# Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky

19 Hacker News commenters recommended Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky and 17 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Praised for clever subversion of the Harry Potter world and above-average prose for fan fiction. Caveat: very long, and critics find it preachy.

## Why people recommend it

- Stronger than the original series (3 comments): "I thought that Yudkowsky's HPMOR fanfic had more interesting ideas than the whole Rowling series" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46263877)) "it's my favorite book and I consider it better than the original series" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50101110)) "This is part of what makes it a better story than the original." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49745377))
- Clever subversion of Harry Potter world (2 comments): "Most of what makes hpmor good is the cleverness with which yudkowsky subverts the original harry potter world" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49745718)) "the overall struggle/war and reimagining of logical fallacies of the HP universe's magic were fun" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49749700))
- Prose above average for fan fiction (2 comments): "Not only is his prose actually acceptable which is pretty rare in fanfic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49741887)) "I find yudkowsky's prose to be above average for fan fic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49744945))

## What people warn about

- Preachy lecturing and self-insertion (3 comments): "The parts I read were basically Yudkowsky doing a self-insert into the book and trying to dress rationalist lecturing up with Harry Potter themes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50104738)) "you're so, so wrong because your mind is defective and clouded by this list of 30 erroneous thinking patterns" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50131406)) "Hundreds upon hundreds of pages go by with nothing happening except creepy children preaching at each other." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49744651))
- Poor writing quality (3 comments): "Sadly they're very bad writers. Have you actually read the stuff they produced? Horrible." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48877530)) "such an appallingly written piece of... I hesitate to use the word literature" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45850566)) "I have read HPMOR and was distinctly underwhelmed by its literary quality" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49760816))
- Very long, slow, padded (3 comments): "the Methods of Rationality is very much on the less verbose side of them, but by the standards of traditionally published fantasy and sci-fi it is wordslop" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50101997)) "I found it pretty boring, to be honest. Felt like an excuse for the author to show off how smart they thought they were" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47719504)) "It's not so much rationality as a narcissistic fantasy that goes on for hundreds (thousands?) of pages." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49748204))
- Uncomfortable content (2 comments): "completely unnecessary uncomfortable parts like the rape threat sequence" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50099469)) "It is repugnant to healthy people from the first few pages." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49745113))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lord-of-the-rings.md): 66 recommend
- [The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hobbit.md): 49 recommend
- [Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dungeon-crawler-carl.md): 48 recommend
- [Piranesi by Susanna Clarke](https://hackerapproved.com/p/piranesi.md): 12 recommend
- [Going Postal by Terry Pratchett](https://hackerapproved.com/p/going-postal.md): 11 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Harry+Potter+and+the+Methods+of+Rationality+by+Eliezer+Yudkowsky&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky", https://hackerapproved.com/p/harry-potter-and-the-methods-of-rationality/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).