Top all-time · #16778
David Tate
Personal blog · badsoftwareadvice.substack.com · on HN as tateprogrammingcareer
David Tate writes Bad Software Advice, a personal blog at badsoftwareadvice.substack.com about programming and career. Since 2023, 4 different Hacker News readers have linked it 52 times, most often “How to run yourself into the ground in tech”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-24, 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 David Tate's post on how to write a passive-aggressive vacation policy, a satirical take on unlimited PTO. One thread on whether unlimited PTO is a scam cites it.
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.
Learn from the wrong.
Most-linked posts?
- How to run yourself into the ground in tech2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-01-16
- How to create a passive-aggressive vacation policy2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-10-02
What Hacker News says?
"How to create a passive-aggressive vacation policy" > This system provides unlimited vacation as long as everyone agrees that unlimited has another definition, a secret definition, and it is going to be discovered by the team. > On paper, unlimited vacation means that you can work be employed for 90 days, and then retire, never to be heard from again. Obviously, you can’t do this or take a month off every quarter,…
Comment linking /p/how-to-create-a-passive-aggressive
on “Ask HN: Is Unlimited PTO a Scam”Submitted How to use bad metaphors to explain software development as a story · 22 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to run a miserable code review as a story · 21 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to build toxic software teams as a story · 16 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to tell who your best programmer is as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to use the term technical debt to mean anything you want as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to design a system that never works, that you can't be blamed for as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to avoid learning new things as a software engineer as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to treat the people that built the system you work on as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to make your programmers (look like they) work harder as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to run yourself into the ground in tech as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to run a demoralizing and ineffective technical interview as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to Ship a Prototype as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to keep coding as a technical manager, to cause maximum pain as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to create an insecure privacy-blind startup as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to create a passive-aggressive vacation policy as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to recruit the best people (that are friends with your coworkers) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to design a system that never works, that you can't be blamed for as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to fumble your promotion from developer to manager as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to create a perfect software development process that does not work as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to write a post-mortem that always blames Terry as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to Waste Your Vacation as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to avoid learning new things as a software engineer as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The term "technical debt" is wrong as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to Handle Working Software as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to Selfishly Design a System as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted What to do when everyone else is wrong as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to use an Object Relational Mapper and never learn SQL as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to run yourself into the ground in tech as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to Get into Developer Heaven as a story · 1 points
HN discussion