# WTF Happened in 1971

5 Hacker News commenters recommended WTF Happened in 1971 and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for its many long-run economic charts since 1971, which they find interesting and fun to browse. Critics say the chart selection is cherry-picked and not unbiased.

## Why people recommend it

- Many graphs of major inflection points (2 comments): "excellent graphs of the endless major inflection points" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47638410)) "That is an impressive number of graphs and very cool!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47289548))
- Interesting and fun to browse (2 comments): "It's not exactly an unbiased selection but it is interesting." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49458567)) "it's cherry picked, but still funny to see all those charts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48357859))

## What people warn about

- Cherry-picked, not unbiased selection (2 comments): "It's not exactly an unbiased selection but it is interesting." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49458567)) "it's cherry picked, but still funny to see all those charts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48357859))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [ciechanow.ski](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ciechanow-ski.md): 33 recommend
- [Size of Life](https://hackerapproved.com/p/size-of-life.md): 30 recommend
- [PGSimCity](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pgsimcity.md): 27 recommend
- [Ithihāsas](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ithih-sas.md): 18 recommend
- [Now I Get It](https://hackerapproved.com/p/now-i-get-it.md): 17 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "WTF Happened in 1971", https://hackerapproved.com/p/wtfhappenedin1971-com/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).