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Ask HN: What are the most inspirational blog posts you've ever read?
What are the posts that have inspired you the most?
- SamReidHughes 14y agohttp://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/12/international-backup-awareness-day.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/12/international-backu...
- dhathorn 14y agoNon-technical. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/news/index.html http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/news/index.html
- igorgue 14y ago"The Last Lecture" is probably my favorite book, I recommend it to everyone.
- relaunched 14y agoThis was another amazingly inspirational talk. I highly recommend it to everyone. It's funny, emotional, well thought through and with everything going on in Prof Pausch's life at the time, one could only hope to leave this type of message to their family / children and the world.
- sachitgupta 14y agoMark Cuban on success and motivation: http://blogmaverick.com/2011/04/07/shark-tank-success-motivation/ http://blogmaverick.com/2011/04/07/shark-tank-success-motiva... The whole post is gold, but this is the best part: The point of all this is that it doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It doesn’t matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and either should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because… All that matters in business is that you get it right once.
- elimisteve 14y agoTo name a few... "The Stewart Method: How Not To Suck" -- http://www.shimweasel.com/2011/05/08/the-stewart-method-how-not-to-suck http://www.shimweasel.com/2011/05/08/the-stewart-method-how-... Chris Dixon's "Some lessons learned" -- http://cdixon.org/2011/09/28/some-lessons-learned http://cdixon.org/2011/09/28/some-lessons-learned "Thrust, Drag and the 10x Effect" -- http://www.tempobook.com/2011/10/25/thrust-drag-and-the-10x-effect/ http://www.tempobook.com/2011/10/25/thrust-drag-and-the-10x-...
- bluestix 14y agoBuilding Super Scalable Systems: Blade Runner Meets Autonomic Computing in the Ambient Cloud http://highscalability.com/blog/2009/12/16/building-super-scalable-systems-blade-runner-meets-autonomic.html http://highscalability.com/blog/2009/12/16/building-super-sc...
- toddh 14y agoThat's very kind of you, thanks.
- gorbachev 14y agoI'm Christian, unless you're gay. http://www.danoah.com/2011/11/im-christian-unless-youre-gay.html http://www.danoah.com/2011/11/im-christian-unless-youre-gay.... The blog post by itself is absolutely amazing, but the followups are what really make it. Link to them after the blog post on the last page.
- alagu 14y agohttp://myprasanna.posterous.com/2009/11/whatever-it-is-that-im-chasing.html http://myprasanna.posterous.com/2009/11/whatever-it-is-that-... Men get very strong, when they sight something they can die for.
- replax 14y agoDerek Sivers: There is no speed limit. Actually, very true I think. http://sivers.org/kimo http://sivers.org/kimo
- cynest 14y agoPrevious discussions: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3761013 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3761013 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=970945 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=970945 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2766060 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2766060
- nicolasmulder 14y agoPeacetime CEO/Wartime CEO http://bhorowitz.com/2011/04/15/peacetime-ceowartime-ceo/ http://bhorowitz.com/2011/04/15/peacetime-ceowartime-ceo/
- cynest 14y agoPrevious discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2450669 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2450669
- webcowboy 14y agoNot exactly a blog post, but truly better heard than read. "The Crickets Have Arthritis" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VrZE8MCnIA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VrZE8MCnIA
- alatkins 14y agoRichard Hamming: You and Your Research: http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html
- sayemm 14y agoThat's one of the most insightful and wisdom-packed posts I've ever read, can't believe I missed it - thanks so much.
- DivisibleByZero 14y agoAbout Radical Honsety http://www.esquire.com/print-this/honesty0707?page=all http://www.esquire.com/print-this/honesty0707?page=all
- cynest 14y agoPrevious discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=562014 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=562014
- ryporter 14y agoSteve Yegge's "Math For Programmers" was one of the (too) few posts I've read that actually resulted in action on my part. It made me realize how much I had let my math skills atrophy since college, and I invested a substantial amount of time trying to bring them back up to scratch. http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/03/math-for-programmers.html http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/03/math-for-programmers...
- cynest 14y agoPrevious discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3791894 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3791894
- jseliger 14y agoI send this as part of my "last e-mail" to students every semester: This is the post that could but probably won't change your life: "There’s no speed limit. (The lessons that changed my life)" http://sivers.org/kimo http://sivers.org/kimo . I say "could," because most of you probably won't click the link; of those of you who do, most of you won't read the whole thing; of those of you who do, most of you won't get it; of those who do, most won't implement it. On the off chance that one out of 50 of you let this change your life, however, I'm sending it. Derek Sivers, who posted "There's no speed limit," also wrote a book called Anything You Want, [1] and reading it is probably one of the best ways you can spend an hour. [1] http://www.amazon.com/dp/1936719118?ie=UTF8&tag=thstsst-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957 http://www.amazon.com/dp/1936719118?ie=UTF8&tag=thstsst-...
- Sukotto 14y agoWhy not send that at the start of the school year instead of the end? Maybe along with a challenge to learn your class material in half the semester. Or assign it as an optional reading assignment worth a small bonus % if they submit a brief plan on how they would apply the advice in that article in your own class. Is the tone of your email what you really intend? To me it reads like "I'm probably wasting my valuable time casting pearls before you swine. But just in case even ONE of you is worthy, here is some good advice from Derek Sivers". I find it dismissive, bordering on contempt.
- jseliger 14y agoI don't think my students have the context necessary to make sense of Sivers' point before they go through the whole class. I'm just being honest in the e-mail.
- cynest 14y agoPrevious discussions: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3761013 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3761013 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=970945 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=970945 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2766060 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2766060
- 14y ago
- rahulrg 14y agoNot exactly a blog post, but still. Clay Christensen's commencement address, "How will you measure your life?": http://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life/ar/pr http://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life/ar/pr
- edw519 14y agoI know OP is asking for a blog post, but there is no blog post that inspires me more that either of these 2 short videos: Dick and Rick Hoyt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH943Az_lPQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH943Az_lPQ Derek Redmond, 1992 Olympics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZlXWp6vFdE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZlXWp6vFdE
- solutionyogi 14y agoI can not watch Dick/Rick Hoyt's video without choking up. Whenever I am feeling down and feel that there is no way out, I watch their video for inspiration. I personally think that this video of Team Hoyt has better details about the story behind their struggle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDnrLv6z-mM&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDnrLv6z-mM&feature=relat...
- shpoonj 14y agoThank you so much for a video without christian music... I could actually watch this one.
- relaunched 14y agoI'd never see the Hoyt video before and that had me in tears. As a father, I'm humbled.
- cynest 14y agoCan people start linking the previous discussions on these?
- olalonde 14y agoPaul Graham's "How To Make Wealth" was truly inspiring to me at the time. http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html
- SatvikBeri 14y agoThis part really struck a chord with me, and forced me to stretch beyond merely doing slightly better than the average: "a smart hacker working very hard without any corporate bullshit to slow him down should be able to do work worth about $3 million a year."
- rtisticrahul 14y agoThis post on Great Hackers is a good read for every programmer lhttp://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html
- runevault 14y agoNot a blog post, but a great 3 minute video about beginnings from zeFrank. I put the mp3 on my player so when I need a bit of inspiration to kick off something I get it going. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYlCVwxoL_g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYlCVwxoL_g
- firefoxman1 14y agoA lot of the links I've seen people post in this thread are the kind of stuff I used to see a lot more on HN. Sure, I enjoy the HTML5/Rails/Python/(insert buzzword) posts, but it's too bad that a lot of new HN members will miss out on awesome posts with titles like "it's not about the idea" or "just ship it" etc.
- vitomd 14y agoThe Unsettling Truth About Life : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dtixs0UhkI&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dtixs0UhkI&feature=relat...
- sushilchoudhari 14y agoHow come no one mentioned Steve Jobs and his commencement speech at Stanford? It is absolutely one of my favorites. I watch it everytime i feel that i could use a dose of motivation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA
- jonwjones 14y agoIron and the Soul - Henry Rollins http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/03/16/iron-and-the-soul/ http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/03/16/iron-and-the-soul... Technically it is a magazine article but I stumbled upon the repost of it on nerd fitness.
- debacle 14y agoAs a side note, I used to think Henry Rollins was kind of a douche until I started reading his writings. I still am not really interested in listening to him speak, but he is a very compelling writer.
- bennesvig 14y agoDon't Die On Third - http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/dont_die_on_third.shtml http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/dont_die_on_third.s... Reject The Tyranny of Being Picked: Pick Yourself by Seth Godin http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/03/reject-the-tyranny-of-being-picked-pick-yourself.html http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/03/reject-the-t... Cage of the Mind - http://www.cstthegate.com/davetrott/2011/12/the-cage-of-the-mind/ http://www.cstthegate.com/davetrott/2011/12/the-cage-of-the-...
- huhtenberg 14y agoHow to Start a Startup I hope to thank Paul for this essay in person at some point in life. This is singularly most important thing I've read that helped me turn my life around.
- Schwolop 14y agohttp://www.paulgraham.com/start.html http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html
- freshfey 14y agoThe Lefsetz Letter on Mark Cuban: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2011/08/31/mark-cuban/ http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2011/08/31/m... 5 Crippling Beliefs That Keep People Stuck, Unsuccessful, and Mediocre For Life: http://www.dumblittleman.com/2011/08/5-crippling-beliefs-that-keep-people.html http://www.dumblittleman.com/2011/08/5-crippling-beliefs-tha... Do It Now: http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/do-it-now.htm http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/do-it-now.htm
- astrofinch 14y agohttp://dangerousintersection.org/2006/04/11/the-curse-of-fungible-dollars/ http://dangerousintersection.org/2006/04/11/the-curse-of-fun... http://dangerousintersection.org/2006/06/29/curses-dollars-and-hours-are-both-fungible/ http://dangerousintersection.org/2006/06/29/curses-dollars-a...
- hughesey 14y agoNot a blog post but a great book. The 4 Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307465357/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307465357&tag=hmedia-20 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307465357/ref=as_li_ss_tl?... Quite litterally changed my whole perspective on just about everything!
- freshfey 14y agoDid you implement some of these techniques into your life? If so, what and how? :)
- icoloma 14y agoDon't work. Be hated. Love someone. http://halfhalf.posterous.com/dont-work-be-hated-love-someone http://halfhalf.posterous.com/dont-work-be-hated-love-someon... Terry pratchett speech about alzheimer http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1986843/posts http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1986843/posts And of course, steve jobs speech at stanford. These three are speeches instead of posts, but I found them true inspiring.
- imrehg 14y agoJames Altucher's: http://www.jamesaltucher.com/ http://www.jamesaltucher.com/ He's awesome, insightful, and weird in an interesting way. A cross between "I messed up, so you don't have to", and "there are other ways to do things better than what most people think". Not saying that I agree with everything he says, nevertheless he keeps surprising me.
- ssylee 14y agoWhat's your background? What's inspirational for me may not be the same for you.
- bkumar86 14y agohttp://www.pacifict.com/Story/ http://www.pacifict.com/Story/ find this strangely motivating