Top all-time · #6254
Cynthia Dunlop
Personal blog · writethatblog.substack.comwritingprogrammingcareer
Cynthia Dunlop writes Write that blog!, a personal blog at writethatblog.substack.com about writing, programming and career. Since 2024, 13 different Hacker News readers have linked it 47 times, most often “How developers react to AI-scented blog posts”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-22, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (1) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Linked as the source of a self-reported preference poll on developer reaction to AI-written blog posts. The one comment cites it while criticising a different post by another author for taking that poll seriously.
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.
For people who want to read/write great engineering blog posts.
Most-linked posts?
- How developers react to AI-scented blog posts6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2026-06-16
- Simon Willison on Technical Blogging3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2026-01-26
- Why Write Engineering Blogs2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-12-10
- Why developers use LLMs to write blog posts2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-06-09
- Eric Lippert on Technical Blogging2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-12-16
- Gunnar Morling on Technical Blogging2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-03-10
- Thorsten Ball on Technical Blogging2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-08-07
- Sam Rose on Technical Blogging2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-02-07
What Hacker News says?
(2025) Also in the author's latest post[0], they took this[1] self-reported preference poll seriously, which makes it very hard for me to take their articles seriously. [0] https://bcantrill.dtrace.org/2026/09/05/the-revolt-of-the-re... [1] https://writethatblog.substack.com/p/dev-reaction-to-ai-blog...
Comment linking /p/dev-reaction-to-ai-blog-posts
on “Your intellectual fly is open when you use an LLM to author a post (2025)”Submitted Antirez on Technical Blogging as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSome responses (Simon Wilison, antirez, Gergely Orosz, Sean Goedecke...) here: https://writethatblog.substack.com/t/tech-blogger-insights?s...
Comment linking /t/tech-blogger-insights?sort=top
on “Anti-patterns in software blogging”Submitted Phil Eaton on Technical Blogging as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThere are a number of perspectives on why others write here: https://writethatblog.substack.com/p/why-write-engineering-b...
Comment linking /p/why-write-engineering-blogs
on “Ask HN: Is starting a personal blog still worth it in the age of AI?”Submitted Bryan Cantrill (and Friends) on Blogging as a story · 4 points
HN discussionAlso, we captured how other bloggers got started at https://writethatblog.substack.com/t/tech-blogger-insights
Comment linking /t/tech-blogger-insights
on “Ask HN: How to get started writing a blog?”Submitted Report: How developers react to AI-scented blog posts as a story · 3 points
HN discussionMy colleague and I published a book to help developers write more compelling blog posts. Bryan Cantrill wrote the foreword, Scott Hanselman wrote the afterword. Eric Lippert was the technical editor. There are more details at https://github.com/scynthiadunlop/WritingForDevelopersBook You can read some chapters for free on the Manning site. Chapter 8 is available at https://writethatblog.substack.com/p/the-bug-hunt-b…
Comment linking /p/the-bug-hunt-blog-post-pattern
on “Writing for Developers”Submitted Why developers use LLMs to write blog posts as a story · 3 points
HN discussionMy colleague and I published a book (w Manning) to help developers write more compelling blog posts. Bryan Cantrill wrote the foreword, Scott Hanselman wrote the afterword. Eric Lippert was the technical editor. The book covers strategies for optimizing all phases of the technical blogging process (topic selection, planning, drafting, revising…). Then, we have fun exploring popular engineering blog post patterns suc…
Comment linking /p/the-bug-hunt-blog-post-pattern
on “We Wrote a Book: Writing for Developers (Manning Publications)”Submitted How developers react to AI-scented blog posts as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Simon Späti on Technical Blogging as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Write Engineering Blogs as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Aaron Francis on Technical Blogging as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Thorsten Ball on Technical Blogging as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Scott Hanselman and Mark Downie: Blogging for Developers as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Gunnar Morling on Technical Blogging as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Jeff Atwood on Technical Blogging as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Reviewing Your Blog Post with an LLM as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Rubber ducking your blog post with an LLM as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Developers react to AI-scented blog posts as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Dan Moore on Technical Blogging as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Gergely Orosz on Technical Blogging as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Sean Goedecke on Technical Blogging as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Simon Willison on Technical Blogging as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Impact of Technical Blogging as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Preston Thorpe on Technical Blogging as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted "The Bug Hunt" blog post pattern as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Tanel Poder on Technical Blogging as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
