Top all-time · #3867
Benjamin Ross Hoffman
Personal blog · benjaminrosshoffman.comphilosophyculture
Benjamin Ross Hoffman writes Compass Rose, a personal blog at benjaminrosshoffman.com about philosophy and culture. Since 2016, 20 different Hacker News readers have linked it 21 times, most often “Approval Extraction Advertised as Production”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-04-13, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (10) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN comments link this blog as related reading on the Sabbath and work-life balance, critiques of Y Combinator and approval extraction, and wait vs interrupt culture. The comments cite its posts without judging them.
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.
Most-linked posts?
- Approval Extraction Advertised as Production4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-12-16
- /sabbath-hard-and-go-home/3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-09-14
- Wait vs. Interrupt Culture2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-09-23
What Hacker News says?
Related reading: https://hotelconcierge.tumblr.com/post/113360634364/the-stan... http://benjaminrosshoffman.com/approval-extraction-advertise...
Comment linking /approval-extraction-advertised-as-production/
on “Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs”Submitted Wait vs. Interrupt Culture as a story · 345 points
HN discussionAn article [0] that takes a critical stance on Paul Graham/Y Combinator, specifically Graham's advice that you should stop focussing on passing tests, despite Y Combinator being entirely built around passing tests. [0] http://benjaminrosshoffman.com/approval-extraction-advertise...
Comment linking /approval-extraction-advertised-as-production/
on “Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective”Submitted Approval Extraction Advertised as Production as a story · 7 points
HN discussionAnother article in favor of the Sabbath: http://benjaminrosshoffman.com/sabbath-hard-and-go-home/
Comment linking /sabbath-hard-and-go-home/
on “Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’”Submitted Reason Isn't Magic as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI want to make sure it's said that effective altruism is intertwined with the rationalist movement (Scott Alexander[1], Eliezer Yudkowsky[2], Robin Hanson[3]) and that, among these so called rationalists and the parts of the effective altruist community where they hold sway, there are a lot of advocates of AI risk mitigation research (what this means, who knows). These people see AI as the greatest risk to humanity,…
Comment linking /effective-altruism-is-self-recommending/
on “Can “effective altruism” maximise the bang for each charitable buck?”Submitted The Domestic Product as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis brings to mind Compass Rose's piece Shabbat Hard or Go Home. http://benjaminrosshoffman.com/sabbath-hard-and-go-home/
Comment linking /sabbath-hard-and-go-home/
on “Being-Doing Balance over Work-Life Balance”Submitted Sabbath Hard and Go Home as a story · 2 points
HN discussionOur inherently isolating automobile-scaled environments will always be a stressful, mental illness-inducing lifestyle. Humans are built for complete walking-distance communities, not subdivisions and collector roads. People cling to city centers because they are the only places it is legal to build the kind of pedestrian-scale density we would have recognized as home through most of human history. I found this piece…
Comment linking /sabbath-hard-and-go-home/
on “City residents live with mental illness at higher rates than general population”Submitted Some casual thoughts on forming an educational library as a story · 1 points
HN discussionaka wait vs interrupt culture http://benjaminrosshoffman.com/wait-vs-interrupt-culture/
Comment linking /wait-vs-interrupt-culture/
on “You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English”Submitted Guilt, Shame, and Depravity as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI think this is downstream of The Debtor's Revolt[1] and antinormative conspiracies expropriating object-level gains[2] from creators. Those closer to the central bank have lower rates to buy out value-creating startups which are assimilated into the antinormative conspiracy. This ancestral mirroring is a fundamental issue with central planning, anathema to the federation necessary for capitalism to succeed. [1]: ht…
Comment linking /the-debtors-revolt/
on “Anthropic to receive high 'junk' rating from credit agencies following IPO”Submitted Approval Extraction Advertised as Production as a story · 1 points
HN discussionhttp://benjaminrosshoffman.com/openai-makes-humanity-less-sa... Personally, I think making AI tech broadly available could be a bad idea if AI tech changes warfare so that offense works better than defense: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10721621 (This is already true, but I think it's likely that further technological development will make it even more true.)
Comment linking /openai-makes-humanity-less-safe/
on “OpenAI's Researchers: Protecting Against AI’s Existential Threat”Submitted How to gain more independence of mind as a story · 1 points
HN discussionNothing. Sabbath hard and go home: http://benjaminrosshoffman.com/sabbath-hard-and-go-home/ Chag Pesach samech. Ramadan mubarak. Happy Easter. What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at onc…
Comment linking /sabbath-hard-and-go-home/
on “Ask HN: What side projects are you working on over Easter?”Submitted Dominance, care and social touch as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Reading, writing, and thinking, with your brain as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
