hackernewsletter

Hacker Newsletter - A look back at 2018

Happy New Year!

It was another great year for Hacker Newsletter. Subscribers are what make this a fun project to work on every week, very thankful to have so many people from all over tune in each week. Also want to thank all our great sponsors, and especially Datadog, who make this possible. We’ll hit 60k subscribers in the next week or two and looking forward to what 2019 will bring. Before we get to 2019 though, let’s look back on 2018:

Top Ten by Clicks

Down below I’ve highlighted favorites from each section, but the top ten were:

The top two individual blogs we linked to were Julia Evans (9) and Rachel Kroll (10), which didn’t come as a surprise as they both turn out awesome content.

For news sites, no real surprises:

Somehow I added WSJ four times as I normally try to avoid them because of their paywall.

For startups, Stripe had the top honor with the most links with 9.

Overall, not counting Hacker News links, GitHub took top honors with 352 total links with YouTube following at 126. Both of which weren’t surprises, but what was a surprise was GitHub being the top domain in 7 different sections. Speaking of sections, you can see a break-out below:

# FAVORITES

Things I Wish I'd Known About Bash Issue #385 //zwischenzugs comments

How to Decide What to Build Issue #399 //dcgross comments

Taskwarrior, where have you been all my life? Issue #402 //djy comments

How to Come Up with Profitable Business Ideas Issue #404 //indiehackers comments

The Importance of Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill Issue #405 //azeria-labs comments

How to be a Manager – A step-by-step guide to leading a team Issue #406 //getweeklyupdate comments

Farewell, Google Maps Issue #411 //inderapotheke comments

My dad’s resume and skills from 1980 Issue #416 //github comments

CLI: Improved Issue #417 //remysharp comments

How to teach yourself hard things Issue #418 //jvns comments

How to Build a Low-Tech Website Issue #421 //lowtechmagazine comments

What's a senior engineer's job? Issue #423 //jvns comments

How to Get Things Done When You Don't Feel Like It Issue #423 //acm comments

# FEATURED

Meltdown and Spectre Issue #384 //spectreattack comments

Zuckerberg's cheat sheet at senate hearing Issue #398 //vice comments

It’s weirdly hard to steal Mark Zuckerberg’s trash Issue #398 //theoutline comments

Microsoft Is Said to Have Agreed to Acquire GitHub Issue #406 //bloomberg comments

Hello, GitHub Issue #406 //github comments

Why I’m done with Chrome Issue #421 //cryptographyengineering comments

# ASK HN

Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer? Issue #398 //ycombinator

What are the things that you have automated in your personal life? Issue #409 //ycombinator

Favorite note-taking software? Issue #411 //ycombinator

How to organize personal knowledge? Issue #418 //ycombinator

What things have richly rewarded the time invested in mastering them? Issue #422 //ycombinator

I've been a programmer for 6 years, and I can't solve basic CS problems Issue #428 //ycombinator

# SHOW HN

ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2018 review: The only laptop in a professional’s paradise Issue #397 //arstechnica comments

I've spent the last two years building a new email client Issue #401 //ivelope comments

I made a tool that made me faster at Git Issue #414 //github comments

Ultimate Hacking Keyboard Issue #420 //ultimatehackingkeyboard comments

Monica – Personal CRM, Remember everything about friends and family Issue #426 //github comments

Jobs Done – A ritual app for ending the work day inspired by Deep Work Issue #426 //github comments

Above-average products selling for below-average prices Issue #427 //goodcheapandfast comments

# CODE

How I review code Issue #387 //engineering comments

Avoid Else, Return Early Issue #396 //timoxley comments

VS Code can do that? Issue #400 //vscodecandothat comments

The 10:1 rule of writing and programming Issue #415 //ybrikman comments

Latency Numbers Every Programmer Should Know Issue #418 //berkeley comments

How true hackers write JavaScript Issue #418 //ycombinator comments

# DESIGN

Make front end sh!t again Issue #403 //makefrontendshitagain comments

Cool Backgrounds Issue #405 //coolbackgrounds comments

How to Pose for a Photograph Issue #406 //nytimes comments

NSA posters from the 50s and 60s [pdf] Issue #406 //governmentattic comments

Smelvetica – Helvetica the way it was intended to be Issue #419 //tholman comments

# DATA

Learning from Scratch by Thinking Fast and Slow Issue #384 //github comments

Command-line Tools can be 235x Faster than a Hadoop Cluster Issue #404 //adamdrake comments

AI winter is well on its way Issue #405 //piekniewski comments

Learning Math for Machine Learning Issue #413 //ycombinator comments

Data Factories Issue #423 //stratechery comments

# LEARN

IKEA Effect Issue #384 //wikipedia comments

Training Your Brain So That You Don’t Need Reading Glasses Issue #387 //nytimes comments

Crushed wood is stronger than steel Issue #389 //nature comments

Impossible color Issue #410 //wikipedia comments

A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes Issue #418 //independent comments

People Like You More Than You Know Issue #421 //scientificamerican comments

# BOOKS

My new favorite book of all time Issue #388 //gatesnotes comments

The Best Books on the Philosophy of Mind Issue #395 //fivebooks comments

MIT Career Development Handbook [pdf] Issue #408 //mit comments

The Best Textbooks on Every Subject Issue #412 //lesswrong comments

Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life? Issue #420 //ycombinator

# WORKING

The rise of the pointless job Issue #402 //theguardian comments

How to become a dramatically better programmer Issue #407 //henrystanley comments

How to Procrastinate Productively Issue #419 //nickwignall comments

What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work Issue #420 //doist comments

My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer Issue #426 //humanwhocodes comments

How Smart People Sabotage Their Success Issue #428 //hbr comments

# WATCHING

What happens when you strap a camera to the bottom of a plane Issue #387 //vimeo comments

It’s Surprising How Much Small Teams Can Get Done Issue #388 //ycombinator comments

Xi: an editor for the next 20 years Issue #388 //recurse comments

Self-driving car on Moscow streets after snowfall Issue #391 //youtube comments

Unreal + $150,000 GPU = Real-Time Raytraced Star Wars Issue #395 //youtube comments

What Happens When a Drone Hits an Airplane Wing? Issue #423 //youtube comments

# LONGREADS

Don't Eat Before Reading This Issue #407 //newyorker comments

Forgotten Employee Issue #408 //google comments

The art of stealing Issue #414 //nrc comments

‘I’m Broke and Mostly Friendless, and I’ve Wasted My Whole Life’ Issue #429 //thecut comments

# CLASSICS

Keep your Identity Small Issue #392 //paulgraham comments

Why is it hard to make friends over 30? Issue #392 //nytimes comments

Renting is Throwing Money Away, Right? Issue #400 //affordanything comments

I’m a very slow thinker Issue #414 //sivers comments

To Remember Everything You Learn, Surrender to This Algorithm Issue #414 //wired comments

# STARTUP NEWS

We Spent $3.3M Buying Out Investors: Why and How We Did It Issue #417 //buffer comments

Fog Creek Is Now Glitch, Inc Issue #421 //medium comments

Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo Issue #431 //namepros comments

Robinhood Checking Moved Fast and Broke Issue #432 //bloomberg comments

# FUN

Sysadmin left finger on power button for an hour to avert SAP outage Issue #393 //theregister comments

An escape room in your browser Issue #393 //mitchcrowe comments

Players Have Crowned a New Best Board Game – And It May Be Tough to Topple Issue #400 //fivethirtyeight comments

XKCD on Docker Issue #401 //xkcd comments

Man Spends 23 Years Carving Sprawling Underground Temple Under His House Issue #410 //odditycentral comments

Websites in 2018 Issue #425 //bloomca comments

# CUTTING ROOM FLOOR

Towards a bra-free Instagram experience Issue #384 //medium comments

MacBook Pro? No Issue #386 //shahidkamal comments

Some software cannot be used at Google Issue #395 //google comments

How Lies Spread Online Issue #413 //nytimes comments

Why Is Behavioral Economics So Popular? Issue #423 //nytimes comments

Not enough? You can look at all the links from 2018.
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