Top all-time · #3688
Andy Lester
Personal blog · petdance.comprogrammingcareer
Andy Lester's personal blog at petdance.com covers programming and career. Since 2007, 21 different Hacker News readers have linked it 31 times, most often “Ack - a faster, more featureful, grep”. The last post was in 2022, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (8) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link petdance.com for Andy Lester's ack grep tool page, Perl command-line tips, and writing on resumes, GitHub portfolios and hiring, including his job-search book.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 8 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Ack - a faster, more featureful, grep5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2007-11-27
- Your github account is not your portfolio, it’s just a start3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-09-02
- Resume tactics from the grocery checkout lane2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-11-16
What Hacker News says?
The idea of listing categories is fine, but don't rely on those descriptions to give enough detail. What you think might be "good" knowledge of X might be strictly amateur to someone else. Better to tell stories and give descriptions of how you've used the technology in question. Also, if you know something good enough to say that you're good at it, there better be multiple bullets up above explaining how you've use…
Comment linking /tag/numbers/
on “The Startup Resume”Submitted The nameless "they" and the Facebook / job interview trend that isn't a trend as a story · 109 points
HN discussionI've got three good old fashioned book recommendations: * Johanna Rothman's "Hiring Geeks that Fit" ( https://leanpub.com/hiringgeeks ) does what it says on the tin - her blog is a useful resource too http://www.jrothman.com/blog/htp/ * Andy Lester's "Land the Tech Job You Love" ( http://petdance.com/book/ ) is written for job seeker - but is actually a good read for folk on the recruiting side too [bias warning: I…
Comment linking /book/
on “Must-Reads When Recruiting Programmers”Submitted What I learned hanging out at the vascular surgery conference as a story · 97 points
HN discussionNot really relevant to the current topic of Pandora's relationship to music, but for those interested in the historical problem with music (and the music industry), I strongly recommend reading "The Problem With Music" by Steve Albini (From The Baffler, No. 5, 1993)[1]. This was my first introduction to The Baffler, and led me to start reading their publications regularly. I don't always agree with the author's poin…
Comment linking /actionpark/albini/the-problem-with-music.html
on “Pink Floyd: Pandora's Internet radio royalty ripoff”Submitted The world’s two worst variable names as a story · 41 points
HN discussionSee also: http://petdance.com/perl/command-line-options.pdf
Comment linking /perl/command-line-options.pdf
on “10 tips for writing perl one-liners”Submitted Have you ever been asked “What is your biggest weakness?” as a story · 27 points
HN discussionPlease remember that a GitHub account is the start of a portfolio, but only a start. You must have some sort of curated guide that will help the reader through the morass of stuff in your account. Otherwise, you're leaving it up to chance that the reader will find what you want her to find. http://petdance.com/2011/08/your-github-account-is-not-your-...
Comment linking /2011/08/your-github-account-is-not-your-portfolio-but-its-a-start/
on “Throw Out Your Resume”Submitted Ack - a faster, more featureful, grep as a story · 13 points
HN discussionAck is a beautiful tool. http://petdance.com/ack/
Comment linking /ack/
on “Grep is a beautiful tool”Submitted Your github account is not your portfolio, it’s just a start as a story · 7 points
HN discussionI like ack better for searching code: http://petdance.com/ack/
Comment linking /ack/
on “Grep is a beautiful tool”Submitted ack, a grep like tool that used perl regex as a story · 6 points
HN discussionMy preferred programmers grep: http://petdance.com/ack/ Though rkern is a very clever fellow, and I'm sure grin is sufficiently awesome. I think I'll benchmark the two...I kinda suspect ack is faster, but maybe Python will surprise me (when I used to work in Python a few years ago, I was occasionally disappointed in its performance for tasks like this). Interestingly, grin uses the exact same output format as ack...…
Comment linking /ack/
on “Grin: A smarter way to grep code”Submitted Sexist examples ruin your presentation as a story · 4 points
HN discussion- vl · 2013-04-21
Submitted Ack 2.0 has been released as a story · 3 points
HN discussion Submitted Open source is improv, so say “Yes and” | Andy Lester as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Mark Jason Dominus on the importance of giving fish as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The simple math of why your resume probably isn’t getting read. as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Self-selecting for "thick-skinned" means turning away FOSS contributors. as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Your github account is not your portfolio, but it’s a start as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How can I help my 50ish sysadmin brother find a job? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Trying to get your boss fired means you’re looking at the wrong problem as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted There's only one useful way to handle your detractors as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Buzzword Bingo as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Resume tactics from the grocery checkout lane as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Before you write a patch, write an email as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why I’m finally leaving GoDaddy as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Resume tactics from the grocery checkout lane as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
