome Weidman https://www.rd.com/article/the-night-i-met-einstein/ https://www.rd.com/article/the-night-i-met-einstein/
shusaku 4y ago
Sea of Crisis (Grantland) https://grantland.com/features/sumo-wrestling-tokyo-japan-hakuho-yukio-mishima-novelist-seppuku/ https://grantland.com/features/sumo-wrestling-tokyo-japan-ha...
throwaway_4ever 4y ago
https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage... https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/07/archipelago-and-atomic-communitarianism/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/07/archipelago-and-atomic...
is_true 4y ago
Sorry I don't remember anything right now, but do you do something to read the articles on the kindle?
- l1am0 4y ago
  Yeah I have a jailbroken kindle and build a little tool which automatically downloads my reads from wallabag.it onto the kindle https://github.com/simonfrey/wallabag-kindle-4-client https://github.com/simonfrey/wallabag-kindle-4-client
  - is_true 4y ago
    Ty
- q-base 4y ago
  It is possible to have Instapaper send collections of articles to your Kindle wihtout the need for jailbraking or anything. I am sure it works with other services as well.
  - shime 4y ago
    Yes, this is also possible with Matter. No need to jailbreak.
nabi_nafio 4y ago
How to Think for Yourself by Paul Graham. Link to essay: http://www.paulgraham.com/think.html http://www.paulgraham.com/think.html
f0e4c2f7 4y ago
There's No Speed Limit [0] How I Became The Honest Broker [1] Running with Bruce Lee [2] This excerpt from Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman [3] Before The Startup [4] (also available in video form[5]) [0] https://sive.rs/kimo https://sive.rs/kimo [1] https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/how-i-became-the-honest-broker https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/how-i-became-the-honest-brok... [2] http://quittingadderall.com/running-with-bruce-lee-quote/ http://quittingadderall.com/running-with-bruce-lee-quote/ [3] https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/kilcup.1/262/feynman.html https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/kilcup.1/262/feynman.html [4] http://paulgraham.com/before.html http://paulgraham.com/before.html [5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii1jcLg-eIQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii1jcLg-eIQ
deleted 4y ago
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35 points by l1am0 4y ago

l1am0 4y ago

- https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/ https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/ - http://paulgraham.com/ds.html http://paulgraham.com/ds.html

matthew16550 4y ago

https://vorpus.org/blog/notes-on-structured-concurrency-or-go-statement-considered-harmful/ https://vorpus.org/blog/notes-on-structured-concurrency-or-g... https://www.infoq.com/articles/slow-down-go-faster/ https://www.infoq.com/articles/slow-down-go-faster/

yesenadam 4y ago

Essays of GK Chesterton, Hazlitt, Emerson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Santayana, Bertrand Russell, HL Mencken, Oscar Wilde, William James Almost everything they wrote, but some good starting points: Chesterton - Heretics, Varied Types Hazlitt - The Plain Speaker, Table-Talk Emerson - Essays: First and Second Series Stevenson - Virginibus Puerisque, Across the Plains Santayana - Little Essays ed. Logan Pearsall Smith Russell - Unpopular Essays, Sceptical Essays Mencken - Selected Prejudices Wilde - Intentions James - Talks to Students, Memories and Studies

shime 4y ago
I find older essays much better than contemporary ones, which is why I currently read Chesterton, Emerson and Montaigne the most. Thanks for this, I'll explore other writers from your list.

tangue 4y ago

From my Kobo vacation readings : - The internet didn’t kill counterculture — you just won’t find it on Instagram https://www.documentjournal.com/2021/01/the-internet-didnt-kill-counterculture-you-just-wont-find-it-on-instagram/ https://www.documentjournal.com/2021/01/the-internet-didnt-k... - Extreme Athleticism Is the New Midlife Crisis (10 min) https://elemental.medium.com/extreme-athleticism-is-the-new-midlife-crisis-d87199a18bed https://elemental.medium.com/extreme-athleticism-is-the-new-... - The Rise and Fall of Getting Things Done (19 min) https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-rise-and-fall-of-getting-things-done https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-rise... - On Aging Alone (19 min) https://thewalrus.ca/on-aging-alone/ https://thewalrus.ca/on-aging-alone/ - How an Unlikely Family History Website Transformed Cold Case Investigations (31 min) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/science/gedmatch-genealogy-cold-cases.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/science/gedmatch-genealog... - They Hacked McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines—and Started a Cold War (31 min) https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-makers-started-cold-war/ https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-... - Why Revolutionaries Love Spicy Food (14 min) https://nautil.us/issue/62/systems/why-revolutionaries-love-spicy-food-rp https://nautil.us/issue/62/systems/why-revolutionaries-love-... - For Hannah Arendt, totalitarianism is rooted in loneliness (13 min) https://aeon.co/essays/for-hannah-arendt-totalitarianism-is-rooted-in-loneliness https://aeon.co/essays/for-hannah-arendt-totalitarianism-is-... - The Olympics Is a Racket (18 min) https://jacobinmag.com/2021/07/olympics-politics-working-class-international-elite-sports https://jacobinmag.com/2021/07/olympics-politics-working-cla...

wjgilmore 4y ago

I greatly enjoyed working through this list a while back: https://kk.org/cooltools/best-magazine-articles-ever/ https://kk.org/cooltools/best-magazine-articles-ever/

superasn 4y ago

I really like this one The Night I Met Einstein by Jerome Weidman https://www.rd.com/article/the-night-i-met-einstein/ https://www.rd.com/article/the-night-i-met-einstein/

shusaku 4y ago

Sea of Crisis (Grantland) https://grantland.com/features/sumo-wrestling-tokyo-japan-hakuho-yukio-mishima-novelist-seppuku/ https://grantland.com/features/sumo-wrestling-tokyo-japan-ha...

throwaway_4ever 4y ago

https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage... https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/07/archipelago-and-atomic-communitarianism/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/07/archipelago-and-atomic...

is_true 4y ago

Sorry I don't remember anything right now, but do you do something to read the articles on the kindle?

l1am0 4y ago
Yeah I have a jailbroken kindle and build a little tool which automatically downloads my reads from wallabag.it onto the kindle https://github.com/simonfrey/wallabag-kindle-4-client https://github.com/simonfrey/wallabag-kindle-4-client
- is_true 4y ago
  Ty
q-base 4y ago
It is possible to have Instapaper send collections of articles to your Kindle wihtout the need for jailbraking or anything. I am sure it works with other services as well.
- shime 4y ago
  Yes, this is also possible with Matter. No need to jailbreak.

nabi_nafio 4y ago

How to Think for Yourself by Paul Graham. Link to essay: http://www.paulgraham.com/think.html http://www.paulgraham.com/think.html

f0e4c2f7 4y ago

There's No Speed Limit [0] How I Became The Honest Broker [1] Running with Bruce Lee [2] This excerpt from Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman [3] Before The Startup [4] (also available in video form[5]) [0] https://sive.rs/kimo https://sive.rs/kimo [1] https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/how-i-became-the-honest-broker https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/how-i-became-the-honest-brok... [2] http://quittingadderall.com/running-with-bruce-lee-quote/ http://quittingadderall.com/running-with-bruce-lee-quote/ [3] https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/kilcup.1/262/feynman.html https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/kilcup.1/262/feynman.html [4] http://paulgraham.com/before.html http://paulgraham.com/before.html [5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii1jcLg-eIQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii1jcLg-eIQ

deleted 4y ago

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