# Julius by Ploum

7 Hacker News commenters recommended Julius by Ploum and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Readers 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.

## Why people recommend it

- Makes readers stop and think (2 comments): "that blog post really gave me pause and has stuck in my head for the last hour or so" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47037206)) "Your comment and the article expanded my world view a little bit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47035116))
- Called a very good, top-tier article (3 comments): "Great article until the end when they talked about AI." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47034487)) "This is if not the best article i have read recently." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47037272)) "on the contrary is a very good piece" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47034404))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Programming as Theory Building by Peter Naur](https://hackerapproved.com/p/programming-as-theory-building.md): 32 recommend
- [Ur-Fascism by Umberto Eco](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ur-fascism.md): 18 recommend
- [Politics and the English Language by George Orwell](https://hackerapproved.com/p/politics-and-the-english-language.md): 14 recommend
- [Right to Read by Richard Stallman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/right-to-read.md): 12 recommend
- [Meditations on Moloch by Scott Alexander](https://hackerapproved.com/p/meditations-on-moloch.md): 11 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Julius by Ploum", https://hackerapproved.com/p/julius/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).