Mother Earth Mother Board by Neal Stephenson
Shares rank 21 of 60 articles by recommenders
People 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.
People 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.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Classic essay by Stephenson
“Neal Stephenson's classic Mother Earth Mother Board article”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “The Legacy of Undersea Cables” “Stephenson's piece is a classic”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “How a subsea cable is repaired” Very good long read
“sprawling (and very very good) essay by Neal Stephenson get into the topic”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers” “A Neal Stephenson long read about undersea cables. So good!”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “How a subsea cable is repaired” “Thanks, I loved this article, time to re-read it again!”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “How a subsea cable is repaired” Interesting for undersea cable readers
“if the thought of undersea cables sounds at all interesting”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “The British Empire's Resilient Subsea Telegraph Network” “A Neal Stephenson long read about undersea cables. So good!”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “How a subsea cable is repaired” “If you care at all about this, you'll love”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Submarine cable resilience”
Other articles people recommend
The four most recommended other articles, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Programming as Theory Buildingby Peter Naur | 32 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Ur-Fascismby Umberto Eco | 18 | 2 | 90% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Politics and the English Languageby George Orwell | 14 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | Approved |
| The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross | 13 | 1 | 93% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Mother Earth Mother Board by Neal StephensonThis page | 7 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
8 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“If you care at all about this, you'll love”
“sprawling (and very very good) essay by Neal Stephenson get into the topic”
“The part that is most dated is the cables being built by exclusively by big traditional telecom companies”
“Stephenson's piece is a classic”
“Thanks, I loved this article, time to re-read it again!”
“A Neal Stephenson long read about undersea cables. So good!”
“if the thought of undersea cables sounds at all interesting”
“Neal Stephenson's classic Mother Earth Mother Board article”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.