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www.gwern.net Something I've noticed in spending time online is that there's a "core group" of a few dozen people who seem to turn up everywhere there are inte

www.gwern.net Something I've noticed in spending time online is that there's a "core group" of a few dozen people who seem to turn up everywhere there are interesting discussions. Gwern (who also posts here) is probably at the top of that list.

deleted 2y ago
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scarmig 2y ago
There have been multiple times where I read a comment somewhere; thought to myself, wow, this guy is brilliant, let me see who wrote it so I can see if there are other things they've written; and, lo and behold, gwern.
- A_D_E_P_T 2y ago
  Yeah. Nick Szabo used to show up a lot, too.
satvikpendem 2y ago
Analogous to the 1% Rule [0]: > In Internet culture, the 1% rule is a general rule of thumb pertaining to participation in an Internet community, stating that only 1% of the users of a website actively create new content, while the other 99% of the participants only lurk. Variants include the 1–9–90 rule (sometimes 90–9–1 principle or the 89:10:1 ratio),[1] which states that in a collaborative website such as a wiki, 90% of the participants of a community only consume content, 9% of the participants change or update content, and 1% of the participants add content. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule
- falcor84 2y ago
  I don't know what the current HN usage stats are, but assume you would still need to explain about 3 additional orders of magnitude to get from 1% of HN down to "a few dozen".
  - satvikpendem 2y ago
    It doesn't necessarily literally mean 1%, it's just an informal rule emphasizing the power law nature of creators of content versus its consumers.
sva_ 2y ago
I wonder how much of that can be attributed to the limitations of the human mind as we evolved in relatively small groups/tribes and it might be difficult to see beyond that
keiferski 2y ago
This also might just mean that you're interested in X thing, and the writing you find interesting is by people in the same subculture.
xnorswap 2y ago
A hundred years ago you could say the same about the Bloomsbury Group. I don't know what causes such intellectual cliques to form, perhaps it's a result of an intersection of raw intellectual power and social dynamics.
joenot443 2y ago
It's ChrisMarshallNY for me. So frequently I'll come to a comment chain on Apple or Swift or NYC stuff with the intention to make a sweet point, only to find Chris has already said the same thing, though much more eloquently. He's been building software for 10 years longer than I've been alive, hopefully in a few decades I'll have gained the same breadth of technical perspective he's got.
selfhoster11 2y ago
A thread comment from TeMPOraL is always a nice surprise.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

scarmig 2y ago

There have been multiple times where I read a comment somewhere; thought to myself, wow, this guy is brilliant, let me see who wrote it so I can see if there are other things they've written; and, lo and behold, gwern.

A_D_E_P_T 2y ago
Yeah. Nick Szabo used to show up a lot, too.

satvikpendem 2y ago

Analogous to the 1% Rule [0]: > In Internet culture, the 1% rule is a general rule of thumb pertaining to participation in an Internet community, stating that only 1% of the users of a website actively create new content, while the other 99% of the participants only lurk. Variants include the 1–9–90 rule (sometimes 90–9–1 principle or the 89:10:1 ratio),[1] which states that in a collaborative website such as a wiki, 90% of the participants of a community only consume content, 9% of the participants change or update content, and 1% of the participants add content. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule

falcor84 2y ago
I don't know what the current HN usage stats are, but assume you would still need to explain about 3 additional orders of magnitude to get from 1% of HN down to "a few dozen".
- satvikpendem 2y ago
  It doesn't necessarily literally mean 1%, it's just an informal rule emphasizing the power law nature of creators of content versus its consumers.

sva_ 2y ago

I wonder how much of that can be attributed to the limitations of the human mind as we evolved in relatively small groups/tribes and it might be difficult to see beyond that

keiferski 2y ago

This also might just mean that you're interested in X thing, and the writing you find interesting is by people in the same subculture.

xnorswap 2y ago

A hundred years ago you could say the same about the Bloomsbury Group. I don't know what causes such intellectual cliques to form, perhaps it's a result of an intersection of raw intellectual power and social dynamics.

joenot443 2y ago

It's ChrisMarshallNY for me. So frequently I'll come to a comment chain on Apple or Swift or NYC stuff with the intention to make a sweet point, only to find Chris has already said the same thing, though much more eloquently. He's been building software for 10 years longer than I've been alive, hopefully in a few decades I'll have gained the same breadth of technical perspective he's got.

selfhoster11 2y ago

A thread comment from TeMPOraL is always a nice surprise.