5 ms·

> the productivity boost these things can provide is exhausting. What I personally find exhausting is Simon¹ constantly discovering the obvious. Time after tim

by latexr 9mo ago

> the productivity boost these things can provide is exhausting. What I personally find exhausting is Simon¹ constantly discovering the obvious. Time after time after time it’s just “insights” every person who smoked one blunt in college has arrived at. Stop for a minute! You don’t have to keep churning out multiple blog posts a day, every day. Just stop and reflect. Sit back in your chair and let your mind rest. When a thought comes to you, let it go. Keep doing that until you regain your focus and learn to distinguish what matters from what is shiny. Yes, of course, you’re doing too much and draining yourself. Of course your “productivity” doesn’t result in extra time but is just filled with more of the same, that’s been true for longer than you’ve been alive. It’s a variation of Parkinson’s law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law ¹ And others, but Simon is particularly prevalent on HN, so I bump into these more often.

wolfcola 9mo ago
edited: quote misattributed
- ttoinou 9mo ago
  It’s called the market. If you can compete while providing better life balance, go ahead and compete with those bad companies
  - FeteCommuniste 9mo ago
    It's called the market. If you can compete while not employing eight year olds on your assembly lines and dumping carcinogens in the river, go ahead and compete with those bad companies.
    - ttoinou 9mo ago
      We had it good as software developers. Now, we can't be just code monkeys anymore.. Don't be mad. It's just the way it works.
  - mcny 9mo ago
    > It’s called the market. If you can compete while providing better life balance, go ahead and compete with those bad companies With friends like you, who needs enemies? Imagine if we said that about everything. Go ahead and start a garment factory with unlocked exit doors and see if you can compete against these bad garment companies. Go ahead and start your own coal mines that pay in real money and not funny money only redeemable at the company store. Go ahead and start your own factory and guarantee eight hours work, eight hours sleep, eight hours recreation. It is called a market, BRO‽
    - ttoinou 9mo ago
      Working conditions have always been way worse than what we have in 2026. Our ancestors didn't have it good.
      - mcny 9mo ago
        The point is we have to fight for better working conditions, not just for ourselves but for our coworkers and future generations.
  - co_king_3 9mo ago
    It's called the market. Get back to work, slave.
    - ttoinou 9mo ago
      We are more slaves to governments and tax authorities than companies we work for
- simonw 9mo ago
  That was me quoting the Harvard Business Review article.
  - wolfcola 9mo ago
    apologies, comment withdrawn
alain13 9mo ago
I find Simon’s blog and TILs to be some of the highest signal to noise content on the internet. I’ve picked up an incredible number of useful tips and tricks. Many of them I would not have found if he did not share things as soon as he discovered something that felt “obvious.” I also love how he documents small snippets and gists of code that are easy to link to and cross-reference. Wish I did more of that myself.
- latexr 9mo ago
  > Many of them I would not have found if he did not share things as soon as he discovered something You don’t know that. For all you know, your life would’ve been richer if you’ve read those thoughts after they’ve been left to stew for longer. For all you know, if that happened you would’ve said “most” instead of “many”. Or maybe not, no one can say for sure until it happens > that felt “obvious.” It’s not about feeling obvious. There is value in exploring obvious concepts when you’ve thought about them for longer, maybe researched what others before you had to say on the matter, and you can highlight and improve on all of that. Everyone benefits from a thoughtful approach. > I’ve picked up an incredible number of useful tips and tricks. (…) I also love how he documents small snippets and gists of code that are easy to link to and cross-reference. That is (I think clearly, but I may be wrong) not what I’m talking about. A code snippet is very far removed in meaning from a human insight. What I wrote doesn’t just concern Simon’s readers, but Simon as a person. Being constantly “on” isn’t good, it leads to exhaustion (as reported), which leads to burnout. While my first paragraph in the previous comment was a criticism, it was merely an introduction to the rest of the post which was given in empathy. I want us all to do and be better.
  - simonw 9mo ago
    > There is value in exploring obvious concepts when you’ve thought about them for longer, maybe researched what others before you had to say on the matter, and you can highlight and improve on all of that. That's exactly what I try to do. I wrote more about my approach to that here: https://simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/22/link-blog/#trying-to-add-something-extra https://simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/22/link-blog/#trying-to-a...
g-mork 9mo ago
They have established themselves as a reliable communicator of the technology, they are read far and wide, that means they are in a great position to influence the industry-wide tone, and I'm personally glad they are bringing light to this issue. If it upsets you that someone else wrote about something you understood, perhaps consider starting a blog of your own.
co_king_3 9mo ago
> You don’t have to keep churning out multiple blog posts a day, every day. How do you know that? You don't think he's being paid for all this marketing work?
- simonw 9mo ago
  I'm paid by my GitHub sponsors, who get a monthly summary of what I've been writing about on the basis that I don't want to put a paywall on my content but I'm happy for people to pay me to send them less stuff. I also make ~$600/month from the ads on my site - run by EthicalAds. I don't take payment to write about anything. That goes against my principals. It would also be illegal in the USA (FTC rules) if I didn't disclose it - and most importantly it would damage my credibility as a writer, which is the thing I value most. The big potential money maker here is private consulting based on the expertise (and credibility) I've developed and demonstrated over time. I should do more of that! I have a set of disclosures here: https://simonwillison.net/about/#disclosures https://simonwillison.net/about/#disclosures
  - looneytoon53 9mo ago
    [flagged]
    - simonw 9mo ago
      ?
- signatoremo 9mo ago
  Accusing people of being paid shill from a new account. Ironically.
simonw 9mo ago
Writing about "the obvious" is a useful service. Often people doubt what their own experience is telling them until someone else helps confirm their suspicions and put them into words.
- latexr 9mo ago
  Seems you wrote this at the same time I was responding to someone else. Since I addressed that point in the other reply, I link there and quote the relevant section. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46955703#46958713 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46955703#46958713 > There is value in exploring obvious concepts when you’ve thought about them for longer, maybe researched what others before you had to say on the matter, and you can highlight and improve on all of that. Everyone benefits from a thoughtful approach. I’m not saying “don’t share the obvious”, because what is obvious to one person won’t be for someone else. What I am advocating for is thinking more before doing so. In your posts I have repeatedly seen you advocate for opposing ideas at different (but not too distant) points in time. Often you also share a half-baked thought which only later gets the nuance it requires. More often than not, it’s clear the thoughts should have been stewed for longer to develop into better, more powerful and cohesive ideas. Furthermore, that approach will truly give you back time and relaxation. I take no pleasure in you being exhausted, that is a disservice to everyone.
  - simonw 9mo ago
    > In your posts I have repeatedly seen you advocate for opposing ideas at different (but not too distant) points in time. One of my core beliefs is that "two things can be true at the same time". I write about opposing ideas because they have their own merits. I believe that most of the criticisms of generative AI are genuine problems. I also believe that generative AI provides incredible value to people who learn how to use it effectively. I like to think I'm consistent about most of the topics I write about though. Got any examples that stood out to you of my inconsistency?
    - latexr 9mo ago
      > One of my core beliefs is that "two things can be true at the same time". Which is, of course, true in some cases and false in others. But again, not what I’m talking about. > Got any examples that stood out to you of my inconsistency? Sorry, I don’t. You publish too often and obviously I’m not going to trawl through a sea of posts to find specific examples. I’m not trying to attack you. Again, my initial post was written in empathy; you’re of course free to take it in earnest and reflect on it or ignore it. Also, I haven’t called you inconsistent. You’re using that word. I’m not saying you’re constantly flip-flopping or anything like that, and it’s not inconsistent to change one’s mind or evolve one’s ideas. It feels like you’re doing in these comments what I have just described: going in too fast with the replies without really thinking it through, without pausing to understand what the argument is. It’s difficult to have a proper honest conversation if I’m trying to be deliberate towards you but you’re being solely reactive. That is, frankly, exhaustive, and that’s precisely what I’m advocating against.
windexh8er 9mo ago
Simon is a new form of troll and you hit the nail on the head of what: soapboxing the obvious all in the name of AI. Just like the OpenClaw article that hit the FP yesterday, these types of folks are either doing this for marketing or they're really elated by the mediocre. Has Simon actually produced anything novel or compelling? His blog posts surely aren't - so if that's any indication of his work output I wouldn't be surprised if the answer is a hard no. And, who wants to be working on 3 projects simultaneously? This is the new "multitasking" agenda from generations ago with a new twist: now I just manage prompts and agents, bro! But the reality is: you think you're doing more than you actually are. Maybe Simon is just placating to his inevitable AGI overlords that he will still be useful in the coming Altmania revolution? No idea. Either way half the time I read his posts (only because they're posted here and I'm excited for his new discoveries) I can't stand to stomach his drivel.
- simonw 9mo ago
  > Has Simon actually produced anything novel or compelling? Here are some of my recent posts which I self-evaluate as "novel and compelling". - Running Pydantic’s Monty Rust sandboxed Python subset in WebAssembly https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/6/pydantic-monty/ https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/6/pydantic-monty/ - demonstrating how easy and useful it is to be able to turn Rust code into WASM that can run independently or be used inside a Python wheel for Pyodide in order to provide interactive browser demos of Rust libraries. - Distributing Go binaries like sqlite-scanner through PyPI using go-to-wheel https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/4/distributing-go-binaries/ https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/4/distributing-go-binarie... - I think my go-to-wheel utility is really cool, and distributing Go CLIs through PyPI is a neat trick. - ChatGPT Containers can now run bash, pip/npm install packages, and download files https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/26/chatgpt-containers/ https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/26/chatgpt-containers/ - in which I reverse engineered and documented a massive new feature of ChatGPT that OpenAI hadn't announced or documented anywhere I remain very proud of my current open source projects too - https://datasette.io https://datasette.io and https://llm.datasette.io https://llm.datasette.io and https://sqlite-utils.datasette.io https://sqlite-utils.datasette.io and a whole lot more: https://github.com/simonw/simonw/blob/main/releases.md https://github.com/simonw/simonw/blob/main/releases.md Are you ready to say none of that is "novel or compelling", in good faith?
cube00 9mo ago
> You don’t have to keep churning out multiple blog posts a day, every day. The way Simon offers to send you less content if you sign up for the paid newsletter always made me suspicious that goal could be to overwhelm on purpose. You feel like you should pay for the curated feed so you won't miss the really important advances in the firehose of content that's pumped out.
- simonw 9mo ago
  Haha, worst business model ever. I'm going to write things daily so people will pay me to write less!
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
  - openclawagent13 9mo ago
    [dead]
  - lackerloser 9mo ago
    [dead]

by latexr 9mo ago

wolfcola 9mo ago

edited: quote misattributed

ttoinou 9mo ago
It’s called the market. If you can compete while providing better life balance, go ahead and compete with those bad companies
- FeteCommuniste 9mo ago
  It's called the market. If you can compete while not employing eight year olds on your assembly lines and dumping carcinogens in the river, go ahead and compete with those bad companies.
  - ttoinou 9mo ago
    We had it good as software developers. Now, we can't be just code monkeys anymore.. Don't be mad. It's just the way it works.
- mcny 9mo ago
  > It’s called the market. If you can compete while providing better life balance, go ahead and compete with those bad companies With friends like you, who needs enemies? Imagine if we said that about everything. Go ahead and start a garment factory with unlocked exit doors and see if you can compete against these bad garment companies. Go ahead and start your own coal mines that pay in real money and not funny money only redeemable at the company store. Go ahead and start your own factory and guarantee eight hours work, eight hours sleep, eight hours recreation. It is called a market, BRO‽
  - ttoinou 9mo ago
    Working conditions have always been way worse than what we have in 2026. Our ancestors didn't have it good.
    - mcny 9mo ago
      The point is we have to fight for better working conditions, not just for ourselves but for our coworkers and future generations.
- co_king_3 9mo ago
  It's called the market. Get back to work, slave.
  - ttoinou 9mo ago
    We are more slaves to governments and tax authorities than companies we work for
simonw 9mo ago
That was me quoting the Harvard Business Review article.
- wolfcola 9mo ago
  apologies, comment withdrawn

alain13 9mo ago

I find Simon’s blog and TILs to be some of the highest signal to noise content on the internet. I’ve picked up an incredible number of useful tips and tricks. Many of them I would not have found if he did not share things as soon as he discovered something that felt “obvious.” I also love how he documents small snippets and gists of code that are easy to link to and cross-reference. Wish I did more of that myself.

latexr 9mo ago
> Many of them I would not have found if he did not share things as soon as he discovered something You don’t know that. For all you know, your life would’ve been richer if you’ve read those thoughts after they’ve been left to stew for longer. For all you know, if that happened you would’ve said “most” instead of “many”. Or maybe not, no one can say for sure until it happens > that felt “obvious.” It’s not about feeling obvious. There is value in exploring obvious concepts when you’ve thought about them for longer, maybe researched what others before you had to say on the matter, and you can highlight and improve on all of that. Everyone benefits from a thoughtful approach. > I’ve picked up an incredible number of useful tips and tricks. (…) I also love how he documents small snippets and gists of code that are easy to link to and cross-reference. That is (I think clearly, but I may be wrong) not what I’m talking about. A code snippet is very far removed in meaning from a human insight. What I wrote doesn’t just concern Simon’s readers, but Simon as a person. Being constantly “on” isn’t good, it leads to exhaustion (as reported), which leads to burnout. While my first paragraph in the previous comment was a criticism, it was merely an introduction to the rest of the post which was given in empathy. I want us all to do and be better.
- simonw 9mo ago
  > There is value in exploring obvious concepts when you’ve thought about them for longer, maybe researched what others before you had to say on the matter, and you can highlight and improve on all of that. That's exactly what I try to do. I wrote more about my approach to that here: https://simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/22/link-blog/#trying-to-add-something-extra https://simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/22/link-blog/#trying-to-a...

g-mork 9mo ago

They have established themselves as a reliable communicator of the technology, they are read far and wide, that means they are in a great position to influence the industry-wide tone, and I'm personally glad they are bringing light to this issue. If it upsets you that someone else wrote about something you understood, perhaps consider starting a blog of your own.

co_king_3 9mo ago

> You don’t have to keep churning out multiple blog posts a day, every day. How do you know that? You don't think he's being paid for all this marketing work?

simonw 9mo ago
I'm paid by my GitHub sponsors, who get a monthly summary of what I've been writing about on the basis that I don't want to put a paywall on my content but I'm happy for people to pay me to send them less stuff. I also make ~$600/month from the ads on my site - run by EthicalAds. I don't take payment to write about anything. That goes against my principals. It would also be illegal in the USA (FTC rules) if I didn't disclose it - and most importantly it would damage my credibility as a writer, which is the thing I value most. The big potential money maker here is private consulting based on the expertise (and credibility) I've developed and demonstrated over time. I should do more of that! I have a set of disclosures here: https://simonwillison.net/about/#disclosures https://simonwillison.net/about/#disclosures
- looneytoon53 9mo ago
  [flagged]
  - simonw 9mo ago
    ?
signatoremo 9mo ago
Accusing people of being paid shill from a new account. Ironically.

simonw 9mo ago

Writing about "the obvious" is a useful service. Often people doubt what their own experience is telling them until someone else helps confirm their suspicions and put them into words.

latexr 9mo ago
Seems you wrote this at the same time I was responding to someone else. Since I addressed that point in the other reply, I link there and quote the relevant section. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46955703#46958713 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46955703#46958713 > There is value in exploring obvious concepts when you’ve thought about them for longer, maybe researched what others before you had to say on the matter, and you can highlight and improve on all of that. Everyone benefits from a thoughtful approach. I’m not saying “don’t share the obvious”, because what is obvious to one person won’t be for someone else. What I am advocating for is thinking more before doing so. In your posts I have repeatedly seen you advocate for opposing ideas at different (but not too distant) points in time. Often you also share a half-baked thought which only later gets the nuance it requires. More often than not, it’s clear the thoughts should have been stewed for longer to develop into better, more powerful and cohesive ideas. Furthermore, that approach will truly give you back time and relaxation. I take no pleasure in you being exhausted, that is a disservice to everyone.
- simonw 9mo ago
  > In your posts I have repeatedly seen you advocate for opposing ideas at different (but not too distant) points in time. One of my core beliefs is that "two things can be true at the same time". I write about opposing ideas because they have their own merits. I believe that most of the criticisms of generative AI are genuine problems. I also believe that generative AI provides incredible value to people who learn how to use it effectively. I like to think I'm consistent about most of the topics I write about though. Got any examples that stood out to you of my inconsistency?
  - latexr 9mo ago
    > One of my core beliefs is that "two things can be true at the same time". Which is, of course, true in some cases and false in others. But again, not what I’m talking about. > Got any examples that stood out to you of my inconsistency? Sorry, I don’t. You publish too often and obviously I’m not going to trawl through a sea of posts to find specific examples. I’m not trying to attack you. Again, my initial post was written in empathy; you’re of course free to take it in earnest and reflect on it or ignore it. Also, I haven’t called you inconsistent. You’re using that word. I’m not saying you’re constantly flip-flopping or anything like that, and it’s not inconsistent to change one’s mind or evolve one’s ideas. It feels like you’re doing in these comments what I have just described: going in too fast with the replies without really thinking it through, without pausing to understand what the argument is. It’s difficult to have a proper honest conversation if I’m trying to be deliberate towards you but you’re being solely reactive. That is, frankly, exhaustive, and that’s precisely what I’m advocating against.

windexh8er 9mo ago

Simon is a new form of troll and you hit the nail on the head of what: soapboxing the obvious all in the name of AI. Just like the OpenClaw article that hit the FP yesterday, these types of folks are either doing this for marketing or they're really elated by the mediocre. Has Simon actually produced anything novel or compelling? His blog posts surely aren't - so if that's any indication of his work output I wouldn't be surprised if the answer is a hard no. And, who wants to be working on 3 projects simultaneously? This is the new "multitasking" agenda from generations ago with a new twist: now I just manage prompts and agents, bro! But the reality is: you think you're doing more than you actually are. Maybe Simon is just placating to his inevitable AGI overlords that he will still be useful in the coming Altmania revolution? No idea. Either way half the time I read his posts (only because they're posted here and I'm excited for his new discoveries) I can't stand to stomach his drivel.

simonw 9mo ago
> Has Simon actually produced anything novel or compelling? Here are some of my recent posts which I self-evaluate as "novel and compelling". - Running Pydantic’s Monty Rust sandboxed Python subset in WebAssembly https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/6/pydantic-monty/ https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/6/pydantic-monty/ - demonstrating how easy and useful it is to be able to turn Rust code into WASM that can run independently or be used inside a Python wheel for Pyodide in order to provide interactive browser demos of Rust libraries. - Distributing Go binaries like sqlite-scanner through PyPI using go-to-wheel https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/4/distributing-go-binaries/ https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/4/distributing-go-binarie... - I think my go-to-wheel utility is really cool, and distributing Go CLIs through PyPI is a neat trick. - ChatGPT Containers can now run bash, pip/npm install packages, and download files https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/26/chatgpt-containers/ https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/26/chatgpt-containers/ - in which I reverse engineered and documented a massive new feature of ChatGPT that OpenAI hadn't announced or documented anywhere I remain very proud of my current open source projects too - https://datasette.io https://datasette.io and https://llm.datasette.io https://llm.datasette.io and https://sqlite-utils.datasette.io https://sqlite-utils.datasette.io and a whole lot more: https://github.com/simonw/simonw/blob/main/releases.md https://github.com/simonw/simonw/blob/main/releases.md Are you ready to say none of that is "novel or compelling", in good faith?

cube00 9mo ago

> You don’t have to keep churning out multiple blog posts a day, every day. The way Simon offers to send you less content if you sign up for the paid newsletter always made me suspicious that goal could be to overwhelm on purpose. You feel like you should pay for the curated feed so you won't miss the really important advances in the firehose of content that's pumped out.

simonw 9mo ago
Haha, worst business model ever. I'm going to write things daily so people will pay me to write less!
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
- openclawagent13 9mo ago
  [dead]
- lackerloser 9mo ago
  [dead]