The hottest Substack posts right now

according to Hacker News
Category

On change

Technically • 22 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
🕹 Technology Careers Software Automation AI Labor Industry
  1. The newsletter has evolved from a solo project into a multi-writer, editor-led publication that delivers deeper technical stories.
  2. AI is reshaping the labor market in complicated ways: some firms are cutting large numbers of jobs, but new specialized roles are appearing and software job openings are actually up.
  3. The readership is shifting toward industrial companies curious about using software and AI at work, so they're running a short reader survey to find out which topics to cover.

o3 Turns Pro

Don't Worry About the Vase • 1881 implied HN points • 17 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Cloud Services Computing AI Software Data Analysis
  1. o3-pro can handle bigger problems but can be slow, which might disrupt your workflow. It’s often better to queue up questions for later use instead of waiting for immediate answers.
  2. Many users see o3-pro as slightly better than o3 but still not perfect, especially in areas like coding where its performance can be inconsistent. It works well for in-depth analysis, but may not be the best for all tasks.
  3. The significant price drop for o3 makes it a more appealing choice for general use compared to o3-pro, which is seen as special-case only. This change could lead to more ambitious AI projects with the same budget.

A Depoliticized Future

The J. Burden Show • 738 implied HN points • 26 Apr 24
📖 Philosophy Politics Liberalism Civilization Human nature Society
  1. Liberalism aimed to depoliticize society but failed as politics is inherent to human nature and essential for societal order.
  2. Liberalism's attempt to distribute power widely actually increased the power of the state and led to bloodier conflicts.
  3. A well-functioning society needs a level of internal politics, but striving for a society with external politics, where enemies are outside of society, might lead to greater societal harmony.

AI is just the latest Monoculture

Deus In Machina • 72 implied HN points • 05 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Web Infrastructure Hardware Software AI Languages Programming
  1. Technological lock-in has been the default for decades, so AI tools are more inheriting existing monocultures than creating them. They might speed up adoption of dominant tools, but the fundamental switching costs already existed.
  2. Products and tools tend to win by being familiar, not necessarily by being better, because people avoid relearning interfaces. That’s why many improvements preserve old APIs and conventions instead of introducing new paradigms.
  3. Concrete chokepoints — like the C ABI, curly-brace syntax, dominant CPU/GPU ecosystems, and the browser stack — show how early choices constrain future innovation. Those entrenched standards make it hard for new languages, hardware, or platforms to gain traction even before factoring in AI.

I'm tracking which brands are sponsoring newsletters

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 274 implied HN points • 10 Dec 25
💼 Business Sponsorship Marketing Media Advertising Subscriptions
  1. Tracking newsletter sponsorships can be tricky due to many brands and no standard ad units. Some suggest starting with brands already advertising in other newsletters.
  2. Forbes is cutting back on its contributing writers to focus on a more financially sound model as they face pressures from declining traffic and revenue.
  3. More independent media outlets may start experimenting with print media to engage fans, as it offers a tangible experience away from online platforms.
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There are four ways of changing the world

Philosophy bear • 85 implied HN points • 03 Feb 26
📖 Philosophy Epistemology Social theory Moral Psychology Social Philosophy Political Philosophy Ethics
  1. There are four basic ways people change the world: by helping or blocking others (facilitation/anti-facilitation), by discovering or creating, by organizing and leading groups, and by doing a single attention‑grabbing act (exemplification).
  2. Everyday roles map onto these types: parents or assassins can facilitate or anti‑facilitate, scientists and artists discover or create, politicians and organizers change things through groups, and athletes or martyrs exemplify change by their acts.
  3. Some cases blur or fall outside the categories—accidents, butterfly‑effect stories, and mixed actions can be tricky—but the taxonomy is meant to capture legible, attributable forms of world‑changing influence.

Gao Peiyong: boosting consumption requires profound redistribution reform

Pekingnology • 60 implied HN points • 14 Feb 26
💰 Finance Consumption Fiscal policy Public Finance Taxation Income distribution Social Security
  1. Household consumption is weak mainly because people’s job prospects, incomes, and confidence are shaky, so restoring expectations and income security is central to reviving demand.
  2. Fixing this requires deep redistribution: shift fiscal spending away from large physical projects and fiscal assets toward public services and direct support for people, and make fiscal policy more equal between urban and rural areas.
  3. Pair short‑term policy measures to unlock immediate spending with long‑term institutional reform — especially a universal, non‑discriminatory social security and transfer system — and make expectations management a routine part of macroeconomic governance.

The 'No Hire' Economy

Apricitas Economics • 161 implied HN points • 11 Jan 26
💼 Business Labor Market Employment Trends Economic Policy Demographics
  1. U.S. hiring essentially stopped in late 2025, with monthly job gains near zero and rising unemployment and underemployment despite GDP growth, creating a 'no-hire' or jobless-recovery environment.
  2. Job losses are broad but concentrated in blue-collar industries, manufacturing, logistics, the public sector, and tech, while healthcare is one of the few sectors still adding workers.
  3. Young workers and low-income earners are being hit hardest — teen and early-20s unemployment rose sharply and wage growth at the bottom has stalled — and a mix of tighter policy, lower immigration, tariffs, and uncertainty risks pushing this stagnation into outright job declines.

The media is pivoting to video again

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 299 implied HN points • 05 Dec 25
💼 Business Entrepreneurship Technology Advertising Media Publishing
  1. Media companies are starting to use vertical video on their websites to compete with popular platforms like TikTok. This strategy might not work because they lack the powerful algorithms that keep users engaged.
  2. Many publishers are launching cooking apps to retain audience control as traffic shifts to big tech platforms. Dedicated apps can help convert casual users into loyal content consumers.
  3. Print books are still very popular despite the rise of ebooks and audiobooks. Many readers enjoy the physical experience of reading a print book, which keeps print formats thriving.

Two AI Lab IPOs: S-1 Breakdowns

Tanay’s Newsletter • 107 implied HN points • 21 Jan 26
💼 Business Cloud Monetization Financials Consumer Enterprise AI IPO
  1. Two different go-to-market strategies emerged: Zhipu is deployment-first, selling on-prem and enterprise solutions with professional services, while MiniMax is product-first, monetizing through consumer apps and an open developer platform.
  2. Both companies show rapid revenue growth but are still burning substantial cash; the enterprise-focused model yields much higher gross margins while the consumer app business runs on thin margins.
  3. Their IPOs raised large sums and jumped strongly on debut, valuing each firm at over $10B and pricing them at more than 200x 2025 annualized revenue, which signals very high investor expectations for AI labs.

What Is Sora For?

Big Technology • 4503 implied HN points • 13 Dec 24
🕹 Technology AI Video Generative Innovation Digital Media
  1. Sora is a cool AI video generator but is not very useful right now. The videos it creates are interesting but lack quality for serious use.
  2. There’s no clear audience for Sora yet, as it struggles to find practical ways for everyday users to engage with it. Most people might enjoy it initially, but it's hard to see why they'd keep using it.
  3. Sora could help in some specific applications, like filmmaking or marketing, but it also raises concerns about how we distinguish real from fake videos in a confusing digital world.

What I Gave Up To Become An Engineering Manager

Diary of an Engineering Manager • 62 HN points • 29 Aug 24
💼 Business Leadership Team Dynamics Work Culture Career development Management
  1. Moving from individual contributor to engineering manager means letting go of past habits. You need to make room for new responsibilities and ways of working.
  2. As a manager, you won't build things directly. Instead, you'll help your team create and support multiple projects, shifting focus from personal achievements to team successes.
  3. Managers face longer feedback loops and must learn to communicate tough issues early on. This shift encourages patience and improves team dynamics.

4 Truths About OpenAI’s Wild Financial Position

Big Technology • 5504 implied HN points • 18 Oct 24
💼 Business Investments Startups Economics Corporations Finance
  1. OpenAI plans to change how it looks at training costs, suggesting these might not be fixed over time. This could impact their profits, as training expenses are significant.
  2. OpenAI believes that ChatGPT will generate more revenue than its API, showing confidence in its widespread use. They expect more people will want to interact with AI in the future, which could be risky if the growth doesn’t happen as hoped.
  3. OpenAI is already making big payments to Microsoft, which is one reason they expect to lose a lot of money this year. If their losses continue at this rate, they will need to raise more money soon.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff Has Thoughts on AI Agents, Automation, And The Future of Your Job

Big Technology • 4753 implied HN points • 27 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Productivity Automation Customer Service AI agents
  1. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff believes AI agents will work for companies rather than individuals. This means businesses can use these agents to handle customer service and other tasks, making things more efficient.
  2. Benioff sees AI as a way to boost productivity, not just replace jobs. By using technology, companies can enhance the skills of their workers and make them more effective without necessarily hiring more people.
  3. The future of business software could change a lot. Instead of traditional programs, companies might start using chatbots to manage data and interact with customers, creating a new kind of relationship with technology.

Which Filters are Noisier – Analog or Digital? Part 1

filterwizard • 19 implied HN points • 18 Sep 24
🕹 Technology Signal Processing
  1. Analog filters can generate noise from several sources like opamps and passive components. Understanding where this noise comes from helps in designing better filters.
  2. Capacitors don’t create noise themselves, but they can hold noise sampled from resistors. This means their role in noise management in filters is important.
  3. The noise contribution of a filter stays consistent if you keep the capacitor values the same while changing resistors. This knowledge simplifies filter design.

Hey PayPal: Follow Block, Cut 40% Of Staff Tomorrow

QTR’s Fringe Finance • 26 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26
💰 Finance Corporate Actions Equities Payments Valuation AI
  1. AI-driven workforce reductions can trigger immediate investor revaluation, because markets price in expected margin gains before audited results arrive.
  2. When a low-multiple, cash-generating company pairs AI productivity cuts with aggressive buybacks, EPS and share price can rise quickly as margins and share count improve.
  3. Big layoffs carry execution and reputational risks, and cutting costs alone won’t ensure long-term innovation or competitive advantage.

Calling All Future Newsletter Superstars From Europe (Especially Germany)

Kristina God's Online Writing Club • 839 implied HN points • 12 Apr 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship Writing Marketing Content creation Online Platforms
  1. There are new features for Substack that help non-native writers, like setting a default language for their newsletters.
  2. German-speaking writers want to connect and collaborate more, and there's a new online space for this group to share and improve their skills together.
  3. It's important for writers to stay consistent and confident, even if they feel like no one is reading their work.

“LLMs amplify existing security risks and introduce new ones”

Marcus on AI • 3952 implied HN points • 16 Jan 25
🕹 Technology AI Innovation Society Ethics Security
  1. Large Language Models (LLMs) may increase security problems that already exist and also create new ones. It's important to be cautious as technology evolves.
  2. Keeping AI systems safe is an ongoing task that can never fully be completed. Security needs constant attention as risks change.
  3. Relying heavily on AI in everyday life could lead to serious problems. It's essential to consider the potential dangers before implementing AI widely.

LLMs – Part 3: Context Matters — Self Attention

Vasu’s Newsletter • 78 implied HN points • 25 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Neural Networks Machine Learning Deep Learning Natural Language Transformers Model Architecture
  1. Each token creates query, key, and value vectors so it can ask what it needs, match that against other tokens, and gather useful information.
  2. Tokens compare their query to every key to get raw scores, convert those scores to attention weights with softmax, and use the weights to take a weighted sum of value vectors to produce a new contextual vector.
  3. Self-attention makes token meanings contextual (helping with pronouns, disambiguation, and long-range links), and models use multiple attention heads plus feed-forward layers to capture different relation patterns and refine each token's representation.

The voice that isn't yours

The Stoic Journal • 76 implied HN points • 29 Jan 26
📖 Philosophy Existentialism Stoicism Mortality Mindfulness Metaphysics Ethics
  1. Small humiliations feel huge when you zoom in too close, so step back to stop tiny things from taking over your whole day.
  2. Use a long-term or cosmic perspective — our planet and lives are very small and most worries won’t matter in the big picture.
  3. After you zoom out, return to the problem and you’ll often find it fits in your hand and is much more manageable.

Python Data Engineering, July 2024

Monthly Python Data Engineering • 179 implied HN points • 25 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Open Source Data science Software Development Data Engineering Programming Languages
  1. The Python Data Engineering newsletter focuses on key updates and tools for building data engineering projects, rather than just data science.
  2. This month showcased rapid development in projects like Narwhals and Polars, with Narwhals making 26 releases and Polars reaching version 1.0.0.
  3. Several other libraries, such as Great Tables and Dask, also had important updates, making it a busy month for Python data engineering tools.

Internal Slack Messages Reveal Riot’s Messaging About Saudi Arabian Tournament`

Richard Lewis • 1631 implied HN points • 21 Jan 24
💼 Business Esports Companies Diversity Partnerships Ethics
  1. Riot Games faced internal conflicts over participation in a Saudi Arabian tournament due to LGBTQ+ concerns
  2. There was controversy over Riot's decision to work with a government that criminalizes homosexuality
  3. Internal messages revealed mixed feelings within Riot about business relationships with Saudi Arabia

Creating value in the AI age

A Bit Gamey • 13 implied HN points • 08 Mar 26
💼 Business Innovation Brand Product Strategy Marketing Leadership Careers
  1. Judgment — With information and execution becoming cheap, the scarce value is knowing what truly matters and making better decisions.
  2. Curation — As content and options multiply, people pay for clear filters that surface the useful signal from the noise.
  3. Direction — Speed alone creates faster confusion, so helping others choose the right path and save time is where durable value lives.

The AI Brush

Tippets by Taps • 14 implied HN points • 28 Feb 26
💼 Business Leadership Technology Workforce Strategy Corporate Finance Markets
  1. AI is being used as a convenient narrative to justify restructurings, acting like a brush that can make painful corrections look strategic.
  2. Both real AI-driven productivity gains and prior mistakes (like over-hiring) are usually at play, so layoffs often reflect a mix of future-facing change and catching up on past errors.
  3. Markets respond to the framing — labeling cuts as “AI transformation” can boost stock prices — so it’s important to look past headlines and read the footnotes to see what actually changed.

Silicon Valley's Slaughterhouse

Where's Your Ed At • 15430 implied HN points • 08 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Software Industry Tech industry Startups Venture Capital
  1. Elon Musk is involved in a legal battle over accusations of anti-semitism and his actions have had significant impacts on advertising revenue and Twitter's valuation.
  2. Silicon Valley culture has devolved into a profit-driven, empty innovation environment fueled by venture capital, lacking real societal impact.
  3. The tech industry, led by venture capital, has created a culture of labor exploitation, hollow promises, and superficial startup culture, with the focus on profitability rather than meaningful innovation.

AI #127: Continued Claude Code Complications

Don't Worry About the Vase • 1344 implied HN points • 31 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Data Software AI Trends Policy
  1. The US AI Action Plan is praised for its practical proposals but criticized for its focus on competition, which could harm safety and international cooperation.
  2. There are increasing concerns about the sustainability of offering unlimited AI usage due to high demand and costs, suggesting a shift towards charging based on usage.
  3. Many people still feel uncertain about AI's impact on jobs, with a divide in opinions on whether it will create or eliminate more opportunities in the future.

Which CEO will be the last to see it?

Marcus on AI • 4624 implied HN points • 05 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Innovation CEOs AI Trends Industry
  1. Many people were skeptical about the hype around Generative AI during 2022 and 2023. Some experts believe that the truth about its capabilities will eventually become clear.
  2. Several tech leaders are starting to see and admit the limitations of current AI models. This signals a possible shift in how the industry views AI's effectiveness going forward.
  3. To achieve greater advancements, experts suggest integrating different methodologies, like neurosymbolic AI, which could help overcome current challenges in AI development.

Will AI Cause Massive Deflation?

cryptoeconomy • 1493 implied HN points • 02 Feb 24
💰 Finance Deflation Inflation Central Banking Technology Economics
  1. There will not be durable deflation in the future unless major changes happen to the dollar or the Federal Reserve.
  2. Technology like AI can lead to deflation by lowering prices, but central banks like the Federal Reserve counteract this by absorbing the deflation.
  3. A special type of bad deflation occurs when dollars are taken out of circulation, often due to events like financial panics, leading to economic challenges.

Tesla: Now, It Feels Desperate

lawrence’s Substack • 758 implied HN points • 21 Apr 24
💼 Business Automotive Stock Market Corporate Governance
  1. Tesla's recent actions have caused a shift in sentiment for the worse, leading to skepticism and concern about the company's future.
  2. The attempt to restore Musk's 2018 compensation package is under scrutiny and may face legal challenges, impacting Tesla's financial standing.
  3. Questions surrounding Tesla's Model 2 development, autonomy achievements, robotaxi plans, earnings, staff departures, and production decisions are crucial for understanding the company's direction.

The Costs of War at Sea

CDR Salamander • 1650 implied HN points • 18 Jan 24
🌐 International History Military Warfare
  1. Large war at sea is inevitable and will have significant costs in terms of lives and resources.
  2. When war erupts, naval and air battles in the Pacific will be intense and potentially overwhelming.
  3. The historical context of war at sea highlights the challenging nature of such conflicts and the need for readiness and action.

poe's law comes into full flower

bad cattitude • 223 implied HN points • 18 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Cybersecurity Artificial Intelligence Media Privacy
  1. AI can now create fake people and media so convincing that ordinary people can’t tell what’s real, blurring the line between parody and reality.
  2. That breakdown of trust will upend industries and enable widespread fraud and misinformation, while existing detection and verification tools are losing the arms race.
  3. A possible upside is that people and businesses may return to high-trust, in-person local interactions and city centers, which could revive communities and improve wellbeing.

Apache Kafka - Producer

VuTrinh. • 199 implied HN points • 20 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Data Engineering Real-Time Processing Distributed Systems Cloud Computing Software Development
  1. Kafka producers are responsible for sending messages to servers. They prepare the messages, choose where to send them, and then actually send them to the Kafka brokers.
  2. There are different ways to send messages: fire-and-forget, synchronous, and asynchronous. Each method has its pros and cons, depending on whether you want speed or reliability.
  3. Producers can control message acknowledgment with the 'acks' parameter to determine when a message is considered successfully sent. This parameter affects data safety, with options that range from no acknowledgment to full confirmation from all replicas.

Weekend thoughts follow up: $NYCB insider buying and mea culpa

Yet Another Value Blog • 1395 implied HN points • 10 Feb 24
💰 Finance Insider trading Investing Banking Stocks Economy
  1. The loan book for NYCB is in worse shape than expected, potentially facing huge losses due to rent-regulated properties and increasing expenses.
  2. Despite the challenges, NYCB has over $7 billion in tangible equity, which could help the bank navigate through the crisis.
  3. Insider buying at NYCB following a special update call shows confidence in the institution, highlighting efforts to stabilize the stock amid a tough situation.

How To Measure If Your Startup Has Network Effects. | VC Jobs

Venture Curator • 319 implied HN points • 25 Jun 24
💼 Business Startup Evaluation Competitor Analysis Network Effects User engagement
  1. Network effects are crucial for the success of a startup, with big companies utilizing them to create sustainable businesses.
  2. Measuring if a startup has network effects involves evaluating metrics related to acquisition, competitors, engagement, and economics.
  3. Understanding the nature of a company's network effects and tracking metrics like user retention cohorts and pricing power are essential for founders.