# Parse, Don't Validate by Alexis King

8 Hacker News commenters recommended Parse, Don't Validate by Alexis King and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a concise, mindset-changing classic on turning data into types instead of validating it. Critics say its division-by-zero example is weak.

## Why people recommend it

- Mindset-altering, transformational read (2 comments): "A really mindset-altering read for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46965443)) "was transformational for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46961829))
- Great, classic article (2 comments): "This is a great article, but people often trip over the title and draw unusual conclusions." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46962024)) "The very classic parse don't valide if you haven't already read it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45847460))

## What people warn about

- Division-by-zero example is weak (1 comments): "the division-by-zero example used in this article is not the best example to demonstrate" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47105006))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grug-brained-developer.md): 13 recommend
- [Choose Boring Technology by Dan McKinley](https://hackerapproved.com/p/choose-boring-technology.md): 11 recommend
- [The Bitter Lesson by Rich Sutton](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bitter-lesson.md): 10 recommend
- [Things You Should Never Do by Joel Spolsky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/things-you-should-never-do.md): 10 recommend
- [The Illustrated Transformer by Jay Alammar](https://hackerapproved.com/p/illustrated-transformer.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Parse, Don't Validate by Alexis King", https://hackerapproved.com/p/parse-don-t-validate/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).