Favorite/Classic HN threads of all time

I was going to post this standalone, but will post it here. I was recently reading the Hacker News initial reaction to Facebook acquiring Instagram in 2012:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3817840

One of the commenters says it will be the equivalent to Google buying YouTube. To which another commenter replies "bookmark this comment, see you in 2022". And here we are:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3818055

Probably still ranks #1 in ultimate HN comebacks:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079

I sell onions on the internet. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19728132 I keep coming back to read this every once in a while.

https://danluu.com/hn-comments/ is a good list

I've been saving interesting threads and comments in my favorites (they are in my profile). Many old-timers are surprised that Hacker News has a favorite feature. Comments are tricky: to favorite a comment you need to first show its details by clicking on the timestamp.

Now, for the links. A lot of freelancing and consulting advice threads have a good discussion and stories from the trenches:

Starting as a consultant - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21189801

Getting paid - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4817193

Common mistakes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21728436

Lessons learned from a veteran developer - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25658216

Branding and marketing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23282278

Hiring a personal assistant - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29336234

Other pretty cool and fun threads:

Crowdsourced HN book recommendations: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28595967

Product recommendations from HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29353980

What 4chan thinks of HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6747373

The comment thread about a developer of a high level of mathematic ability who wrote and maintained a widely used piece of software used for backups. Someone commented something to the effect of “He gave up on solving Millennium problems to write backup software”.

I looked on my hard drive to see what I saved and there were two, other than the usual technical saves:

Why Hacker News Thinks PHP Won Something (2009)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=438871

Unfortunately the article appears to have been scrubbed from gilesbowkett.blogspot.com and is not on the Wayback machine. Basically, the article trashes PHP and Hacker News, which I thought was interesting.

and

The company that has a monopoly on ice cream truck music (2020)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24744879

Fred, that coworker who never stops refactoring:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24120359

I will never stop being Fred, but this thread keeps me from confusing my drive to refactor with what the company actually needs. Particularly these comments:

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24120713

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24121018

It's a job posting, but I think about Dear Future Homejoy Engineer near the end of every year.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8794956

The famous Alan Kay appearance: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11939851

All passive income threads

The Dropbox launch post is a great example of why you shouldn’t take (particularly dismissive) comments here too seriously. (This isn’t to dunk on any of the contributors there - but just a reminder that we’re all fallible and have biases)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863

On that note, PG coining “middlebrow dismissal” isn’t a very elaborate comment, but is a term that has entered a few people’s lexicon.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4726248

Both the article and the comments here have some good life info (“I Thought I Would Have Accomplished More Today and Also Before I Was 35”)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24316725

Also, check out the top posts all time, and top comments all time.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...