Simon Willison's blog
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 26 newsletters by recommenders
Recommended for keeping up with LLM and AI releases, with clear, high-signal posts on many tech topics. Critics say some posts are mostly quotes and retelling of events.
Recommended for keeping up with LLM and AI releases, with clear, high-signal posts on many tech topics. Critics say some posts are mostly quotes and retelling of events.
23 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 21
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 91%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 21 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 11 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 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
Tracks latest AI releases closely
“Unless you want to spend a huge amount of time trying to keep up with the state of the art, just follow simonw.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “How do you guys keep up with AI news?” “Simon's blog is the best content there is on what the latest LLM gizmo is and how well it works.”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “The Most Popular Blogs of Hacker News in 2025” “It's worth following Simon Willison's blog, he keeps up with the latest AI releases”
Comment from 22 May 2026 in “New Claude Code programmatic usage restrictions” High-signal, well-organized content
“I find Simon's blog and TILs to be some of the highest signal to noise content on the internet.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “AI Doesn't Reduce Work–It Intensifies It” “more informative and organized than average AI-related content”
Comment from 1 Jan 2026 in “2025: The Year in LLMs” Go-to resource for learning LLMs
“It’s the #1 resource I recommend to anyone in the industry wanting to learn more about LLMs”
Comment from 13 Sep 2026 in “Homebrew 7.0.0” “I find your writing on LLMs to be useful.”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"” Covers many tech topics
“Simon's blog is stellar, and he posts on many tech topics in addition to AI.”
Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What are the best engineering blogs with real-world depth?” “Blogs are significantly more up to date with most technical topics.”
Comment from 9 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: If you don't read books, what do you read?”
Other newsletters people recommend
The four most recommended other newsletters, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ed Zitron newsletter | 46 | 42 | 52% | 12 | — | — |
| Simon Willison's blogThis page | 21 | 2 | 91% | 9 | — | Approved |
| SemiAnalysis | 20 | 12 | 63% | 8 | — | — |
| acoup.blog | 19 | 0 | 100% | 10 | — | Approved |
| gwern.net | 19 | 3 | 86% | 9 | — | Approved |
What people said
17 of the 24 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It’s the #1 resource I recommend to anyone in the industry wanting to learn more about LLMs”
“Nothing particularly interesting to me.”
“His blog is my essential reading, FWIW”
“Blogs are significantly more up to date with most technical topics.”
“Unless you want to spend a huge amount of time trying to keep up with the state of the art, just follow simonw.”
“It's worth following Simon Willison's blog, he keeps up with the latest AI releases”
“The entire thing is just quotes and a retelling of events.”
“even his blog posts aren't that inorganic”
“I find Simon's blog and TILs to be some of the highest signal to noise content on the internet.”
“A few of the best reads in my Reader”
“Simon's blog is the best content there is on what the latest LLM gizmo is and how well it works.”
“I find this is a surprisingly valuable thing.”
“more informative and organized than average AI-related content”
“Simon's blog is stellar, and he posts on many tech topics in addition to AI.”
“well worth looking through his site”
“I find your writing on LLMs to be useful.”
“Simon Wilson has some good blogs on this”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.