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D13V
Personal blog · dimitarsimeonov.comstartupsphilosophy
D13V is a personal blog at dimitarsimeonov.com about startups and philosophy. Since 2018, 5 different Hacker News readers have linked it 40 times, most often “Opt Out of Cynicism”. The last post was in 2022, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (1) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Linked in a thread on Bulgaria's new eGov minister as a coincidental note that this post, about opting out of cynicism, was on the front page at the same time.
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.
Most-linked posts?
- Opt Out of Cynicism3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-12-12
What Hacker News says?
I had the same gripe about working at Twitter- the two main metrics were daily active users and user active minutes. User research was way understaffed so a lot of the side effects of optimizing metrics remained unchecked Edit: I wrote “The vanity metric paradox” a while ago to express it more clearly http://dimitarsimeonov.com/2018/03/23/the-vanity-metric-para...
Comment linking /2018/03/23/the-vanity-metric-paradox
on “Netflix claims Fortnite is now a bigger competitor than HBO”Submitted Opt Out of Cynicism as a story · 345 points
HN discussionShameless plug - I wrote an essay recently on how any metric becomes a vanity metric http://dimitarsimeonov.com/2018/03/22/the-vanity-metric-para... Some excerpts: - having clear, well defined metrics is the single largest driver of progress within a company - Any metric sufficiently optimized becomes a vanity metric - Building products is not science. What makes a good product is usually dependent on so many factor…
Comment linking /2018/03/22/the-vanity-metric-paradox
on “Heart surgeons refuse difficult operations to avoid poor mortality ratings”Submitted Giving a name to my sales anxiety as a story · 87 points
HN discussionI wrote something on a related topic recently: https://dimitarsimeonov.com/2019/02/13/how-people-turn-their... """ We like to refer to that effort as willpower. But, from the point of view of looking at emotions fighting for dominance inside our brains, willpower is simply the strength and effort of the constructive emotions. The emotions which lead to long term happiness and comfort, even at the expense of short te…
Comment linking /2019/02/13/how-people-turn-their-life-around
on “Procrastination Has Nothing to Do with Self-Control”Submitted Self arrest on the slippery slope of addiction as a story · 57 points
HN discussionAmusingly enough this is on the front page right now: https://dimitarsimeonov.com/2021/12/12/opt-out-of-cynicism (HN submission https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29534714 )
Comment linking /2021/12/12/opt-out-of-cynicism
on “Bulgaria's new eGov minister is a software engineer”Submitted Starting Up with TypeScript as a story · 14 points
HN discussionI've seen similar topics come up on HN front page every once in a while. Here are some of my thoughts on the topic, through the prism of metrics for a company. http://dimitarsimeonov.com/2018/03/23/the-vanity-metric-para... TLDR of my post: The vanity metric paradox - every metric, sufficiently optimized becomes a vanity metric, as it stops being the make-or-break qualifier for a company.
Comment linking /2018/03/23/the-vanity-metric-paradox
on “Goodhart's Law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure”Submitted Exiting Artificial Scarcity as a story · 6 points
HN discussionGoogle and traditional media as well are in the business of selling advertisement. I feel that when your money comes from selling your readers attention to the highest ad bidder, one incentive becomes to sensationalize and do other tricks to increase viewership. This incentive can be at odds with the incentive to inform truthfully and completely, as some of the important information would invariably be boring, resul…
Comment linking /2017/10/27/the-shifting-sweet-spot-for-media
on “Google News Initiative”Submitted Sleep Is for Backpropagation (2017) as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThis seems to be targeted towards people who want to make living out of it. My personal conviction is to write for myself first, and develop my own thoughts and not rely on it for commercial reason, but to clarify my thoughts, and develop communication. Aiming to make money of it results in a different type of writing, imo. Here are some more thoughts I recently wrote on a related topic: http://dimitarsimeonov.com/2…
Comment linking /2018/01/24/on-hungry-artists-and-jedi
on “Advice for Aspiring Writers”Submitted 2019 in review, and three takeaways about startups as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to unlearn as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to be a genius: Van Gogh was a profilic hacker (2016) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Deer in Infinite Loop as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Negotiation: from arm wrestling to dancing as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Proof of authenticity as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Resources are infinite: Archimedes' lever for entrepreneurs as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The winds of change for startups as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Getting lost as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Predicting the next 10 years for deep learning as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Opt Out of Cynicism (2021) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Life is not a reinforcement learning problem (2016) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Escaping Obstacles with Arbitrage as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Sorting Hat of Sales Mindset as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Climb your own Status Everest as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Bubbly Parasympathetic Thinking as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted True to Self as a story · 1 points
HN discussion