# The Submarine by Paul Graham

5 Hacker News commenters recommended The Submarine by Paul Graham and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Readers who had never come across this Paul Graham essay call it brilliant, and say it still feels relevant even though it was written around 2005.

## Why people recommend it

- Still relevant despite being old (2 comments): "Written in '05 and still very poignant." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46167423)) "old by still relevant post by pg" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46947930))
- Brilliant essay readers had missed (2 comments): "thank you for this link, all these years on the internet and I had not come across it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50093507)) "That article is brilliant, can't believe I have never seen it before." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49497772))

## 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 Submarine by Paul Graham", https://hackerapproved.com/p/submarine/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).