Top all-time · #3584
Christopher Allen
Personal blog · lifewithalacrity.comsecurityculture
Christopher Allen writes Life With Alacrity, a personal blog at lifewithalacrity.com about security and culture. Since 2008, 22 different Hacker News readers have linked it 24 times, most often “The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-06-16, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (10) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Christopher Allen's posts on Dunbar's number and team size, self-sovereign identity, and rating systems, often as background sources. Commenters also point to his writing on the commons of open source.
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.
A blog on social software, collaboration, trust, security, privacy, and internet tools by Christopher Allen.
Most-linked posts?
- The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity7 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2016-06-03
- Dunbar's number -- 150 friends -- the most you'll have4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2008-01-07
What Hacker News says?
That's what the last bit of the post I linked says, actually. ETA: Oh, wait. His older post actually explains it better: http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2004/03/the_dunbar_numb.html "In my opinion it is at 5 that the feeling of "team" really starts. At 5 to 8 people, you can have a meeting where everyone can speak out about what the entire group is doing, and everyone feels highly empowered. However, at 9 to 12 peop…
Comment linking /2004/03/the_dunbar_numb.html
on “Dropbox Hires Guido Van Rossum”Submitted Dunbar's number -- 150 friends -- the most you'll have as a story · 6 points
HN discussionThe advantage of calling out Dunbar's number is that it explains why there's an upper bound of some kind. But yes. 150 is far too high a number. I'd say it should be closer to 50. It makes me sad to link to this, since the PARC blog no longer hosts his images, but it's more than nothing: http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2005/10/dunbar_group_co.html
Comment linking /2005/10/dunbar_group_co.html
on “Dropbox Hires Guido Van Rossum”Submitted The Dunbar Number as a Limit to Group Sizes as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThis is really interesting. Are you using concepts from self-sovereign identity¹²? Do you think there is a relevant intersection? ¹ http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2016/04/the-path-to-self-sov... ² https://w3c-ccg.github.io/did-primer/
Comment linking /2016/04/the-path-to-self-soverereign-identity.html
on “Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?”Submitted The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity as a story · 3 points
HN discussionYou raise a good point: Why not just take care of myself and move on and not care about anyone else, or if I care why raise a finger or expend an ounce of energy when it can't benefit me and could actually hurt me? If other people get ripped off, who cares, right? Heck, maybe even in some twisted way I benefit when other people get screwed. Relatively speaking, if they get screwed and I don't, I'm better off (some k…
Comment linking /2005/03/dunbar_altruist.html
on “Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem of Hell”Submitted The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity (2016) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI actually thought Randy Farmer touched on this in his Google talk on "Building Web Reputation Systems" - but maybe I saw it somewhere else, years ago. Like this: http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2006/08/using_5star_rat.html At any rate I thought it was common knowledge that 5-point ratings have issues - especially as a "social rating system"?
Comment linking /2006/08/using_5star_rat.html
on “Netflix Replacing Star Ratings With Thumbs Ups and Thumbs Down”Submitted The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity (2016) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionA very successful "free intraprise" system that creates very free small groups is underway in the Forest Service. The focus is not on external products and services, but on doing the work that is needed by the line officers. Biological surveys, Oracle database management, trail building, planning, etc. "Enterprise teams compete for these jobs. Line officers with budgets can hire outside contractors, one of several c…
Comment linking /2004/03/the_dunbar_numb.html
on “You weren't meant to have a boss”Submitted Trust isn't binary, but progressive (2004) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionWould be interested in where you read that if you find it again - below is a link to an article that says the optimal team size is 5 to 8 based on a Dunbar analysis. 3 in unstable as too often 1 person feels left out, 4 is an even number so risk of split vote. http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2004/03/the_dunbar_numb.html
Comment linking /2004/03/the_dunbar_numb.html
on “Small teams are dramatically more efficient than large teams”Submitted The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe author decries that governance and tragedies of the commons are for inert resources. This is not the case, but perhaps this thinking pervades software projects. We can learn from Elinor Ostrom's economics work, as well as from Christopher Allen's thinking/writing about the commons of open source projects in particular. Ostrom’s Design Principles for Collective Governance of the Commons http://www.lifewithalacrit…
Comment linking /2015/11/a-revised-ostroms-design-principles-for-collective-governance-of-the-commons-.html
on “FOSS is free as in toilet”Submitted The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI'm surprised nobody mentioned self-sovereign identity and digital identity. Here are some excellent links about the subjects: http://www.moxytongue.com/2016/02/self-sovereign-identity.ht... http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2016/04/the-path-to-self-sov... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_identity https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2017/07/02/beyond-p... https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3/ https://www.forgeroc…
Comment linking /2016/04/the-path-to-self-soverereign-identity.html
on “Paradigm shifts for the decentralized Web”Submitted The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity (2016) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionExcellent project. I think identity and trust are pending issues that need to be explored, perhaps with self-sovereign identity[1]. Curious to see how this project evolves. Fwiw, I've been working on a digital credentialing system for education/training and have testing blockchain notarization. I was aware of this project and very happy to see it release. [1] http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2016/04/the-path-to-self-…
Comment linking /2016/04/the-path-to-self-soverereign-identity.html
on “Verifiable Credentials on the Blockchain”Submitted Defining “Participatory Ecosystem” Grow the Pie, Not Slice It as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Collective Choice: Competitive Ranking Systems as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Cheers: Belongingness and Para-Social Relationships as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Community by the Numbers as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Tracing the Evolution of Social Software as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
