Books

The best articles, according to hackers

60 articles recommended in Hacker News comments over the past year, ranked by how many separate people recommend each one.

• Most recommendedProgramming as Theory Building by Peter Naur32 people recommend it

All articles

• Programming as Theory Building by Peter NaurRecommended for framing software development as building a shared mental theory of the system rather than producing code; people say it stays relevant.32recommend
• Ur-Fascism by Umberto EcoRecommended as a serious, rigorous definition of fascism and a good starting point for understanding it. Critics find the essay meandering and say its list of traits is broad.18recommend
• Politics and the English Language by George OrwellRecommended as a short, sharp essay on clear, precise writing that people find still relevant.14recommend
• The Grug Brained Developer by Carson GrossPeople recommend this short, humorous essay on software complexity and simplicity, saying it sums up design and refactoring advice well.13recommend
• Right to Read by Richard StallmanA short, free essay by Richard Stallman warning that control over digital works can lock away knowledge; readers say it anticipated today's restrictions.12recommend
• Meditations on Moloch by Scott AlexanderRecommended as a favorite essay on why systems produce bad outcomes; one critic says it excuses evil people of responsibility.11recommend
• Choose Boring Technology by Dan McKinleyWidely shared essay urging teams to favor proven technology, with the 'innovation tokens' idea praised for guiding choices. Critics say the slogan can shut down debate about flawed old tools.11recommend
• The Bitter Lesson by Rich SuttonA short essay on AI that people recommend for framing current debates about scale, data and research direction, and for being widely misunderstood.10recommend
• Things You Should Never Do by Joel SpolskyWidely recommended essay arguing against rewriting software from scratch, with its advice still cited as relevant. Critics say parts of it are dated.10recommend
• Reflections on Trusting Trust by Ken ThompsonPeople recommend it as essential reading on why binary blobs and hidden compiler backdoors are a real problem, and why auditing all source is unfeasible.10recommend
• How Complex Systems Fail by Richard CookRecommended as a foundational short essay on why complex systems fail, arguing that root-cause attribution after accidents is misleading. No criticism was recorded.10recommend
• In the Beginning Was the Command Line by Neal StephensonRecommended as a classic, prescient essay on computer interfaces. Caveat: it overreaches its argument, and its Mac details are dated.9recommend
• The Night Watch by James MickensRecommended as a funny, whimsical take on systems programming, and as a strong late-career Pratchett City Watch novel of the same name.9recommend
• The Illustrated Transformer by Jay AlammarPeople recommend it as the clearest explanation of how transformers work, with visuals that help readers grasp the ideas. Critics raised no complaints.9recommend
• A Social Filesystem by Dan AbramovPeople recommend it as a clear primer on atproto, the protocol behind Bluesky, and as a readable longread for learning it. It is free to read on overreacted.io.8recommend
• C Is Not a Low-Level Language by David ChisnallPeople recommend this free article for explaining low-level multiprocessing issues and how C's model differs from computer hardware, and as a long-standing reference on the topic.8recommend
• Parse, Don't Validate by Alexis KingRecommended as a concise, mindset-changing classic on turning data into types instead of validating it. Critics say its division-by-zero example is weak.8recommend
• No Silver Bullet by Fred BrooksA 1986 essay arguing there is no single breakthrough that will make software far easier to build, still cited by readers as largely correct about modern tools and AI.8recommend
• This Is Water by David Foster WallacePeople recommend this short commencement speech as a highly regarded, influential and still relevant guide to how they see everyday life.8recommend
• Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People by Maciej CegłowskiPraised as a rare critique of AI doom that understands the case for it; critics call it poorly written and dated.8recommend
• Things I Won't Work With by Derek LoweReaders recommend it as an entertaining, accessible account of chemistry and lab hazards, with all 33 articles available to read.7recommend
• Mother Earth Mother Board by Neal StephensonPeople recommend this long Wired essay on undersea cables as a classic and very good read. One reader notes its part on telecom companies building cables is dated.7recommend
• How To Ask Questions The Smart Way by Eric S. RaymondRecommended as a guide to asking good questions, framing them as collaborative investigation. Critics say its harsh tone discourages newcomers and that it needs updating for the AI era.7recommend
• You and Your Research by Richard HammingPeople recommend Richard Hamming's talk on doing important research and making work matter; it is free to read or watch and is often shared as the essay to read.7recommend
• A Mathematician's Lament by Paul LockhartPeople recommend it for making mathematics feel fascinating and creative; the main caveat is that it treats maths only as art.7recommend
• No, Artificial Intelligence is not Conscious by Ted ChiangPeople recommend it as a clear, non-technical look at why LLMs seem conscious. Critics call it shallow and unoriginal.7recommend
• Julius by PloumReaders say this essay gave them pause, widened their view and stayed in their heads. The one caveat: one reader found the ending, about AI, weaker than the rest.7recommend
• Twitter Files by Matt TaibbiPeople recommend it as a starting point for Matt Taibbi's award-winning reporting on Twitter's internal moderation. Critics call much of it overblown or discredited.6recommend
• Are We Really Engineers? by Hillel WayneA well-researched article series asking whether software development is really engineering. Readers found it educational and its conclusion surprising. No criticisms were recorded.6recommend
• Don't Get Distracted by Caleb HearthRecommended for public sector workers and contractors to read and take to heart; it discusses knowingly working for the military.6recommend
• The Fall of the Theorem Economy by David BessisReaders call it an insightful essay on how mathematical progress may change, worth reading despite its length. Critics say it is far longer than needed.6recommend
• Life, Work, Death and the Peasant by Bret DevereauxA long, detailed look at the economics of premodern peasant farmers and their households, recommended as a realistic picture of pre-modern life.6recommend
• On the Foolishness of Natural Language Programming by Edsger W. DijkstraA short Dijkstra essay arguing that natural language programming is a dead end, and why it is still relevant to vibe coding. People say it is a joy to read and worth the two minutes.6recommend
• What Is Code? by Paul FordA long essay that explains software and programming to people outside the field. Readers call it clear, clarifying and worth revisiting, and no critics were recorded.6recommend
• Child's Play by Sam KrissReaders find this long Harper's essay on tech's new generation quickly absorbing, sharply characterized and funny. No criticism was recorded.6recommend
• Accounting for Computer Scientists by Martin KleppmannRecommended as a clear explanation of double-entry accounting for programmers, though critics find it skips the accounting logic and does not suit GAAP or IFRS learners.6recommend
• The AI Water Issue Is Fake by Andy MasleyRecommended as a detailed, well-sourced debunking of AI water-use claims, with many links, graphs and calculations. Critics say it omits context and that an earlier version had errors.5recommend
• The Submarine by Paul GrahamReaders who had never come across this Paul Graham essay call it brilliant, and say it still feels relevant even though it was written around 2005.5recommend
• As We May Think by Vannevar BushA 1945 essay describing an interactive, linked information system, recommended as a visionary precursor to hypertext and the internet.5recommend
• Do things that don't scale by Paul GrahamPaul Graham essay on early startup work that readers call a favorite. One critic says its advice doesn't always fit their context.5recommend
• Industrial Society and Its Future by Ted KaczynskiShort essay people cite for understanding self-propagating systems and as a text worth reading. Critics say it picks arguments to reach a predetermined conclusion.5recommend
• The Wrong Abstraction by Sandi MetzPeople recommend this short essay on why wrong abstractions in code cost more than duplication, and why the content is worth reading past the headline.5recommend
• grugbrain.devPeople recommend it for its funny, blunt essays against software complexity, written in grug-speak.5recommend
• The Long Way Down by Admiral CloudbergPeople recommend these in-depth write-ups of aviation and engineering incidents as excellent, detailed analysis that rewards reading.5recommend
• What Color is Your Function? by Bob NystromRecommended as a clear, widely praised explanation of function colors and async; critics say it covers only part of concurrency and offers little deep insight.5recommend
• The Adolescence of Technology by Dario AmodeiPeople recommend it for a logically argued, well-explained case about the risks of powerful AI. Critics say it rests on speculative assumptions and avoids its own conclusion.5recommend
• The Last Quiet Thing by Terry GodierRecommended as a reflective essay that readers say puts their own thoughts into words, with a plaintext version offered alongside the web format.5recommend
• Sam Altman May Control Our Future by Ronan Farrow and Andrew MarantzPraised as careful reporting that digs up pertinent facts for a CEO role. Caveats: it sits behind a paywall, and critics call it one-sided.5recommend
• Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years by Peter NorvigPeople recommend it as a paced, long-term guide to learning programming, one that sets a sensible learning pace.5recommend
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. RaymondPeople credit this essay with drawing people into free software and say its ideas still matter, though critics call it factually weak, dated and bad on its own merits.5recommend
• Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.People recommend this 1963 open letter for its lasting moral force and its lessons on changing minds through persuasion rather than authority. No critics appeared in the discussions.5recommend
• Richard Feynman and the Connection Machine by Danny HillisPeople recommend it as a great read about Feynman's time with Thinking Machines and the Connection Machine, worth re-reading and very quotable.5recommend
• How I use Claude Code by Boris TanePeople recommend this post for a structured method of working with Claude Code that separates planning from execution, which several readers say they adopted or built on.5recommend
• How to Earn a Billion Dollars by Paul GrahamRecommended as a set of useful tips on earning money, written down clearly. Critics say it encourages growth at all costs and is not a high-quality essay.5recommend
• Performance Improvements in .NET 11 by Stephen ToubStephen Toub's detailed .NET performance deep dives are praised as rare, technical writing that is not AI-generated filler. One critic found the style full of AI-model phrasing.5recommend
• Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto? My Quest to Unmask Bitcoin's CreatorReaders like its vivid reporting and a case they find convincing, though critics say it adds nothing new and weighs the evidence poorly.5recommend
• Locality of Behaviour by htmxRecommended as a short essay on keeping component behaviour close to its markup, written by the htmx author.5recommend
• The Letter S by Donald KnuthA playful, elaborate hack by Donald Knuth that readers admire, though critics find nine pages of formulae for one letter excessive and spot an error in Fig 9.5recommend
• The Two Cultures by C. P. SnowPeople recommend this short lecture as a quick, worthwhile read that helps readers navigate a specific issue. No critics appeared in the discussions.3recommend
• The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter BenjaminTwo Hacker News commenters recommended this essay, but no quotes were supplied explaining why.2recommend