Top all-time · #2848
Chris Sells
Personal blog · sellsbrothers.comprogrammingcareer
Chris Sells writes Marquee de Sells: Chris's insight outlet, a personal blog at sellsbrothers.com about programming and career. Since 2008, 27 different Hacker News readers have linked it 28 times, most often “If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft (2002)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-24, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (12) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Chris Sells's post 12395, the Feynman-applies-to-Microsoft piece, as a satirical take on brainteaser interview questions and on the manhole-cover riddle.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 12 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
The latest entries posted on Marquee de Sells: Chris's insight outlet
Most-linked posts?
- If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft (2002)6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2020-05-25
- Round manhole covers, or if Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2008-04-14
- /123952 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-01-05
What Hacker News says?
That reminded me to reread "If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft" https://sellsbrothers.com/12395
Comment linking /12395
on “My dad's resume and skills from 1980”Submitted If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft (2002) as a story · 213 points
HN discussionObligatory https://sellsbrothers.com/12395
Comment linking /12395
on “The rise of never-ending job interviews”Submitted If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft (2002) as a story · 189 points
HN discussionMaybe not Von Neumann at google, but how about Feynman at Microsoft? https://sellsbrothers.com/12395
Comment linking /12395
on “IBM's Asshole Test”Submitted Round manhole covers, or if Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft as a story · 69 points
HN discussion> a number of reasons why it was round Except that question in particular is a fairly silly one. A satirical rendition exists that illustrates why, and happens to have been discussed long ago on HN ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=569897 ) but apparently the original article has moved ( https://sellsbrothers.com/12395 ).
Comment linking /12395
on “Two capacitor paradox”Submitted WebAssembly explodes client-side programming as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThere's another, shorter one, answering the "why are manhole covers round" question: http://www.sellsbrothers.com/posts/details/12395
Comment linking /posts/details/12395
on “What would Feynman do? (2011)”Submitted My Day with Edward Tufte as a story · 3 points
HN discussionChris Sells added reference counting to the open source "Rotor" release years ago. This was to test whether GC overhead was indeed an overhead over deterministic finalization. http://www.sellsbrothers.com/writing/refcount_rotor.doc I'll let you come to your own conclusions about the results :)
Comment linking /writing/refcount_rotor.doc
on “Why C# is the best language for mobile development”Submitted Fluent-Style Programming in JavaScript as a story · 3 points
HN discussionblogspam: original is here: http://www.sellsbrothers.com/fun/msiview/#Feynman
Comment linking /fun/msiview/
on “Round manhole covers, or if Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft”Submitted BillG's Last Review as a story · 3 points
HN discussionAgreed, but that is why I'm ... basically complaining, I suppose. Feynman's reputation was never "dude who comes up with lots of solutions". Invoking Feynman is for when: * There is a difference between the name of the thing and what it does (very much his style). * When bureaucracy is disconnected from physical reality (alluding to the Challenger incident). * When a blisteringly intelligent person can just get it r…
Comment linking /12395
on “What Would Feynman Do? (2011)”Submitted Stages of AI Grief as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYou're thinking Microsoft: https://sellsbrothers.com/12395
Comment linking /12395
on “How to hire engineering talent without the BS”Submitted Applied XML Developers Conference (2004) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionComplete Feynman interview - http://www.sellsbrothers.com/fun/msiview/#Feynman
Comment linking /fun/msiview/
on “Why Are Manhole Covers Round? (on Microsoft brainteaser job interviews)”Submitted Building a modern, mobile-first app as a story · 1 points
HN discussionhttp://sellsbrothers.com/12395
Comment linking /12395
on “Worst Interview Questions for Software Developers”Submitted Sells Manor: Running 64-bit Win8 on My MacBook Air as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI never meant I didn't like that kind of riddle - I really do enjoy most of them. But I don't think they have any use in an interview setting, since they too often just test if the interviewee is up to date on the latest list of interview questions (Eg. http://www.sellsbrothers.com/fun/msiview/default.aspx?conten... ) or not.
Comment linking /fun/msiview/default.aspx?content=question.htm
on a deleted threadSubmitted Enabling the Tip Calculator in Your Brain as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Fluent-Style Programming in JavaScript as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Directory Descendants in C# v Clojure as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Downside of Transparency as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Some of the Microsoft Interview Process Filmed as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
