# The Last Quiet Thing by Terry Godier

5 Hacker News commenters recommended The Last Quiet Thing by Terry Godier and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a reflective essay that readers say puts their own thoughts into words, with a plaintext version offered alongside the web format.

## Why people recommend it

- Offers plaintext and visual formats (2 comments): "I found it neat to be given the choice. Both formats were good." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47667564)) "It has a plaintext version which I appreciate" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47664745))

## What people warn about

- Hard to read as body text (1 comments): "less legible for body text in my experience, my eyes start just glazing over" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47666658))
- Reads like AI-written prose (1 comments): "genuinely miserable to read with all the worst tells of AI writing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47676774))
- Low contrast link text (1 comments): "That link text has unacceptable contrast" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47673086))

## 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, "The Last Quiet Thing by Terry Godier", https://hackerapproved.com/p/last-quiet-thing/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).