Top all-time · #13028
Arthur Johnston
Personal blog · arthur-johnston.com/essay · on HN as arthurjjprogrammingculturecareer
Arthur Johnston's personal blog at arthur-johnston.com covers programming, culture and career. Since 2015, 5 different Hacker News readers have linked it 23 times, most often “A Hacker Writes a Children's Book”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-03-12, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (1) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this site for a post about a programmer's illustrated children's book on Apache Kafka, part of a wider pattern of programmer parents writing books to teach kids to code. Comments only cite it as an example.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 1 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
The website of Arthur Johnston.
Most-linked posts?
- A Hacker Writes a Children's Book2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-12-08
- Oncall shift should be Tuesday to Tuesday2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-11-19
What Hacker News says?
Most of the books have been low-key attempts from programmer parents, probably to get their own children into programming. They were posted on different forums, and I have a hard time finding my way back to them. The example that I think illustrates my point best is: http://arthur-johnston.com/hacker_writes_a_childrens_book/ (which was posted here in 2017: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15879519 ) The book wor…
Comment linking /hacker_writes_a_childrens_book/
on “I wrote a children's book / illustrated guide to Apache Kafka”Submitted Oncall shift should be Tuesday to Tuesday as a story · 190 points
HN discussionI initially felt similar. But once I realized that Seveneves is actually two RPG novels [1] it gets much better. Part 1 & 2 are universe backstory. Like the Horus Heresy in 40k or the story of Lilith in Vampire. Part 3 is just to advance the plot of the univers. Like the Dragonheart Trilogy in Shadowrun or when the clans get introduced in Battletech. [1] http://arthur-johnston.com/essay/2015/10/03/seveneves.html
Comment linking /essay/2015/10/03/seveneves.html
on ““The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason””Submitted A Hacker Writes a Children's Book as a story · 171 points
HN discussionIt makes me so happy to see this genre taking off. We did "ABCs of Programming" [1] when our son was 2 at least partially because there weren't any real kid's books talking about what "dad does all day". Funnily enough it wasn't selling that well until I posted an article [2] on HN about my experience writing it. Then it did steady business for a few years [1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/1548489778 [2] https://arthur-…
Comment linking /hacker_writes_a_childrens_book/
on “Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2025 – Show and tell”Submitted Was the DAO Hack to Prevent Roko's Basilisk? as a story · 4 points
HN discussion"Two prompts and then do it yourself" is a pretty good heuristic. Last year I was simulating a boardgame [1] and wasted ~1 hour trying to get ChatGPT to solve a basic coding combinatorics problem. I needed a method in python to generate all possible hand decisions a player could make. I couldn't make it understand that certain choices were equivalent [1] https://arthur-johnston.com/paths_of_civ_tech_tree/
Comment linking /paths_of_civ_tech_tree/
on “Write the damn code”Submitted How Programmers Can Adapt to Increased Money in Software as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI've been looking for a book like this since I had my first kid three years ago! Thanks! We wrote the book after searching for a couple weeks for a book like it. I actually ended up writing a list of all the different programming books for babies and toddlers [1]. Hope you like it. 1. http://arthur-johnston.com/programming_books_for_babies/
Comment linking /programming_books_for_babies/
on “A Hacker Writes a Children's Book”Submitted Programming Books for Babies and Toddlers as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI was hoping this article was going to be a serious look at if an AI could run on a currency like Ethereum. A few months back I wrote a tongue in cheek version about if the DAO hack was to prevent the singularity [1]. But I'd be curious if it were actually possible. 1. http://arthur-johnston.com/essay/2016/06/26/Rokos_DAO.html
Comment linking /essay/2016/06/26/Rokos_DAO.html
on “The Cryptocurrency Singularity”Submitted Check Sums in Everyday Life as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI've been using Jekyll for my personal blog[1] since 2015. I think it took me a few hours to get up to speed and I've never coded ruby. There are maybe 4 commands you actually need to know and I don't think a newer version has yet broken any of my pages http://arthur-johnston.com
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Simple(st) Static Site Generator?”Submitted Finding Java classes that are only used by tests as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why the arguments against AI are so confusing as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Oncall should be Tuesday to Tuesday as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Improving Forecasting for Programmers as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Code Names Are Bad as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Scoring Maker's Schedule vs. Manager's Schedule Using Herfindahl Index as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted 10 Steps to Safely Change an API as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Wasting Code vs. Recycling Code as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Using a Word Replacer to get up to speed faster as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why MVP Should Stand for “Manually Verified Product” as a story · 1 points
HN discussion