The hottest Substack posts right now

according to Hacker News
Category
The Lunacian • 506 implied HN points • 21 Jan 26
  1. Origins Season 16 is live with the same Elite 4 format, and players can compete for a share of an 80,000 bAXS season prize pool.
  2. Axie is introducing bAXS, a non-transferable token backed 1:1 by AXS that can be used for breeding, ascending, evolving, and staking, and converting bAXS to AXS will incur a Treasury fee that scales by Axie Score.
  3. Collectible axie holders who keep their collectible axie for the entire Rare Era and finish at Tiger rank or higher will earn Collectible Chests with Tickets redeemable for part of a 10,000 bAXS pool.
Bet On It • 70 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26
  1. Government is the root cause of many social problems because it directly controls or monopolizes the institutions involved.
  2. When the state supplies services or owns resources—like streets, police, courts, and the air—it tends to perform poorly and fail to protect property rights, producing issues like crime and pollution.
  3. Listing problems and blaming government without laying out the underlying theory is unconvincing, especially because it overlooks the economic successes that markets have produced, making the critique seem one-sided.
Bet On It • 115 implied HN points • 20 Feb 26
  1. The state often does things—taking money without consent, forcing people to serve, or waging mass violence—that would be crimes if done by private individuals, and those acts should be judged by the same moral standard.
  2. Democratic approval or majority rule does not make rights violations right; popular support doesn’t legitimize theft, slavery, or murder.
  3. Rulers lean on intellectuals and ideology to normalize their power, and many modern policies reflect stubborn dogma and waste rather than simple exploitation.
Rethinking Software • 99 implied HN points • 15 Feb 26
  1. When Scrum is imposed from above and developers have no say, the clearest option is to leave — for example by freelancing or starting your own business.
  2. Engineers can push back inside the company using tactics like shadow projects, skipping rituals, malicious compliance, or forming unions, but each approach has risks and needs careful judgment.
  3. Talking about the harms, documenting problems, and spreading awareness can build pressure for change, and collective evidence makes it more likely entrenched practices will be challenged.
Don't Worry About the Vase • 1612 implied HN points • 20 Nov 25
  1. AI models can be categorized into tools, minds, and weapons. Tools help us accomplish tasks, minds interact with us more meaningfully, and weapons can manipulate and direct our actions.
  2. As AI technology evolves, companies are racing to create and enhance models, but regulations are becoming crucial to ensure safety and prevent misuse, especially given the growing concerns about AI's impact on society.
  3. The competition between the US and China in AI development highlights differing approaches, with the US focusing on leading advancements while China is leveraging open-source models to catch up quickly.
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Don't Worry About the Vase • 1657 implied HN points • 18 Nov 25
  1. GPT-5.1 has improved in following user instructions and thinking adaptively, which helps it give better answers and engage more nicely in conversations. Users can also customize the tone to suit their preferences.
  2. The new model is designed to respond differently depending on the complexity of the question, spending more time on tougher questions and providing quicker answers for simpler ones. This makes it more user-friendly.
  3. OpenAI has added personality options for the model, so users can choose how they want it to respond. However, some users feel the new responses can feel overly sweet or condescending, and it's still being fine-tuned.
DYNOMIGHT INTERNET NEWSLETTER • 640 implied HN points • 08 Jan 26
  1. Reported percentages of vegetarians by country can be wildly inconsistent, so surprising rankings often reflect different surveys and measurement challenges rather than true differences.
  2. A domain can end up on anti-spam blocklists even without sending email or hosting malware, and the removal/verification process can be opaque and hard for individuals to navigate.
  3. Generic drug names are built from meaningful prefixes and suffixes that hint at drug class and mechanism (e.g. -ib for inhibitors, -vir for antivirals), yet there’s no single, easy-to-use comprehensive reference or visualization for the full naming system.
Gonzo ML • 252 implied HN points • 08 Feb 26
  1. A compact, curated reading list of landmark papers can teach roughly 90% of the core ideas and techniques in deep learning, offering a fast path to real understanding.
  2. The essential topics span sequence models (RNNs/LSTMs/NTM), attention and transformers, convolutional vision models, theory of complexity and description length, training methods and scaling, and multimodal/speech work.
  3. The publicly available partial list misses several important areas — notably reinforcement learning and meta-learning — so it should be supplemented with RL classics and recent advances like scaling laws, compute‑optimal training, mixture‑of‑experts, distillation, and key optimization tricks.
L'Atelier Galita • 79 implied HN points • 10 Oct 24
  1. Most people worry too much about getting fired when they actually have a lot of protection once they are in a permanent job. Employers need a real reason to let someone go after the trial period.
  2. Don't rush to resign without a good reason. Being fired can give you unemployment benefits, while quitting usually won't. You're safer in a job than you might think.
  3. Your worth in the job market matters a lot. The more skills you have, the less likely you'll be fired, and the better conditions you can negotiate.
L'Atelier Galita • 119 implied HN points • 04 Oct 24
  1. A permanent job offers great financial security and strong social benefits. This means stable income and protection from hard times.
  2. Being self-employed can make you work harder than you should, as there's no one to tell you when to take a break. Some self-employed people might even forget to take vacations.
  3. Having a structured job means you have set times to interact with others and avoid feeling lonely. It also allows for a balance in your daily routine without forcing you into a rigid schedule.
Bet On It • 271 implied HN points • 02 Feb 26
  1. Saying "all theories are false" is misleading because many theories are true within the precision and conditions they intend; they only become "false" if you demand impossible infinite precision.
  2. Whether a theory can be confirmed depends on its form: universal claims ("all X are Y") need exhaustive checking to be fully confirmed, while existential claims ("some X are Y") can be confirmed by a single example.
  3. Blanket slogans that reject all knowledge tend to encourage unnecessary skepticism; it's more useful to expect room for improvement and to state explicit caveats rather than dismiss theories outright.
Ageling on Agile • 79 implied HN points • 10 Oct 24
  1. Scrum is not always the best fit for software teams. It works well in complex environments but can become a hassle if the situation is straightforward.
  2. When teams don't need to work together, like in the case of maintenance or support tasks, Scrum can feel unnecessary and unhelpful.
  3. If there’s no proper interaction with stakeholders or a culture of learning, the Scrum framework can hinder progress instead of helping it.
Freddie deBoer • 14170 implied HN points • 27 Jan 25
  1. AI is being hyped as a revolutionary technology, but its real-world impact is limited compared to basic necessities like indoor plumbing. We often overlook how essential and transformative improvements in basic infrastructure have been.
  2. Many claims about AI's incredible benefits are overstated. In reality, AI does small tasks that people can already do themselves, which raises questions about its actual social importance.
  3. The ongoing hype around AI seems to come from a deep desire for a breakthrough technology that can change our lives. However, life is likely to remain mostly the same, with more focus needed on real improvements in areas like medicine.
A Bit Gamey • 20 implied HN points • 15 Mar 26
  1. When people accept a frustrating problem as normal, that learned helplessness is a clear signal that a simple fix can become a big business opportunity.
  2. Innovation happens two ways: by noticing a persistent problem or by using new technology to make previously impossible solutions practical, and the best ideas sit where frustrations meet new capabilities.
  3. Success usually requires many attempts and a balance of stubborn vision with flexible execution, keeping the core idea while iterating on names, features, and audiences.
Points And Figures • 826 implied HN points • 29 Dec 25
  1. Wealth taxes and financial-transaction taxes are resurfacing at the state level and could push founders, executives, and companies to move or recharter to avoid large tax hits, with some arguing fiduciary duties may require such moves to protect shareholders.
  2. Nevada is being promoted as a business-friendly alternative because of low taxes, favorable quality-of-life and infrastructure, and strong legal protections like a statutory business-judgment rule, limited inspection rights, and specialized business courts.
  3. Recent court decisions and activist judges in traditional corporate havens have raised legal risk for companies, prompting a broader, nationwide shift as firms and investors consider relocating to states with friendlier tax and corporate-law environments.
Rings of Saturn • 43 implied HN points • 06 Mar 26
  1. Memory inspection and static analysis were used to trace how the Dreamcast port records and handles cheat input, revealing the exact code path and buffers involved.
  2. Cheats are implemented as six-button sequences matched against stored arrays (Up=0x01, Down=0x02, Left=0x04, Right=0x08) which then execute named cheat commands; four public codes were known but the game checks six sequences.
  3. Two previously hidden codes were discovered: one unlocks all tournament modes and all levels across multiple modes, and the other raises the player/bot limit so you can add more bots.
Don't Worry About the Vase • 1254 implied HN points • 05 Dec 25
  1. DeepSeek v3.2 is a good, low-cost model, especially for math tasks, but it's slower than other models and not cutting-edge.
  2. The lack of safety testing is concerning, making this model a risky choice for users who prioritize security.
  3. Though the model performs well on benchmarks, its practical uses may be limited, so it's best for specific needs rather than general tasks.
The Chip Letter • 12886 implied HN points • 14 Feb 25
  1. Learning assembly language can help you understand how computers work at a deeper level. It's beneficial for debugging code and grasping the basics of machine instructions.
  2. There are retro and modern assembly languages to choose from, each with its own pros and cons. Retro languages are fun but less practical today, while modern ones are more useful but often complicated.
  3. RISC-V is a promising choice for learning assembly language because it's growing in popularity and offers a clear path from simple concepts to more complex systems. It's also open-source, making it accessible for new learners.
BIG by Matt Stoller • 43431 implied HN points • 26 Jan 24
  1. There is growing discontent and criticism towards Boeing's management from various stakeholders like Wall Street, labor unions, customers, and regulators.
  2. Major Boeing customers like Alaska Airlines and United Airlines are publicly holding Boeing accountable for quality issues and demanding reimbursement, indicating a significant shift in the industry's code of silence about problems.
  3. The government, particularly the FAA, has taken actions against Boeing and is showing signs of increasing regulation, potentially leading towards a moment where Boeing's management structure may face significant changes.
CalculatedRisk Newsletter • 62 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
  1. Delinquencies, foreclosures, and the dollar value of REO properties have risen year‑over‑year but remain low by historical standards.
  2. Solid mortgage underwriting, widespread homeowner equity, and mostly fixed low rates make a large wave of foreclosures and cascading price declines unlikely.
  3. Foreclosure starts and inventory increases warrant monitoring, but many borrowers can sell or restructure loans, so the overall situation looks manageable rather than crisis‑level.
Kristina God's Online Writing Club • 6394 implied HN points • 12 Jan 24
  1. Substack's recommendation feature helps newsletters grow significantly, with many users reporting over 28% of their subscribers coming from recommendations.
  2. Writers on Substack can curate and recommend other newsletters, giving them control over who to promote and helping to build a community.
  3. Building an email list is valuable because you own your subscribers, unlike social media followers, making it easier to sustain a personal brand.
In My Tribe • 258 implied HN points • 27 Jan 26
  1. A very large, concentrated holder of Bitcoin could be forced to sell if prices fall to its average cost, and such selling could trigger a damaging price spiral and liquidity crunch.
  2. The biggest long-term drop in women’s unpaid housework came from moving cooking into the market, and physical attractiveness also yields measurable advantages in pay and workplace evaluations.
  3. High and rising public debt could undermine investor confidence and a spike in interest rates might cascade into a broad financial crisis, but rapid GDP gains from transformative technologies could make today’s debt seem trivial even as they disrupt the labor market and reduce participation.
Big Technology • 13260 implied HN points • 31 Jan 25
  1. OpenAI is focusing more on building apps rather than just creating AI models. This shift reflects a need to stay competitive and profitable in the changing AI landscape.
  2. The market for AI applications is growing, and OpenAI's ChatGPT is performing well, far ahead of its competitors in earnings. This positions OpenAI favorably as it continues to innovate its products.
  3. While OpenAI aims to develop artificial general intelligence, it faces challenges as competition increases and cost structures change in the AI industry. Staying ahead will require continuous product improvements.
Dev Interrupted • 46 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
  1. Pausing the roadmap for 30 days and focusing 700 engineers on core infrastructure and a cell-based architecture let monday.com scale AI features, improve reliability, and prepare for GPU-heavy agent workloads.
  2. Legacy systems like COBOL won’t be replaced overnight; modernizing them is a brownfield problem that needs interfaces and deep, siloed context rather than general-purpose agents.
  3. Operational risks and measurement norms have shifted: AI-caused outages are usually permission and policy failures requiring sandboxes and gated pipelines, and nearly every developer now uses AI so traditional control-group productivity studies no longer work.
antoniomelonio • 173 implied HN points • 17 Feb 26
  1. Don’t let your job be your identity. Become someone by cultivating deep, genuine interests, reading difficult things, and developing your own taste.
  2. Invest in real friendships and community outside of work, because strong relationships are the main predictor of happiness and will support you when work structures change.
  3. Learn to use leisure well: figure out what you would do for free, build skills and desires that aren’t tied to pay, and prepare emotionally for abundance while staying sensible about money.
Odds and Ends of History • 268 implied HN points • 09 Feb 26
  1. A new study doubts that AI will deliver a big, immediate productivity boost, so the economic gains from AI may be smaller or slower than many expect.
  2. A small tweak to how government calculates value for money could hugely shift which infrastructure projects get approved, making things like northern railways look more or less viable.
  3. Experts argue public services need reform for the age of AI, offering practical ideas for how governments can use AI to improve services while managing risks.
Marcus on AI • 13161 implied HN points • 04 Feb 25
  1. ChatGPT still has major reliability issues, often providing incomplete or incorrect information, like missing U.S. states in tables.
  2. Despite being advanced, AI can still make basic mistakes, such as counting vowels incorrectly or misunderstanding simple tasks.
  3. Many claims about rapid progress in AI may be overstated, as even simple functions like creating tables can lead to errors.
Noahpinion • 15529 implied HN points • 28 Dec 24
  1. China's productivity growth has slowed down due to hitting natural limits in technology absorption and an aging population. As they reached the tech frontier, it became harder to improve productivity at the same pace.
  2. R&D productivity in China is low, especially in state-owned companies. The focus has shifted to quantity over quality in research, leading to many low-quality studies and less innovation.
  3. China's economy is heavily reliant on investment rather than consumption. Unlike the U.S., which benefits from high consumer spending, China may be missing out on productivity gains from a robust consumer market.
Bet On It • 1222 implied HN points • 01 Dec 25
  1. A fertilized embryo has intermediate moral value, so abortion can be morally justified in truly extreme cases like to save a woman’s life or prevent catastrophic harm, but it isn’t justified for mere inconvenience or brief misery.
  2. The best evidence finds that getting or being denied an abortion has minimal long‑term effects on subjective well‑being, though denial causes short‑term distress and some moderate economic harm that tends to shrink over time.
  3. People commonly catastrophize unwanted pregnancies, so there’s a moral duty to carefully check whether a pregnancy would really ruin your life rather than deciding in a hysterical moment.
Nonzero Newsletter • 440 implied HN points • 24 Jan 26
  1. AI progress is accelerating rapidly, helped by code-writing tools that create a positive feedback loop and produce frequent model breakthroughs.
  2. Who wins the AI race matters because leading groups differ: some favor international scientific collaboration and pauses, others seek geopolitical or military advantage, and some prioritize commercial goals.
  3. Fast advances plus growing misuse risks (like cyberattacks and bioweapons) and weak global agreement on slowing development mean the stakes of leadership and regulation are very high.
Marcus on AI • 6126 implied HN points • 25 Jun 25
  1. AI image generation technology is still struggling to understand complex prompts. Even with recent updates, it often fails at specific tasks.
  2. There's a big difference between making an AI produce a certain image and it truly understanding what the words mean. AI might get lucky sometimes, but it doesn't reliably get it right.
  3. Despite promises of advanced technology, AI still has a long way to go before it can provide high-quality, detailed images based on deep language understanding.
Tapa’s Substack • 119 implied HN points • 10 Sep 24
  1. There's a new idea to use light to switch superconducting signals with CMOS circuits. This could help in areas like quantum computing and sensors.
  2. Using light for this switching can provide thermal isolation, which is a big advantage. It makes the connection between different technologies safer and more efficient.
  3. Two methods to switch are discussed: thermal and non-thermal. Non-thermal switching might be better because it's more efficient, using light directly instead of heating things up.
The Engineering Leader • 99 implied HN points • 06 Oct 24
  1. Transformational leadership is about inspiring your team by sharing a clear vision. It helps create a motivated and engaged work environment where everyone strives for excellence.
  2. Adapting your leadership style to fit different teams and situations is crucial. Being flexible helps address unique challenges and fosters team success.
  3. Empowerment is key to growth. When you give your team the resources and autonomy to lead, you help them develop their skills and confidence.
JavaScript Development Substack • 46 HN points • 22 Sep 24
  1. Chrome extensions can make front-end development easier and faster. They help with tasks like inspecting CSS, testing forms, and analyzing website technologies.
  2. Tools like CSS Peeper and Fake Filler let developers quickly see styles and fill forms automatically. This saves time and simplifies the testing process.
  3. Extensions like Wave Evaluation Tool and Ahrefs SEO Toolbar help improve website accessibility and SEO. They offer insights that can help boost a site's performance.
Intercalation Station • 79 implied HN points • 09 Oct 24
  1. Battery technology is evolving, and it’s important to understand different types like NMC and LFP. These choices affect cost, safety, and how much energy batteries can hold.
  2. Moving to larger battery cells can save costs and increase energy storage but brings challenges in heat management and monitoring cell health. Better systems are needed to keep everything safe and efficient.
  3. Companies are adapting to use LFP batteries due to their safety and lower costs, even if it means sacrificing some energy capacity. The goal is to find new ways to make these batteries even better in the future.
Global Inequality and More 3.0 • 921 implied HN points • 10 Dec 25
  1. Asia, especially China and India, has become a major player in the global economy, producing a significant portion of the world's goods and services. Despite their economic power, their influence in organizations like the IMF doesn't match their contributions.
  2. There is a need to reform or create international economic organizations that better represent the current global economy. BRICS countries are trying to establish new institutions but face challenges in gaining global recognition.
  3. Learning from Asia's economic success is essential for other countries. China, in particular, should identify its successful economic strategies and adapt them for use in poorer nations to help them grow.
Points And Figures • 453 implied HN points • 21 Jan 26
  1. The ten‑year Treasury yield is high largely because demand for debt is strong as the economy expands, not because of runaway inflation.
  2. Corporate capex is rising due to tax incentives like full expensing and big AI investments, which is pushing firms to borrow more and support higher long‑term rates.
  3. Traditional inflation signals and manufacturing are cooling — CPI and commodity prices are down and ISM is in contraction — so growth appears driven by investment and productivity gains rather than broad consumer inflation or big hiring waves.
The Beautiful Mess • 766 implied HN points • 01 Jan 26
  1. Protect focus by carving out fixed capacity for prevention and high-impact work so urgent, low-value tasks don’t always dominate.
  2. Favor fast learning and minimal shipable experiments: define the smallest thing to test in weeks, pre-authorize follow-ups, and use forcing constraints to avoid over-polishing or paralysis.
  3. Make priorities real from the top: allow teams to drop lower work, measure hidden drag as cost-of-delay, maintain a visible pull queue of small, valuable tasks, and fund low-cost experiments for longer bets.
Interconnected • 848 implied HN points • 18 Dec 25
  1. The UAE has actively aligned with the U.S. in the global AI competition and is investing heavily in physical AI infrastructure, including a massive 5GW Stargate data center to serve as a regional compute hub.
  2. The country is pursuing a pragmatic, Singapore-like strategy: small population, big technology bets to multiply productivity, while balancing trade and practical relationships with China and other partners.
  3. Building an AI ecosystem means attracting both low- and high-skilled workers and fostering social inclusivity under Emirati cultural norms, so the UAE focuses on talent density and everyday inclusiveness to make its AI ambitions sustainable.
read • 10456 implied HN points • 28 Apr 23
  1. A Substack can be a powerful tool for writers to engage with readers and promote their books.
  2. Substack allows for direct connection with committed readers and can significantly impact book sales.
  3. Starting a Substack can help writers build a community, get feedback, and continue engaging with readers even after the publication of a book.