Top all-time · #2500
Daniel Pink
Personal blog · danpink.com/archivescareerproductivity
Daniel Pink's personal blog at danpink.com covers career and productivity. Since 2008, 31 different Hacker News readers have linked it 32 times. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (23) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers mostly point to Daniel Pink's books on motivation, selling, regret and timing rather than individual posts, and cite them in discussions of workplace incentives and sales.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 23 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- /books/to-sell-is-human/3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-08-27
- /books/drive/3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-12-24
- /drive2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-11-03
- /books/to-sell-is-human/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-03-13
What Hacker News says?
I think that short-form writing is important (I tend to prolix, so it's not my strongest point). I was always told that any proposal or explanation that is to land on the desk of a VP or higher (most companies, but the one I was in, was General Manager, or higher), needed to be a maximum length of one page, and not dense text. I have written a lot , over my life, but I tend to write fairly long pieces[0]. This has m…
Comment linking /2005/05/mini-sagas-another-approach/
on “How to communicate effectively as a developer”Submitted Bob Sutton on Good and Bad Bosses as a story · 4 points
HN discussionWealth and investments are not ends themselves. Having enough money won't guarantee a meaningful life. This is a mistake many working people, not just the FIRE community makes. I found the concept of "funded contentment" by Brian Portnoy[1] useful: > ... wealth and investing are about funding contentment and underwriting a meaningful life, as defined by you. Not about getting rich, having "more," and losing yourself…
Comment linking /books/drive/
on “Early-Retirement Update”Submitted Why you should come up with at least 1 bad idea today as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI don't know whether drilling down the message that "she is not gifted, she is just normal" is the right way to go. Maybe she will the get idea that she is not talented enough to try something so why bother. Alternatively you could reframe the message as "You are as gifted as anybody, hardwork is what matters". A book won't change a person's life, but https://books.google.is/books/about/The_Adventures_of_Johnny... i…
Comment linking /2013/05/the-6-essential-lessons-of-a-satisfying-productive-career/
on “The curse of the gifted programmer (2000)”Submitted Mark Andreesen: Yes, smart phones are actually underhyped as a story · 2 points
HN discussionOne thing that worked for me for other addicting behaviors was to properly and deliberately harness regret. If you call upon it in advance of making a regrettable decision, it can be a tool instead of a cudgel. This book goes over this philosophy well: https://www.danpink.com/the-power-of-regret/
Comment linking /the-power-of-regret/
on “Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?”Submitted Cheap and effective productivity apps as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI'd rather have a sales person that is as much a part of the team as anyone else. Daniel Pink's ["To Sell Is Human"]( http://www.danpink.com/books/to-sell-is-human/ ) makes a strong argument against commissions, which is echoed in these articles: https://hbr.org/2012/07/a-radical-prescription-for-sales > Mitch Little began questioning the received wisdom on sales commissions in the late 1990s, shortly before he beca…
Comment linking /books/to-sell-is-human/
on “Why Must You Pay Sales People Commissions?”Submitted How a tuna fish sandwich can turbocharge your career as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYou might enjoy "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us", which explores the research on that topic. http://www.danpink.com/books/drive
Comment linking /books/drive
on “The Highest-Paid CEOs Are The Worst Performers, New Study Says”Submitted Why progress matters: 6 questions for Harvard’s Teresa Amabile as a story · 1 points
HN discussionMake good decisions when you're feeling well that make bad decisions when you're feeling impulsive harder. Example: buy only good food / no alcohol / etc when you shop; when those emotions well up that typically trigger going towards the bad thing to consume, it just doesn't exist. It's amazing how NOT hungry one actually is when you actually would have to do so much as microwave something! Show up daily, even in a…
Comment linking /the-power-of-regret/
on “Getting Out of a Rut”Submitted Emotionally intelligent dashboard signage? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionGood book on the topic of selling - https://www.danpink.com/books/to-sell-is-human/
Comment linking /books/to-sell-is-human/
on “Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?”Submitted Harrison Ford: "No Limit for Better" as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThe motivation triple is "autonomy, mastery, and purpose" http://www.danpink.com/drive/
Comment linking /drive/
on “Apple at 40: The forgotten founder who gave it all away”Submitted Beware the Planners as a story · 1 points
HN discussionTook me a bit of skimming + reading to get to it, but section 3 about causes (and blocking) of intrinsic motivation reflect what you'll find in Daniel H. Pink's book, Drive. https://www.danpink.com/books/drive/ Presumably built off the same research.
Comment linking /books/drive/
on “How to build Intrinsic Motivation: a review of the science”Most of the article is copied from this http://www.danpink.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/FLIP-Manif...
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2013/07/FLIP-Manifesto.pdf
on “Employees are faster and more creative when solving other people's problems”I would guess what GP is referring to is something along the lines of this book: https://www.danpink.com/books/drive/ IIRC, the idea is just that money only goes so far up Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Once our material well-being is taken care of, we want mastery and autonomy and incentives geared that way are more effective than money.
Comment linking /books/drive/
on “University of Helsinki free MOOC on the Ethics of AI”The long answer, I believe, is to read and take to heart Daniel Pink's Drive. https://www.danpink.com/drive./ In short: 1. give them the ability to apply their own solutions to your problems - don't force-feed solutions as part of your problems. let dev teams use their own expertise to collaborate with the business to come up with the right answer 2. allow devs to pursue mastery of their field, give them opportunity…
Comment linking /drive./
on “Ask HN: Best ways to retain qualified employees?”If you enjoy this, you might like 'To Sell is Human'. It's full of little treasures. http://www.danpink.com/books/to-sell-is-human/
Comment linking /books/to-sell-is-human/
on “Cognitive Lode – Brain gems for decision-makers”Drive By Dan Pink http://www.danpink.com/drive
Comment linking /drive
on “Ask HN: What are you reading right now?”Thanks for pointing this out. I found a related post on Pink's blog: http://www.danpink.com/archives/2010/01/raises-do-matter
Comment linking /archives/2010/01/raises-do-matter
on “The Vast and Endless Sea”As a culture we now assume that everyone is supposed to act as their own personal sales and marketing department. You aren't even a complete human being unless you do [1]. We also take it for granted that marketing involves a certain amount of exaggeration and deception, and that anyone taken it by dishonest marketing only has themselves to blame, as long as the dishonesty is kept within certain culturally accepted…
Comment linking /books/to-sell-is-human/
on “US behavioural research studies skew positive”There's a lot of ground to cover to become a non-starving freelancer. You need to find mentors and other working models quickly and some grit. You may need more education and training. Since you're looking at web-work, you need also to start building your own portfolio of sample-work in order to prove yourself, I recommend learning everything you can about github.com and making yourself a name there with a github pa…
Comment linking /books/free-agent-nation/
on “Ask HN: Freelance web developer advice”There are programs than can write programs. I don't want to compete with a computer that's smarter than me. Haha. I'll stick with my "right brain" work and hack some open source software when I need it. Please forgive me, I'm currently reading "A Whole New Mind" http://www.danpink.com/whole-new-mind The author foretells that programming is becoming less important due to abundance, automation and outsourcing to Asia.…
Comment linking /whole-new-mind
on “Is Programming Getting Less Popular?”Although it's not quite what you're looking for (sounds like you want a manual / howto) I highly recommend "Drive" by Daniel Pink. http://www.danpink.com/drive
Comment linking /drive
on “Ask HN: If you could recommend only three management books...”> marketing or selling The or was intentional, I would also point out that selling does not always mean convincing someone to trade money for something. For example, here I am trying to sell you on the idea that selling is more general. https://www.danpink.com/books/to-sell-is-human/
Comment linking /books/to-sell-is-human/
on “OpenSunsama is the best open-source task manager”
