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0nol's Substack
Personal blog · paulskallas.substack.comphilosophyculture
0nol's Substack is a personal blog at paulskallas.substack.com about philosophy and culture. Since 2020, 20 different Hacker News readers have linked it 30 times, most often “Refinement Culture (2020)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-01-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (10) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this Substack for its "refinement culture" essays, which argue that products, sports and mass culture have become minimally improved and homogenised. It is also cited on stuck monoculture.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 10 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
My personal Substack. Launched 9 months ago.
Most-linked posts?
- Refinement Culture (2020)6 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2021-03-02
- Lindy Talk with Marc Andreessen3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-03-10
- Is Culture Stuck?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-01-13
- /p/basic-concepts-1kyae2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-11-25
- /p/refinement-culture-c1b2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-06-12
What Hacker News says?
A piece theorising "refinement culture" [1] points out that the Olympics have changed a lot since their invention and revival. Originally, they were a celebration of the human form. Now, they're about putting up the most extreme freak you can find. I didn't find the overall argument persuasive, but i thought that was interesting. [1] https://paulskallas.substack.com/p/refinement-culture
Comment linking /p/refinement-culture
on “Rival weightlifter speaks out on transgender Hubbard's Olympic place”Submitted Refinement Culture (2020) as a story · 129 points
HN discussionI'm seeing more and more discussion on a stuck mono culture, and I have to say I agree with it. This is an interesting write up on the phenomenon. https://paulskallas.substack.com/p/is-culture-stuck
Comment linking /p/is-culture-stuck
on “Is America Inc getting less dynamic, less global and more monopolistic?”Submitted Transhumanism: What's the Plan? (2020) as a story · 60 points
HN discussionAmerica is colonizing the rest of the developed world. There are probably at least a billion people worldwide (mostly in Europe, but also among Third-World elites) who act American and are invested in America's issues despite never having set foot in the country. The internet has exacerbated this greatly. Just look at the BLM protests in Poland and Japan... or the Amerikaner "digital nomads" who are able to live in…
Comment linking /p/basic-concepts-1kyae
on “A Worsening Culture War”Submitted Is Culture Stuck? as a story · 38 points
HN discussionGoogle News for news(I do not read just one single newspaper); Youtube(every evening); Stackoverflow(for work related stuff); Paul Skallas’ blog( https://paulskallas.substack.com/); xkcd https://towardsdatascience.com/ I do not use any RSS reader(I never liked them), instead I subscribe to mailing lists to receive updates via emails.
Comment linking /);
on “Ask HN: What websites do you visit every day?”Submitted Ceiling Height Matters as a story · 26 points
HN discussionI didn't see a definition, but this seems to be a concise instance of the effect: > These minimal improvements in each phone are indistinguishable to the average person. It's still 2007 we are stuck. All they can do is add another camera to the back. Refining. It's kind of interesting that all of the examples lie in mass culture. Sports. Phones. Marketing. Cars. Writing is covered in Part 2: > It managed to get the…
Comment linking /p/refinement-culture-c1b
on “Refinement Culture (2020)”Submitted Refinement Culture as a story · 3 points
HN discussionHere is part two if anyone wants to continue reading: https://paulskallas.substack.com/p/refinement-culture-c1b .
Comment linking /p/refinement-culture-c1b
on “Refinement Culture (2020)”Submitted The Hormone in Bones as a story · 3 points
HN discussion> There’s a HN rule against complaining that HN is becoming like Reddit. This comment is in the same genre - it was better in the good ole days. So called "refiniment culture" is very much a real phenomenom, and is driven by the wave of data sciences injected into all categories of life: https://paulskallas.substack.com/p/refinement-culture This is why everything seems calculated & homogenic. There is very little ro…
Comment linking /p/refinement-culture
on “And the winner is…who cares?”Submitted The Asymmetry of Breakups as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI wonder if refinement culture https://paulskallas.substack.com/p/refinement-culture is a consequence of that?
Comment linking /p/refinement-culture
on “The Future Is Getting Farther Away”Submitted Lindy Talk with Marc Andreessen as a story · 2 points
HN discussionTechnology makes sports less interesting, refinement culture https://paulskallas.substack.com/p/refinement-culture
Comment linking /p/refinement-culture
on “Advancing Sports Analytics Through AI Research”Submitted What Happened to Video Games? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionHistorically, yes. American soft-power has been arguably more important than its military supremacy. The whole world watches Hollywood films and buys American brands. If America becomes uncool and unpopular, that will be a loss that no number of aircraft carriers could make up for. https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/jihad-hyperpanda/ https://paulskallas.substack.com/p/basic-concepts-1kyae
Comment linking /p/basic-concepts-1kyae
on “George W. Bush is smarter than you (2013)”Submitted Universal Basic Income, Only for Women as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted In Praise of the Lindy Walk as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Spotting the Intolerant Minority Rule (Part 2) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Joy of Sumo as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Stress the Heart and Bones as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted On Diet as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Lindy Talk with Marc Andreessen as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Lindy Talk with Marc Andreessen as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Refinement Culture (PT 1) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted On Diet as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Friendship and the Lindy Effect as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
