The hottest Substack posts right now

according to Hacker News
Category

Forget Personas

Running Lean Mastery • 393 implied HN points • 19 May 23
💼 Business Marketing
  1. Personas are not necessary at the early stages of a product
  2. Focus on a single distinguishing trait that triggers action in customers
  3. Identify switching triggers by interviewing those who have taken action

Unity changes: why PC & console devs feel like the 'ugly duckling'

The GameDiscoverCo newsletter • 393 implied HN points • 13 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Gaming Software Platforms Market Trends
  1. Unity announced changes to its game engine license pricing model based on 'number of installs of your game'.
  2. Unity's engine business for PC/consoles is less important financially compared to its mobile ads/mediation division.
  3. The new pricing model by Unity has caused dissatisfaction among developers, especially PC and console developers.

Is it possible for a human to argue with an AI assistant? 😅

Prawfeed Newsletter • 12 implied HN points • 24 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Artificial Intelligence Ethics Productivity User Experience HCI Human-AI
  1. Misalignment between human intent and AI output is common and often invisible.
  2. AI can move fast on partial signals and end up going the wrong way. Fixing it takes pausing, naming the drift, and resetting direction instead of just blaming.
  3. The real advantage is human clarity and cognitive leadership. Thinking clearly, communicating boundaries, and guiding the AI matters more than clever prompts.

Import AI 323: AI researcher warns about AI; BloombergGPT; and an open source Flamingo

Import AI • 519 implied HN points • 03 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Open Source Models Data Centers Finance AI
  1. Bloomberg has developed BloombergGPT, a powerful language model trained on proprietary financial data with significant performance improvements on financial tasks.
  2. AI researcher Dan Hendrycks warns about future AI systems potentially out-competing humans due to natural selection favoring AI traits that may not align with human interests.
  3. Open source initiatives like OpenFlamingo and Cerebras-GPT show how companies and collectives are replicating and releasing advanced AI models, presenting a trend in the industry towards open collaboration and competition.
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Condensing The Iceberg

Adjacent Possible • 458 implied HN points • 19 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Digital Culture Information Theory Attention Economy Media Studies Communication
  1. We're living in an era where our attention is a limited resource. Phones and social media have become really good at grabbing our focus because they filter information in ways that many find appealing.
  2. Understanding how information is condensed is important for both writers and readers. When writers filter vast amounts of content, they create a clearer picture for readers, but it can be challenging for people to delve deeper into topics.
  3. There are costs to the way we consume information today. It can be harder to concentrate on long texts because of the quick, bite-sized content we're used to. Finding ways to balance skimming and deeper engagement with information is crucial.

Demystifying the Contraflow Transit Lanes

Italian (urban) Letters • 235 implied HN points • 08 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Urban planning Traffic Management Transportation
  1. Contraflow transit lanes are essentially two-way streets with one direction reserved for transit, simplifying traffic flow for buses and minimizing conflicts.
  2. These lanes can significantly reduce conflicts at intersections and curb-side encroachments, making public transit more efficient and reliable.
  3. Strategically deploying contraflow transit lanes can optimize transit routes, prioritize public transportation, and improve traffic flow within cities.

A Grandmaster's Guide to Machine Learning Challenges

Mindful Modeler • 339 implied HN points • 07 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Data Analysis Competition Podcast Challenges Machine Learning
  1. Focus on creating an end-to-end pipeline first, experiment with simple models, and then scale up gradually for better results in machine learning challenges.
  2. Success in a challenge correlates with time invested, so choose challenges that motivate you and spend time understanding the data before committing.
  3. Adopt a strategy to pick challenges that interest you, prioritize an experimentation loop, and aim to optimize later for overall success.

Six Reasons Why Current AI Won't Displace Lawyers

Autonomy • 34 implied HN points • 20 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Artificial Intelligence Ethics Regulation Labor markets Legal Tech Automation
  1. Current AI doesn't generalize or perceive the world like humans, so it misses novel facts and real-world cues that lawyers use to build and win cases.
  2. Litigation is inherently adversarial, so both sides will adopt AI and the human lawyers who best direct and strategize with those tools will decide outcomes.
  3. Lawyering involves client counseling, moral responsibility, and institutional rules that AI can't fulfill, and greater AI productivity may actually increase demand for legal services rather than eliminate lawyers.

Vitamin B for Engineering Teams: Psychological Safety

The Healthy Engineering Leader • 59 implied HN points • 04 Jun 24
💼 Business Leadership Performance Psychology Team Dynamics
  1. Psychological safety in teams is really important. It helps everyone feel safe to share ideas, make mistakes, and ask questions without fear.
  2. There are four stages of psychological safety: inclusion safety, learner safety, contributor safety, and challenger safety. Each stage builds on the previous one to help teams grow and work better together.
  3. Just like vitamins are essential for our health, psychological safety is essential for a healthy and effective team. When teams feel safe, they can innovate and succeed.

The Role of Mood in User Experience Design

UX Psychology • 218 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Design User Experience Ethics
  1. Understanding user mood is crucial in user experience design as it influences interactions over time.
  2. Moods can be monitored, expressed, and regulated in UX design to create more personalized and empathetic experiences.
  3. Implementing mood-focused strategies requires considering ethical challenges, personalization opportunities, and continuous testing.

Markets Do the Good Things That Sound Bad

Bet On It • 246 implied HN points • 10 Jun 25
💼 Business Economics Markets Corporate Governance Policy Management
  1. Markets often get criticized for being cost-conscious and risk-aware, but these qualities can actually lead to better outcomes for society. It's important to remember that ignoring costs can create bad decisions.
  2. People think businesses focusing on profits are bad, but profit-seeking can sometimes lead to positive results. It's about balancing risks for larger gains rather than taking reckless risks.
  3. Many popular arguments against markets don't see the bigger picture. When looking at overall success and safety, richer countries with fewer regulations often fare better than poorer, heavily regulated ones.

Recent Media Appearances

Good Thoughts • 216 implied HN points • 20 Jan 24
📖 Philosophy Ethics Metaphysics Epistemology
  1. Recent public philosophy discussions cover effective altruism, longtermism, and synthetic a priori knowledge.
  2. Critical discussion on the reliance on supernatural forces in discerning philosophical truths.
  3. Rejecting the causal debunking principle in favor of relying on coherent philosophical methods for truth-seeking.

Congratulations On Your New Money Pit!

Shades of Greaves • 275 implied HN points • 13 Dec 23
💰 Finance Personal Finance Investing Budgeting Real Estate
  1. Owning a 'money pit' home comes with financial responsibilities like mortgage, property taxes, and maintenance costs.
  2. Engaging in DIY home repairs can save money but may take more time and effort than expected.
  3. Despite the challenges, owning a home allows for building relationships with neighbors and sharing experiences with other homeowners.

When should you cross-sell?

Startup Real Talk • 291 implied HN points • 21 May 25
💼 Business Marketing Sales Growth Finance Strategies
  1. Don't rush to cross-sell. In the beginning, most customers may not buy extra products from you, so it's better to focus on growing your customer base first.
  2. Avoid getting distracted by cross-selling. Stick to what you do best to keep your business moving forward.
  3. Wait until your customer count is larger before cross-selling. The more customers you have, the better the chances of successfully selling additional products.

Jobs and Opps at Cyclist, The News Movement, Bloomberg, Hackney Citizen, The Know, and Many, Many More 🧳

Journo Resources - The Opportunities • 257 implied HN points • 16 Jan 24
💼 Business Opportunities Journalism Media Production Jobs
  1. Last chance to pre-order the 2024 magazine from Journo Resources before sales close in four days.
  2. Various job opportunities in journalism available, such as staff writer positions at Cyclist and correspondent roles at The News Movement.
  3. Numerous events and awards deadlines coming up, including the GG2 Leadership Awards and the Sigma Awards.

The Bear Cave #250

The Bear Cave • 606 implied HN points • 01 Dec 24
💼 Business Investing Finance Corporate Governance Market Analysis Activism
  1. The Bear Cave focuses on finding problems in companies that are often ignored by the mainstream. This helps identify potential short selling opportunities.
  2. The publication has tracked executive resignations and has shown that many companies with leadership changes tend to underperform in the market.
  3. Over the past few years, the companies highlighted by The Bear Cave have consistently lagged behind the S&P 500, hinting at serious issues that investors should consider.

Texts as Toys

Breaking Smart • 170 implied HN points • 27 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Text AI Culture Media Literature Writing
  1. Writing is like making toys, and reading is like playing with those toys. In the age of AI, we should embrace this playful approach to both activities.
  2. People often miss the fun aspect of using AI because they feel threatened by it or don't know how to interact with it effectively. Approaching AI with a playful mindset can unlock its potential.
  3. We need to adjust our expectations when using AI. Just as toys don’t perfectly represent real objects, AI outputs can also be quirky and not always accurate. Understanding this helps us enjoy the experience more.

The Sequence Radar #759: Grok 4.1, Gemini 3 Pro and the Agentic Stack, Plus a Personal Note

TheSequence • 56 implied HN points • 23 Nov 25
🕹 Technology Innovation AI Model development Software Research
  1. Grok 4.1 is designed to be a more user-friendly AI model, improving reasoning and writing coherence. It’s not just a fun experiment anymore, but ready for real production work.
  2. Gemini 3 Pro is a powerful tool that can handle complex tasks and mixed media seamlessly, acting more like an engine for planning and execution than just a chatbot.
  3. The new Antigravity environment lets AI manage multiple tasks like coding and testing, making it a unique tool for developers to boost their workflow efficiently.

Math is not art

The Strategy Toolkit • 26 implied HN points • 22 Dec 25
📖 Philosophy Identity Aesthetics Epistemology Existentialism Metaphysics
  1. You often need to leave your familiar life and roles to really discover who you are, because you can’t fully see yourself from inside your own island.
  2. Having a craft, job, or practical skill can sustain you but it doesn’t replace the deeper search for identity and meaning.
  3. Moments and changing perspectives can reveal unexpected beauty and mystery, so paying attention to how time and place shift perception helps you understand the world and yourself.

TAM - that's Totally A Made Up Number. | Needs More Scientists In VC | VC Remote Jobs

Venture Curator • 179 implied HN points • 15 Feb 24
💼 Business Venture Capital Entrepreneurship Investments Tech industry Startups
  1. Focusing on capturing a small share of a well-defined market is more strategic than aiming for a tiny portion of a giant market.
  2. Encouraging scientists to enter venture capital can drive innovation and align with objective data over marketing dominance.
  3. The shift to using SAFE valuation caps in fundraising reflects a dominant trend, especially in specific sectors like SaaS, Fintech, Gaming, and Edtech.

Goodbye, Menu Interfaces

In My Tribe • 440 implied HN points • 14 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Software AI Innovation User Experience Interfaces
  1. Menu interfaces on websites may soon disappear. Instead of searching through menus, people will just ask AI what they need.
  2. Using AI means users can create their own features and functions. This makes getting information or services much easier and more personal.
  3. Web design jobs could change a lot as sites become less necessary. AI will interact with databases, and users will communicate with AI instead.

Dealflow LatAm #1: Welcome!

Dealflow Latam • 99 implied HN points • 22 Apr 24
💼 Business Startup News Startup funding
  1. Dealflow LatAm newsletter covers startup funding news, M&A news, investor and accelerator news, startup news, big company and policy news in the Latin American ecosystem.
  2. Sign up for the newsletter to stay updated on the latest from the Latin American startup and VC ecosystem. The curated weekly email delivers relevant articles straight to your inbox every Monday morning.
  3. The newsletter also highlights funding rounds of various startups in Latin America, showcasing the growth and investment activities in the region.

A Midas Winning VC Playbook

The Generalist • 1401 implied HN points • 07 Mar 24
💼 Business Venture Capital Operations Investing Startup Strategy
  1. Primary Venture Partners focuses on being the best seed fund by sticking to their core ethos of 'Startups are hard, founders deserve better.'
  2. They prioritize selective investing, focusing on high-risk, high-reward opportunities in the early stages of startup funding.
  3. Using a substantial impact team and unique operational approach, Primary Venture Partners aims to differentiate themselves in the competitive venture capital landscape.

When software stops caring

Sunday Letters • 99 implied HN points • 21 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Software User Experience Enterprise Consumer Productivity
  1. Enterprise software focuses more on the buyer than the user, making user experience less important. It just needs to be usable enough to avoid complaints.
  2. Consumer software prioritizes a great user experience because users can easily switch. This keeps companies on their toes to fix bugs and improve features quickly.
  3. Emerging apps from big tech are stuck in the middle. They need basic functionality but often don’t get the attention they need, leading to worse user experiences over time.

Comex: Physical Silver Demand Keeps the Market in Backwardation

QTR’s Fringe Finance • 29 implied HN points • 28 Dec 25
💰 Finance Commodities Precious metals Futures Trading Market structure
  1. Gold's futures vs. spot spread has widened again and deliveries are elevated though below earlier 2025 peaks; if the spread keeps blowing out it could trigger more arbitrage-driven deliveries.
  2. Silver is in backwardation (spot above futures), showing acute physical tightness and heavy demand, with registered inventories drawn down as investors take delivery.
  3. Physical demand remains very strong into January for both metals, so price dips should be well supported; monitor registered inventories and open interest as key early warning indicators.

The Age of Tinkering is Upon Us

A Biologist's Guide to Life • 13 implied HN points • 28 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Artificial Intelligence Tools Learning Robotics
  1. AI tools can amplify and fill gaps in our abilities, acting like a cognitive hearing aid that boosts speed and skill when you learn to use them.
  2. Actively tinkering with AI—asking questions, building projects, and iterating—lets you learn new technical skills quickly and make real things you care about.
  3. Your human strengths—curiosity, compassion, imagination, and intuition—remain the real advantage, so collaborate with others and use AI proactively to create value rather than passively consuming it.

AI rights and human harms

imperfect offerings • 219 implied HN points • 17 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Ethics Law Human Rights AI Rights
  1. AI industry co-opts the term 'learning' to justify its innovations and obscure responsibilities
  2. There is a call for an AI rights movement, drawing parallels with animal rights that may oversimplify complex ethical issues
  3. Human rights are at risk when powerful corporations prioritize their interests over accountability and regulation in the development and deployment of AI technology

Kernel Bypass with Solarflare

Low Latency Trading Insights • 196 implied HN points • 02 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Latency APIs Software Networking Hardware
  1. Solarflare specializes in high-performance, low-latency networking solutions like NICs used in data centers and financial services.
  2. Solarflare provides hardware such as Flareon adapters and XtremeScale NICs for high-speed networking.
  3. Software offerings from Solarflare like Onload and TCP Direct provide APIs for accelerated network performance and lower latency.

Irrepressible liberalism: the philosophy of Gerald Gaus

Hypertext • 159 implied HN points • 29 Feb 24
📖 Philosophy Political Philosophy Liberalism Public Reason Classical Liberalism
  1. Gerald Gaus emphasized the importance of optimism and confidence in defending liberalism, even in challenging times with populist threats.
  2. Gaus's philosophy focused on bottom-up moral reasoning and the idea that a diverse society can find common ground through emergent order.
  3. He advocated for extensive individual freedom as essential for the survival of an open society, and highlighted the significance of incrementalism and learning-based governance in policymaking.

Jobs and Opps at HuffPost UK, Full Fact, Business Insider, NFU, and Many, Many More 🥂

Journo Resources - The Opportunities • 277 implied HN points • 02 Jan 24
💼 Business Writing Media Employment Mentoring Publishing
  1. A variety of journalism job opportunities are available in different locations with competitive salaries, such as in unscripted TV development, social content creation, and editorial roles.
  2. New Year's Resolutions may not always be practical or realistic for everyone, and setting smaller goals or guidelines can be just as beneficial in journalism work.
  3. Various organizations are offering training programs, mentorship opportunities, and cash prizes for journalists, writers, and content creators to support their career growth and development.

LECTURE: Roots of How Ownership & Trade Have Made Us Truly Weird: "Property" & "Exchange" as a Coördination Mechanism at Societal Scale

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 192 implied HN points • 13 Jul 25
📖 Philosophy Property Exchange Ethics Economics Social theory
  1. The idea of ownership is really strange. We believe we can own things even when we're not present, which is a unique concept for humans.
  2. Trade and exchange are important for how societies work. They help people specialize in tasks and improve efficiency, leading to greater productivity.
  3. Markets and property rights help coordinate action in society. They distribute resources but don't guarantee fairness, so the rules around them shape who benefits and how much.