Top all-time · #3214
Danielle Fong
Personal blog · daniellefong.comsciencestartupsphilosophy
Danielle Fong's personal blog at daniellefong.com covers science, startups and philosophy. Since 2008, 24 different Hacker News readers have linked it 46 times, most often “My Biggest Surprise: How Law Shapes the Business Landscape, and a Patent Puzzle”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-06-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (12) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Danielle Fong's blog posts as essays on startups, rejection, and how law and regulation shape business, including energy and drug development. Commenters mostly cite them as support for their own points.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 12 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
notes from a girl from the future
Most-linked posts?
- My Biggest Surprise: How Law Shapes the Business Landscape, and a Patent Puzzle5 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2010-02-11
- Advice to the Bright and Young2 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2008-05-15
- Your revolution will not be stolen2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-02-06
- /2008/04/11/one-response-to-rejection/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-03-27
- Enhancing Multitasking to Enhance Our Minds.2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-01-31
- General Problem Solving Strategies (for programmers) 2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-03-06
- One Response to Rejection2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2008-04-11
- /about-the-author/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-03-14
What Hacker News says?
That seems to have been a web startup, see http://daniellefong.com/2008/04/11/one-response-to-rejection... Still food for thought that YC would reject a founder so obviously good (although perhaps not obviously then) as DaniFong.. I wonder if getting rejected was one of the reasons for her to start working on something more "zero to one", and closer to her area of expertise?
Comment linking /2008/04/11/one-response-to-rejection/
on “We Make Mistakes”Submitted My Biggest Surprise: How Law Shapes the Business Landscape, and a Patent Puzzle as a story · 81 points
HN discussionHere's one: http://daniellefong.com/2010/02/11/how-law-shapes-the-busine...
Comment linking /2010/02/11/how-law-shapes-the-business-landscape-and-a-patent-puzzle/
on “Peter Thiel, Bill Gates, Khosla fund LightSail Energy in $37M Deal”Submitted Advice to the Bright and Young as a story · 56 points
HN discussionDani Fong was allowed to stop going to normal school at around age 12, because she hated it to the bone and her parents listened. After that she went on to an alternative track that involved programming, horse back riding and community college and shortly after, a physics undergrad that took 5 years. That's what I gathered from her history. I know of a bunch of people that could of been like that, but stuck to norma…
Comment linking /about-the-author/
on “Stripe's 22-Year-Old Irish-Born Founder Is Just Getting Started”Submitted One Response to Rejection as a story · 46 points
HN discussionThis highlights one of the problems with the current patent system that I illustrate in my recent essay: How Law Shapes the Business Landscape, and a Patent Puzzle. http://daniellefong.com/2010/02/11/how-law-shapes-the-busine... Corporations with no assets and no technological liabilities can acquire patents and use them as weapons for extortion. There is no counterbalancing force. These corporations may be created…
Comment linking /2010/02/11/how-law-shapes-the-business-landscape-and-a-patent-puzzle/
on “Nathan Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures hides lawsuits via 1000+ shell companies”Submitted On Naming Startups (with Ruby) as a story · 15 points
HN discussionThe infrastructure to produce food is pretty vital, but I think it's also mostly market-driven and works well. I think the issues around power utilities are more to do with a lack of competition, and legislation that creates perverse incentives. (I don't know what the current perverse incentives are, but at least as of 2010, an energy startup founder said[1] that power companies were legislated monopolies that were…
Comment linking /2010/02/11/how-law-shapes-the-business-landscape-and-a-patent-puzzle/
on “Texas electric firm files for bankruptcy citing $1.8B in claims”Submitted Laura Schewel: A principled revolutionary as a story · 9 points
HN discussion> an employer from whom I could have no possible legal recourse in the event of a dispute. That part is easily solved: the dictator can put up a bond in some trusted country. The bond is forfeited if the dictator betrays you. The contract laws of the trusted country apply. It could be that some enterprising dictator could gain a better reputation for respect of property than the US government[1]. A reputation for re…
Comment linking /2010/02/11/how-law-shapes-the-business-landscape-and-a-patent-puzzle/
on “Sealand, HavenCo, and the Rule of Law”Submitted General Problem Solving Strategies (for programmers) as a story · 8 points
HN discussion> "What are these red dots?" Also seems non-trivial to diagnose. They can be tested, or more questions can be asked of them, but this seems like an awful lot of work to be managed by a computer alone. I don't entirely disagree with you, but I think you might be underestimating the capabilities of smart programmers, e.g., some of the stuff at the beginning of http://daniellefong.com/2010/02/11/how-law-shapes-the-busi…
Comment linking /2010/02/11/how-law-shapes-the-business-landscape-and-a-patent-puzzle/
on “IBM’s Watson Now A Second-Year Med Student”Submitted 'Ecopragmatist' - Danielle Fong Interviewed by Dalhousie University as a story · 7 points
HN discussionA while back, I wrote an essay on the subject... http://daniellefong.com/2008/05/15/advice-to-the-bright-and-...
Comment linking /2008/05/15/advice-to-the-bright-and-young/
on “The curse of being a gifted child”Submitted Choice of Work as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThere are many happy ways to live, but to each their own. I wrote an essay on my experience, a bit of a similar topic. http://daniellefong.com/2008/05/15/advice-to-the-bright-and-...
Comment linking /2008/05/15/advice-to-the-bright-and-young/
on “Kim Ung-yong: The man with the highest IQ”Submitted Enhancing Multitasking to Enhance Our Minds. as a story · 2 points
HN discussionDo you know him? Honesty I don't have a huge amount of information about his other dealings, but I think there is a genuine case for what he is trying to do with IV, even if you disagree with with methods. With me and my company, he has been a man of tremendous character and generosity. I daresay you and most others are prejudging the situation. In error. Keep in mind, I am no fan of the patent system either. http:/…
Comment linking /2010/02/11/how-law-shapes-the-business-landscape-and-a-patent-puzzle/
on “Bill Gates’ nuclear company explores molten salt reactors, thorium”Submitted On Outliers: What they represent, and why the central limit theorem is typically off as a story · 2 points
HN discussionWhy do you think software business model can't be applied to drug development? On of the biggest problem with drug research is that it's highly regulated by government, so it's too costly for a small startup. Remove this regulations and you'll get a software-like situation with thousands of startups and new drugs. e.g. read this: http://daniellefong.com/2010/02/11/how-law-shapes-the-busine...
Comment linking /2010/02/11/how-law-shapes-the-business-landscape-and-a-patent-puzzle/
on “What If The Very Theory That Underlies Why We Need Patents Is Wrong?”Submitted Update on LightSail Energy as a story · 1 points
HN discussionReminds me of: http://daniellefong.com/2008/04/11/one-response-to-rejection... People take this way too seriously.
Comment linking /2008/04/11/one-response-to-rejection/
on “My Love, Hate, Love Again, Affair with Paul Graham”Submitted A case for immortality in a finite universe as a story · 1 points
HN discussionWhy the central limit theorem is usually off: http://daniellefong.com/2008/01/28/outliers-why-the-central-...
Comment linking /2008/01/28/outliers-why-the-central-limit-theorem-is-typically-off/
on “The Central Limit Theorem Makes Random Testing Hard”Submitted Trimtab as a story · 1 points
HN discussionMy take on patents... http://daniellefong.com/2010/02/11/how-law-shapes-the-busine...
Comment linking /2010/02/11/how-law-shapes-the-business-landscape-and-a-patent-puzzle/
on “Let’s Compete on Innovation Rather Than Patents”Submitted General Problem Solving Strategies (for programmers) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionAmazing resume. If they rejected you, I'm glad I saved myself a couple hours by not applying. ;) http://daniellefong.com/?p=25
Comment linking /?p=25
on “One Response to Rejection”Submitted Your revolution will not be stolen as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
