Hacker News with Generative AI: Personal Essays

Insomnia, Control (sonnet.io)
I'm trying to get back into a regular posting schedule, so I hope you won't mind keeping things a bit less techy for a minute (or sixty). I'll do my best to follow the rules of this site: spark your curiosity, entertain you or, at the very least, inspire you (because you'll realise you can do it even better!).

Personal Essays, Writing, Creativity

72 points by rpastuszak 16 days ago | 41 comments

Remembering Nan Shepherd (lrb.co.uk)
In the months following my parents’ deaths, I decided to buy a flatbed scanner as a partial fix for the drifts of paper they had accumulated after sixty years in the same house – receipts, letters, photographs, notes and diaries.

Writing, Memoir, Loss, Personal Essays

11 points by lermontov 31 days ago | 4 comments

On: Lisp, on Lisp, and MySelf (pyrope.net)
Common Lisp, On Lisp, and me? What more could you ask for in a blog post

Lisp, Programming Languages, Books, Personal Essays

3 points by usually 50 days ago | 0 comments

Never Forgive Them (wheresyoured.at)
In the last year, I’ve spent about 200,000 words on a kind of personal journey where I’ve tried again and again to work out why everything digital feels so broken, and why it seems to keep getting worse, despite what tech’s “brightest” minds might promise.

Technology, Internet Culture, Personal Essays, Digital Ethics

28 points by throwaway81523 64 days ago | 1 comments

Never Forgive Them (wheresyoured.at)
In the last year, I’ve spent about 200,000 words on a kind of personal journey where I’ve tried again and again to work out why everything digital feels so broken, and why it seems to keep getting worse, despite what tech’s “brightest” minds might promise.

Technology, Personal Essays, Internet Culture

21 points by wgx 66 days ago | 9 comments

Never Forgive Them (wheresyoured.at)
In the last year, I’ve spent about 200,000 words on a kind of personal journey where I’ve tried again and again to work out why everything digital feels so broken, and why it seems to keep getting worse, despite what tech’s “brightest” minds might promise.

Technology, Personal Essays, Criticism

19 points by DanAtC 67 days ago | 3 comments

Optimistic Computing (deobald.ca)
I recently made two new friends: Abhinav Omprakash and Dawn Walker. Abhinav said I’m an optimist and I should write about it. Dawn said I shouldn’t try to coin any new terms.

Optimistic Computing, Philosophy, Personal Essays

28 points by deobald 69 days ago | 1 comments

The Surreal Magnificence of Fatherhood (shreyans.org)
His arrival, our survival, and many transformations.

Parenting, Personal Essays, Transformation

178 points by shreyans 75 days ago | 240 comments

Slow Email (2008) (blogspot.com)
I've never been a slow-anything person, other than riding slowly up mountains, and that's only because of the weakness of flesh, not any unwillingness of spirit. So it's not often that I embrace a Slow movement.

Personal Essays, Lifestyle, Humour

10 points by rnjailamba 91 days ago | 2 comments

Adventures with Jean (theamericanscholar.org)
Striking up a friendship with an older writer meant accepting the risk of getting hurt

Friendship, Writing, Literature, Personal Essays

9 points by lermontov 141 days ago | 3 comments

Boredom is an invitation to slow down (papanotes.com)
It's 3:22 p.m., and I'm sitting in the clinic's waiting room. They send you to this place when you have an emergency that isn't urgent enough for the ER.I'm here with my daughter, who needs to see a doc. (She's good now)A few other kids are in the waiting room—all with only one of their parents.

Boredom, Personal Essays, Parenting, Healthcare

5 points by pmzy 161 days ago | 0 comments

My job is to watch dreams die (2011) (reddit.com)

Dreams, Reddit, Personal Essays

361 points by eezurr 169 days ago | 176 comments

Late Again (randsinrepose.com)

Humor, Personal Essays

68 points by mooreds 186 days ago | 31 comments

The secret lives of snowblowers (lcamtuf.substack.com)

Snow Removal, Winter, Substack, Personal Essays

115 points by zdw 188 days ago | 66 comments

After 12 years of reviewing restaurants, I'm leaving the table (nytimes.com)