Top all-time · #6601
Daniel Litt
Personal blog · daniellitt.com/blogmathwriting
Daniel Litt's personal blog at daniellitt.com covers math and writing. Since 2017, 12 different Hacker News readers have linked it 19 times, most often “Mathematics in the Library of Babel”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-13, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (8) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Daniel Litt's posts as examples of an online academic conference run over Zoom and as sources on AI and mathematics, including a bet about AI-produced papers. The comments do not assess the writing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 8 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Daniel Litt is a mathematician working in algebraic geometry, arithmetic geometry, and related subjects.
Most-linked posts?
- Mathematics in the Library of Babel5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2026-02-21
- The End of Mathematics2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2026-08-12
- The parity of zero, the primality of two, and other mysteries2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-07-20
- A beginning for mathematics2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-09-14
What Hacker News says?
> it DOESN'T emphasize security / privacy This sounds right to me. Last week on Zoom, I attended an online conference ( https://www.daniellitt.com/agonize/ ), and participated in a D+D game. Privacy and security weren't priorities. (Indeed, complete video of the conference has since been posted.) That said, there have been problems, see for example here: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/03/26/zoombombers-d..…
Comment linking /agonize/
on “Zoom needs to clean up its privacy act”Submitted A beginning for mathematics as a story · 274 points
HN discussion> What does their product do so much better than the others that I'd put up with this shit? I'll share my perspective as an academic. Many of us have adopted Zoom, practically overnight, for our teaching, for one-on-one meetings with students, and even for conferences [1]. The answer is: It just works . It's easy. It does what we want it to, with a minimum of fuss. As someone who now has a whole bunch of unanticipat…
Comment linking /agonize/
on “Zoom needs to clean up its privacy act”Submitted The parity of zero, the primality of two, and other mysteries as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI'm a college professor, and I'll share my perspective. For one, Zoom did just work. (At least as a participant, rather than an organizer.) I tried it out, and it immediately worked. It did what all of us were expecting, with no fuss. I also tried MS Teams. It seems designed with a different philosophy: that you use the software to do many different things, and you want them all integrated. (For example, it posted m…
Comment linking /agonize/);
on “How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’”Submitted The End of Mathematics as a story · 2 points
HN discussionDoesn't seem to be the case here: https://www.daniellitt.com/blog/2026/2/20/mathematics-in-the...
Comment linking /blog/2026/2/20/mathematics-in-the-library-of-babel/
on “I know why the mathematicians weep”Submitted The End of Mathematics as a story · 2 points
HN discussionDisagree, there are in fact documented cases. > I think I have been underrating the pace of model improvements. In March 2025 I made a bet with Tamay Besiroglu, cofounder of RL environment company Mechanize, that AI tools would not be able to autonomously produce papers I judge to be at a level comparable to that of the best few papers published in 2025, at comparable cost to human experts, by 2030. I gave him 3:1 o…
Comment linking /blog/2026/2/20/mathematics-in-the-library-of-babel/
on “I know why the mathematicians weep”Submitted Mathematics in the Library of Babel as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe article is very dismissive of recent mathematical proofs. It mixes together ethical problems (plagiarism, "strip mining" proofs) with capability problems (proofs not being novel, overstating capabilities). Again, it's fair to be skeptical of what the companies themselves are saying (and why). But from what I've read, many mathematicians are taking AI quite seriously. I've recently read several thoughtful essays…
Comment linking /blog/2026/9/13/a-beginning-for-mathematics/
on “Don't Be Fooled by this Summer of AI Hype”Submitted Mathematics in the Library of Babel as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAcademia. Most classes are transitioning to an online format, using Zoom, Blackboard collaborate, or other videoconferencing software. Professors will also likely be using this software to meet with individual students one-on-one. Research seminars too. For example, here is an online conference being conducted over Zoom: https://www.daniellitt.com/agonize/ Here is an example of a weekly seminar that moved online: ht…
Comment linking /agonize/
on “Ask HN: What industries are moving to Slack/Zoom for the first time?”Submitted The End of Mathematics as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThis past weekend, I co-organized and co-hosted a virtual conference in number theory: https://people.math.sc.edu/thornef/pajamas.html I found it to be a very worthwhile experience. We had around 100 participants, around 50-60 at any given time. We had synchronous Zoom lectures with Q&A, "virtual coffee breaks", and a Discord forum for discussion. Not sure if I have any particular suggestions for your format; ours w…
Comment linking /blog/2020/4/20/wagon-lessons-learned
on “Ask HN: Is a Virtual Conference worthwhile during Covid?”Submitted Mathematics in the Library of Babel as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Mathematics in the Library of Babel as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Mathematics in the Library of Babel as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted What percentage of Americans know what a prime number is? as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
