The hottest Substack posts right now

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The Internet Takes the Amazon

The Analog Family • 399 implied HN points • 05 Jun 24
🕹 Technology Indigenous issues Internet Cultural impact Social media Digital Rights
  1. The introduction of the Internet in remote Amazon villages has both benefits, like staying in touch with family, and drawbacks, such as young people losing interest in traditional crafts and customs.
  2. Some tribe leaders are noticing that excessive screen time is hurting community interactions and daily life, prompting them to set limits on Internet usage.
  3. Reactions to this change highlight hypocrisy in our own technology use; while we express concern for Indigenous cultures, we often ignore the negative effects of screens in our own families.

Created unequal

ideassleepfuriously • 1375 implied HN points • 31 Jan 24
📖 Philosophy Morality Metaphysical Political Equality
  1. Human inequality is a reality that cannot be denied - some are faster, smarter, or more talented than others.
  2. There are distinct but related conceptions of equality: empirical, metaphysical, moral, and political equality.
  3. Political equality, where individuals are treated equally under the law, is a pragmatic and fair form of equality to strive for.

UX Roundup: AI is the Computer | Disrupting Filmed Entertainment | UX Trends | GOMS | Nano Banana 2 | Lyria 3

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 21 implied HN points • 02 Mar 26
🕹 Technology Product Design Content creation UX Artificial Intelligence Generative AI
  1. AI is becoming the computer itself: many specialized models will be orchestrated into a single, personal system that works on users' behalf and reduces the role of traditional user interfaces. This orchestration combines file systems, secure code execution, web access, and persistent memory to deliver personalized, autonomous capabilities.
  2. AI will disrupt filmed entertainment by improving production workflows, enabling small creators to produce professional-grade content, and spawning entirely new formats and distribution channels. These shifts could redirect tens of billions in industry revenue and reshape how audiences and legacy studios operate.
  3. AI is changing UX practice and tooling: models now make formal methods like GOMS cheap and practical for optimizing skilled-user efficiency, while new models (e.g., Nano Banana 2, Lyria 3) show steady progress but still have limits. Image generation is improving incrementally and music models remain short and constrained by copyright safeguards, so the tools are powerful but not yet perfect.

o3, Oh My

Don't Worry About the Vase • 3852 implied HN points • 30 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Computing Software Engineering Data science Machine Learning AI Models
  1. OpenAI's new model, o3, shows amazing improvements in reasoning and programming skills. It's so good that it ranks among the top competitive programmers in the world.
  2. o3 scored impressively on challenging math and coding tests, outperforming previous models significantly. This suggests we might be witnessing a breakthrough in AI capabilities.
  3. Despite these advances, o3 isn't classified as AGI yet. While it excels in certain areas, there are still tasks where it struggles, keeping it short of true general intelligence.
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Further Reflections On Virtuous Fraud

David Friedman’s Substack • 278 implied HN points • 11 Dec 25
📖 Philosophy Political Ethics Religious Philosophy Epistemology Ethics Political Philosophy
  1. Sometimes people think it’s okay to hide or distort the truth if they believe the lie will lead to better social outcomes, a practice often called "virtuous fraud".
  2. That temptation appears in many contexts — from denying evolution to preserve religion, to editors weighing publication of risky science, to politicians exaggerating facts to win support for policies.
  3. Deciding whether deception is justified relies on uncertain empirical beliefs and invites hypocrisy and misuse, because good intentions can produce bad results or be applied selectively.

The Case for Big Action to Regulate Artificial Intelligence

chamathreads • 2653 implied HN points • 09 May 23
🕹 Technology Innovation Tech industry Regulation Artificial Intelligence Internet
  1. Regulation of artificial intelligence is essential to manage risks and protect society from potential harms.
  2. Regulating AI can set global standards and prevent censorship on the internet.
  3. Past successful regulatory models, like those in the pharmaceutical industry, demonstrate the importance and effectiveness of oversight.

Getting silly with C, part (void*)2

lcamtuf’s thing • 3673 implied HN points • 10 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Programming Software Coding Computer Science Development
  1. Understanding C's syntax can be tricky, especially with function declarations and typedefs. You'll find that some definitions may not be exactly what they seem.
  2. C allows some flexibility with variable and function declarations, which can lead to surprising behaviors, so always double-check how your symbols interact in different scopes.
  3. There are quirky features in C, like a BASIC compatibility mode for line numbering, showing that the language has some fun, unexpected twists!

Programmers should hedge against AI

Amaca • 47 implied HN points • 11 Feb 26
💼 Business Investing Corporate strategy Technology Labor Market Startups Semiconductors
  1. The job market for programmers has tightened a lot since 2021; interviews are harder and landing roles feels much more difficult.
  2. AI tooling levels the playing field so anyone can build software, which lowers the economic value of individual software products and startups and risks making many programming jobs obsolete.
  3. To protect themselves, programmers should aim for stable, unionized roles at large companies with legacy revenue and/or financially hedge by investing in semiconductors and datacenter/AI infrastructure (e.g., call options or relevant stocks).

The Surprising Computational Properties of Love and Voluntary Suffering

apxhard • 51 implied HN points • 08 Feb 26
📖 Philosophy Ethics Consciousness Decision Theory Moral Psychology Religion Metaphysics Cognitive Science
  1. Love works like an outward-pointing utility that breaks self-referential loops and gives you clearer, less anxious targets to aim for.
  2. Loving many people widens your sample of reality and links your wellbeing to others, which prevents overfitting to your own experience and smooths emotional spikes.
  3. Choosing to endure short-term suffering lets you move against immediate pleasure gradients to escape local traps, and combined with love this grants much greater freedom to reach better long-term states.

How much agency do we actually want?

benn.substack • 1585 implied HN points • 13 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Career development Artificial Intelligence Work Culture Productivity Human behavior
  1. Many people want clear directions to reach their goals rather than complete freedom to decide everything on their own. It's sometimes easier to follow a checklist than to choose your own path.
  2. In the tech world, even highly skilled professionals often seek specific instructions on what to do next, rather than relying solely on their creativity and initiative.
  3. While we talk about wanting more agency and independence, many of us really just want someone to give us a roadmap for success, even if it means giving up some of our freedom.

Data Science Weekly - Issue 557

Data Science Weekly Newsletter • 159 implied HN points • 25 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Engineering Data science AI Machine Learning Data Visualization
  1. AI models can break down when trained on data that is generated by other models. This can cause problems in how well they work.
  2. There is scientific research about the history of Italian filled pasta. It shows that most types likely came from a single area in northern Italy.
  3. There are new resources and guides available for improving predictive modeling with tabular data. These can help you build better models by focusing on how data is represented.

Why You Shouldn't Worry about AI Taking Jobs

Richard Hanania's Newsletter • 3291 implied HN points • 09 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Labor AI Regulation Growth Economy
  1. Many jobs we have today are not really necessary and could be replaced by AI. This is because some jobs exist due to government rules or old systems that don't make much sense anymore.
  2. People generally prefer human interaction over machines, especially in industries like hospitality, art, and healthcare. Humans provide a unique value that machines can't replicate, making these jobs safer from replacement.
  3. Even if AI takes many jobs, our economy is expected to grow significantly, which can help support those out of work through wealth redistribution. Governments have the ability to provide for everyone, even if many people end up jobless.

Liu Shijin urges RMB internationalisation to boost consumption, balance trade

Pekingnology • 75 implied HN points • 05 Feb 26
💰 Finance Capital Markets Monetary Policy Exchange rates International Finance Macroeconomics Consumption
  1. China needs to boost domestic consumption to fix a demand shortfall, focusing especially on services and basic public services and raising incomes for rural and low‑income groups.
  2. The growth model should shift from investment/export‑led expansion to one driven by innovation and consumption, using ‘terminal demand’ to guide effective investment and letting inefficient capacity exit.
  3. Accelerating RMB internationalisation—by expanding the offshore RMB pool through RMB‑settled imports, making RMB settlement a market‑access condition, and developing offshore RMB financial products—can strengthen the currency’s global role and support domestic consumption growth.

5 Sony VAIO Designs That Changed the Look of Personal Computers

Obsolete Sony’s Newsletter • 119 implied HN points • 06 Aug 24
🕹 Technology Computer Hardware Innovation Consumer Electronics Product Design
  1. Sony's VAIO line was important for making personal computers stylish and innovative. They focused on both design and performance in their products.
  2. Some VAIO models, like the PCG-505 and PCG-U1, set new standards for portability and compactness in laptops. They showed that computers could be both small and powerful.
  3. VAIO's unique designs, such as the PCV-MX1V7 and VGC-LA70B, blended multimedia features with attractive looks. This made them stand out in homes and changed how people viewed desktop computers.

Looking Back at 2024

The Asianometry Newsletter • 3637 implied HN points • 31 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Tech History Travel Research Video content Semiconductors
  1. The channel enjoyed a lot of growth in 2024, hitting impressive milestones with over 100 million lifetime views. It's amazing to think so many people watched the videos.
  2. Some favorite videos included stories about Nisei interpreters and Texas Instruments, which are rich in history and technology. These stories really resonate and are fun to tell.
  3. There are plans for 2025 to explore a mix of semiconductor topics and new themes to keep things fresh and engaging. It's all about balancing work and passion.

7 Investing Habits That Matter More Than Stock Picks in 2026

Behavioral Value Investor • 193 implied HN points • 30 Dec 25
💰 Finance Behavioral Finance Risk management Personal Finance Wealth Management Investing Portfolio Management
  1. Be honest about your strengths and weaknesses as an investor and focus on improving your process; pick one area to work on deeply rather than trying to change everything at once.
  2. Do less trading and spend most of your time reading and learning, but be prepared to act decisively and take large positions when a high-conviction opportunity within your circle of competence appears.
  3. Keep realistic return expectations and maintain high investment standards; ignore market noise, hot trends, and persuasive promises that erode your margin of safety.

50% off The Lunduke Journal (including Lifetime Subscriptions) through Saturday!

The Lunduke Journal of Technology • 1723 implied HN points • 29 May 25
🕹 Technology Media Independent Media Online community Tech Journalism Subscriptions
  1. There's a 50% off sale on subscriptions for The Lunduke Journal until Saturday. This includes monthly, yearly, and lifetime options.
  2. The journal has received a lot of support from readers, setting records for new subscriptions during past promotions.
  3. Subscribing helps keep The Lunduke Journal ad-free and supports independent tech journalism, allowing for honest and bold stories.

👑 Everything you need to know about valuation

Compounding Quality • 2614 implied HN points • 23 Feb 23
💰 Finance Stocks Growth Investing Earnings Valuation
  1. In the short term, stock prices are driven by fluctuations in valuation, while in the long term, they follow the intrinsic value of a company.
  2. When investing, it's crucial to buy stocks at a discount to their true worth to avoid poor results.
  3. Consider factors like Return On Invested Capital (ROIC) and expected growth when evaluating the value of a company to make informed investment decisions.

Your Computer Interviewed Chris Curry (1981)

Computer Ads from the Past • 1152 implied HN points • 02 Aug 25
🕹 Technology Innovation Computers Interviews Electronics History
  1. Chris Curry helped develop the Acorn Atom, a popular computer in Britain, and was involved in the BBC's computer literacy project. This project helped shape computer education in the UK.
  2. Acorn computers focused on creating reliable and speedy products, highlighting the importance of quality in their designs. Their computers, like the Atom and Proton, gained traction due to good production and design.
  3. Collaboration and the need for standardization were key themes, especially when developing programming languages like Basic. Acorn aimed to create a version of Basic that combined the best aspects of existing languages, which could become widely adopted.

An epidemic of weirdly precise AI butt facts

Marcus on AI • 4703 implied HN points • 30 Oct 24
🕹 Technology Innovation Investments Future Trends AI Predictions
  1. Elon Musk and others often make bold claims about AI's future, but many of these predictions lack proper evidence and are overly optimistic.
  2. Investors are drawn to grand stories about AI that promise big returns, even when the details are vague and uncertain.
  3. The exact benefits of advanced AI, like machines being thousands of times smarter, are unclear, and it's important to question how that would actually be useful.

❄️ 🚀 Une grosse annonce à vous faire. Ready ?

Snowball • 2614 implied HN points • 29 Mar 23
💼 Business News Technology Crypto Marketing Finance
  1. Snowball+ is a new collective of newsletters focused on personal finance in France, featuring various experts and tools.
  2. The launch price for Snowball+ is 9€ per month or 80€ per year, offering additional content and a diverse range of financial topics.
  3. Existing subscribers to Snowball will experience a price increase soon; new content will be added regularly to Snowball+.

Not So Fast: AI Coding Tools Can Actually Reduce Productivity

Am I Stronger Yet? • 1379 implied HN points • 10 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Coding AI Tools Software Development Productivity Research
  1. A recent study found that using AI coding tools can actually slow down experienced developers by about 19%. They thought AI would help them work faster, but it didn’t turn out that way.
  2. The study showed that developers spent a lot of time reviewing and fixing the code generated by AI since it often didn't meet their quality standards. This extra review time took away from their actual coding time.
  3. AI tools might be better suited for simple, new projects rather than complex, established codebases. This means while AI can assist in some areas, it’s not ready to fully replace human developers in challenging tasks.

Everyone is excited about Claude Code!

Alex's Personal Blog • 164 implied HN points • 06 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Artificial Intelligence Business strategy Developer Tools Autonomous Vehicles Cloud Infrastructure Semiconductors
  1. Claude Code is giving lots of people superpowers by making it easy for non-developers and developers to build and ship useful software, democratizing who can create with AI.
  2. Nvidia’s new Vera Rubin chip suite and yearly upgrade push aim to satisfy booming AI compute demand and keep customers upgrading, but that strategy could still lead to a future chip glut and tougher price competition.
  3. U.S. moves toward Venezuela and talk about Greenland risk straining alliances and reshaping global tech markets, which could open opportunities for European and other non-U.S. tech companies.

The Cognitive Offloading Edition

Why is this interesting? • 1447 implied HN points • 24 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Behavior Media Innovation AI Cognition
  1. Using tools like AI can make us mentally lazy. People are less likely to critically think about the information they get from these tools.
  2. Technology can enhance our abilities while also making us forget certain skills. Just like writing helped spread knowledge but may have reduced our memory.
  3. People often view new technology as harmful because it's different from what they are used to. We tend to favor familiar things over new options.

Google Trends API alternative: Wikipedia Pageview Statistics

Franz likes to code • 39 implied HN points • 05 Sep 24
🕹 Technology Programming Wikipedia Python Data Analysis APIs
  1. If you're having trouble with the Google Trends Python package, you can switch to using Wikipedia's page view statistics instead. It's a reliable and official way to get data on search trends.
  2. Wikipedia provides a rich API that allows you to fetch daily or hourly view counts for specific articles. This can help analyze how topics gain interest over time.
  3. You can use a simple Python code to find the page views for any Wikipedia article, making it easy to replace Google Trends in your research and get the data you need.

Weekend thoughts: investing advice (not financial advice!) for non-investors

Yet Another Value Blog • 1513 implied HN points • 13 Jan 24
💰 Finance Accounting Stocks Investing Index funds Value investing
  1. Investing in low-cost index funds can be a smart choice for non-investors.
  2. Trying to outperform the market with individual stock trading is challenging and can be risky.
  3. It's important to learn the basics, understand finding an edge, and align investments with expertise when pursuing investing as a hobby.

Ticker Take: a weekly newsletter on investing.

Jon’s Newsletter • 119 implied HN points • 05 Aug 24
💰 Finance Stock Market Investing Economic Trends Interest Rates
  1. The stock market is experiencing a decline due to concerns about weaker growth in China and delays in new technologies from major companies like Nvidia. Investors are getting nervous, leading to a selloff.
  2. Reports of disappointing job numbers in the U.S. have made investors worried about the economy, especially with the Federal Reserve possibly cutting interest rates into a recession rather than a soft landing.
  3. Despite the current market downturn, historical data suggests that bull markets can last longer than many think. This bull market has lasted about 22 months so far, which is still shorter than average.

Does Bluesky have the juice?

Read Max • 4426 implied HN points • 15 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Social media Digital Culture User engagement Content creation
  1. Bluesky is growing quickly, with many users moving from Twitter. However, it's still not as big as Twitter or Threads, raising questions about its ability to truly replace Twitter.
  2. The users joining Bluesky are mainly liberal and politically engaged, which might limit the diversity of content compared to Twitter's broader audience.
  3. YouTube viewers seem to value two main qualities: curiosity and the ability to dominate in debates. These characteristics shape how people engage with political ideas online.

Credit Scores Explained

Concepts of Finance 🧠 • 419 implied HN points • 30 May 24
💰 Finance Credit Scores Financial tools Debt Management
  1. Your credit score is a quick way for companies to see how likely you are to pay back a loan. Better scores mean you’re seen as a lower risk.
  2. Paying off loans can sometimes lower your credit score because it can reduce your credit mix. But over time, responsible spending will help your score go back up.
  3. There are many myths about credit scores, like thinking you only have one or that you must carry a balance to improve your score. In reality, it's better to pay off debt completely.

Ronin’s Saigon Testnet is migrating to Ethereum!

Ronin’s Newsletter • 61 implied HN points • 03 Feb 26
🔮 Crypto Wallets Migration Layer 2 Infrastructure
  1. Saigon Testnet will hardfork and migrate onto Ethereum via Optimism at block #45528550 on Feb 5, 2026, and the testnet Chain ID will update to 202601.
  2. Users don’t need to do anything — games, apps, and the Ronin Wallet will keep working, and bridging and in‑app swaps will remain available.
  3. Builders must upgrade RPC nodes before the hardfork and expect about eight hours of downtime. Running Saigon as an L2 after migration requires reth and op-node and launching from the provided state snapshot.

Code Clinic | Orchestrating Transformers Agents 2.0 for Internet Search

Encyclopedia Autonomica • 19 implied HN points • 09 Oct 24
🕹 Technology Programming Data science AI Software Machine Learning
  1. Using Transformer Agents 2.0 is a step up from traditional methods. They can handle multi-step tasks better and have memory to store information as they work.
  2. Setting up and building a basic ReAct Agent is straightforward. You only need to install some packages and create the agent using selected models and tools.
  3. You can orchestrate multiple agents together for more complex tasks. By combining different agents, you can enhance their capabilities and improve the results of your searches or queries.

25 Unpopular and Contradictory Opinions on Data and Engineering

The Data Jargon Newsletter • 138 implied HN points • 23 Aug 24
🕹 Technology Data Strategy Business Intelligence Software Engineering Data Engineering Data products
  1. If your data product isn't making money, it's really just an internal tool. It's important to focus on projects that add real value.
  2. Having a good Business Intelligence team can often bring more benefits than trying to make fancy data products. Simple tools can lead to effective data use.
  3. More data engineers can improve your data platform, but just adding analysts might not directly make your data team better. It's all about how the team fits with the organization.

AI #123: Moratorium Moratorium

Don't Worry About the Vase • 1433 implied HN points • 03 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Policy AI Regulation Innovation Computing
  1. The recent AI moratorium vote showed strong support for removing the regulation, signaling that many lawmakers may want to proceed with AI development without heavy restrictions.
  2. AI models can provide useful assistance, but they often struggle with mundane tasks and can make big mistakes, especially in high-stakes situations.
  3. As AI continues to evolve, it's essential to ensure safer regulations and maintain a balance between innovation and managing potential risks that AI might pose.

Clouded Judgement 3.6.26 - Get in the Token Path

Clouded Judgement • 16 implied HN points • 06 Mar 26
💼 Business Cloud AI SaaS Strategy Startups Valuation Infrastructure
  1. The biggest cloud-era infrastructure winners aligned their revenue with the platform's core consumption unit — they "owned the meter" so more usage automatically meant more revenue.
  2. In AI, tokens are becoming that core unit, so companies directly in the token path (models, inference platforms, and coding agents) can structurally scale as token consumption rises.
  3. Being in the token path is necessary but not sufficient — companies must build real differentiation and moats (better developer UX, vertical models, security/compliance, or proprietary data) and move quickly before token economics commoditize.