Top all-time · #3430
David Graeber
Personal blog · davidgraeber.orgphilosophyeconomics
David Graeber's personal blog at davidgraeber.org covers philosophy and economics. Since 2021, 23 different Hacker News readers have linked it 28 times, most often “The Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant (2013)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-05-11, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (20) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link David Graeber's essays and books on anarchism, bullshit jobs, value and early human history, often to back points about work, play and politics.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 20 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
It all started with the horror of David’s death; then there was Carnival4David, then this site was created by David’s family. David Graeber Institute was established in 2022. However, davidgraeber.org remains a separate site, aiming to collect and share as much about David as possible independently
Most-linked posts?
- /articles/value-as-the-importance-of-actions/3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-08-25
- The Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant (2013)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-10-20
- /articles/are-you-an-anarchist-the-answer-maysurprise-you/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-05-07
- /books/the-dawn-of-everything-a-new-history-of-humanity/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-04-24
What Hacker News says?
If it becomes "just a hobby", it will become a privilege, too. Someone here linked Graeber essay https://davidgraeber.org/articles/value-as-the-importance-of... . I read it with interest, although it's a bit abstract. I wish he was still alive, he would have a field day with AI.
Comment linking /articles/value-as-the-importance-of-actions/
on “Thinking will become a hobby”Submitted Against Economics (2019) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe theory that humans are evil to one another and that this behavior has been going on since the dawn of time has shaky grounds. David Graeber looks for alternative explanations in his book [1] The Dawn of Everything. https://davidgraeber.org/books/the-dawn-of-everything-a-new-...
Comment linking /books/the-dawn-of-everything-a-new-history-of-humanity/
on “DeepSeek uses banned Nvidia chips for AI model, report says”Submitted The Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant (2013) as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> Hunter gatherer bands in the Amazon live the way they have for 50,000 years As much as “noble savage” is a comforting story, the truth is likely more complicated. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67940671 https://www.npr.org/2011/01/12/132853997/Amazon-Once-Was-Hom... https://davidgraeber.org/books/the-dawn-of-everything-a-new-...
Comment linking /books/the-dawn-of-everything-a-new-history-of-humanity/
on “The Basque Country’s Mondragón Corporation is the largest industrial co-op”Submitted The Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs (2013) [pdf] as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> types of problems AI excels at are generally those that humans have found but overlooked. Seems to be a deep and interesting angle lurking here, especially when coupled to > evolutionary approach will slow down Meaning something I will have to think about (while keeping Graeber in the background[0]) or even plan around :) Will respond after I sleep on it [0] https://davidgraeber.org/articles/value-as-the-importanc…
Comment linking /articles/value-as-the-importance-of-actions/
on “Why I didn’t sign the Fields medallists’ letter”Submitted Debt, Violence, and Impersona Markets: Polanyian Meditations as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThere's an interesting article by David Graeber on how we characterize play and fun among animals: https://davidgraeber.org/articles/whats-the-point-if-we-cant... . I can't say that I've understood it all, but he appears to criticize scientists for not thinking about play seriously, and instead reducing most aspects of animal behavior to things like survival, fitness, and evolutionary pressure.
Comment linking /articles/whats-the-point-if-we-cant-have-fun/
on “Behaviors reveal sophisticated tool use and possible “pranking” among pachyderms”Submitted How Enlightened Were the Pirates of Madagascar? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionDid he speak about the pandemic much? I think the responses to the pandemic from anarchists are interesting. They seem to range the entire spectrum: from the anti government conspiracy theorist to the enthusiastic state coercion supporter. Maybe the academic theorists were more level headed? He seemed to be saying "lets see what good can come from it afterwards", but I'm curious if there's more he said. I did see a…
Comment linking /articles/the-museum-of-care-reimagining-the-world-after-pandemic/
on “What Happened to David Graeber?”Submitted 'I had to guard an empty room': the rise of the pointless job (2020) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionHe was also relatively much more open to engaging with his ideological enemies. See his debate with Peter Thiel or his engagement with Nassim Taleb. https://davidgraeber.org/videos/david-graeber-vs-peter-thiel... (His relationship with NT going from foe to dear friend is one of the most heart-warming things I've seen on Twitter): https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1301570705671237632 In this he was an intellectual i…
Comment linking /videos/david-graeber-vs-peter-thiel-where-did-the-future-go/
on “Human History Gets a Rewrite”> those beautiful times when people actually cared and believed the future will be better. David Graeber has written eloquently about this https://davidgraeber.org/articles/of-flying-cars-and-the-dec...
Comment linking /articles/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit/
on “A washing machine for human beings, from 1970”Right. "Anarchists are simply people who believe human beings are capable of behaving in a reasonable fashion without having to be forced to. It is really a very simple notion." From: "Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You!", David Graeber, 2009, https://davidgraeber.org/articles/are-you-an-anarchist-the-a...
Comment linking /articles/are-you-an-anarchist-the-answer-maysurprise-you/
on “The map that keeps Burning Man honest”related? David Graeber's On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs https://davidgraeber.org/articles/on-the-phenomenon-of-bulls...
Comment linking /articles/on-the-phenomenon-of-bullshit-jobs-a-work-rant/
on “André Gorz predicted the revolt against meaningless work (2023)”This article is also operating under the assumption that all "work" is equally fulfilling on every level of Maslow's heirarchy. But much of what we work on nowadays has very little attachment to the actual physical sphere of connections, people, objects, community, etc that we interact with daily. [1] This makes a large portion of modern work simply not worth doing, because of how little it fulfills our needs. It go…
Comment linking /articles/
on “Work/life balance should be difficult”GDP doesn’t need to grow indefinitely. It measures industrial output, but not wealth or prosperity. Here are economists whose perspectives you may find offer a way out of the trap it feels like we’re in: Mariana Mazzucato ( https://marianamazzucato.com ) talks about the spectrum of models capitalism can take in this interview: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-prof-g-show-with-s... . “Betterness” by Umair Ha…
Comment linking /books/bullshit-jobs/
on “Ask HN: Is the world going to shit?”Our proto-edger on high had a more serious one: Corporatist. His specific usage has the center-left covered! Too bad it didn't stick (Strictly speaking, that'd be "neo-corp", like "neo-lib", but with more of a Futurist flavor. You could even say cyberpunk :) https://davidgraeber.org/videos/donald-trump-is-a-classic-co... https://youtu.be/yCQDq1oG0vA
Comment linking /videos/donald-trump-is-a-classic-corporatist-2/
on “Ask HN: Is HN Pro-Fascist?”Graber was an anarchist and a leftist. For example, quoting from https://davidgraeber.org/articles/is-your-job-bullshit-on-ca... > I’ve been working with people who’ve become big advocates for a universal basic income. It’s not the only solution, but it conforms with my political instincts. People think that is odd because I’m an anarchist. Why would I want a policy where the government would just give people money?…
Comment linking /interviews/i-found-myself-turning-into-an-idiot-david-graeber-explains-the-life-sapping-reality-of-bureaucratic-life/
on “Are You an Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You by David Graeber (2000)”The tragic end to the Knights Templar brings to mind David Graeber's idea of bringing back the jubilee: https://davidgraeber.org/articles/after-the-jubilee/ Excerpted from Wikipedia: The Templars were closely tied to the Crusades; as they became unable to secure their holdings in the Holy Land, support for the order faded. Rumors about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created distrust, and King Philip IV of…
Comment linking /articles/after-the-jubilee/
on “The Knights Templar started London's first bank (2017)”David Graeber is the correct spelling. https://davidgraeber.org/books/
Comment linking /books/
on “Thousands of CEOs just admitted AI had no impact on employment or productivity”In most jurisdictions, generosity is considered a masculine trait. Guess some things will have to be revised.. Very tangentially: I found the essay where Graeber characterizes (even prima facie liberal) institutions as right-wing, in either your sense or mine: https://davidgraeber.org/articles/value-as-the-importance-of... > Who controls the medium through which, and the institutions through which, our actions becom…
Comment linking /articles/value-as-the-importance-of-actions/
on “Testosterone in young men may shape generosity, self-worth”"David Graeber: Oh, absolutely. After all, the alter-globalization movement grew out of a broad global reaction to the Washington consensus, which was never any sort of consensus, but rather, a vision of the world forcibly imposed on the global South through the third world debt crisis. I was involved in “drop the debt” campaigns of various sorts since at least 2000. What got me interested in some of the philosophic…
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/debts-history-implications-and-critical-perspective.pdf
on “How China's “debt traps” work”David Graeber: Oh, absolutely. After all, the alter-globalization movement grew out of a broad global reaction to the Washington consensus, which was never any sort of consensus, but rather, a vision of the world forcibly imposed on the global South through the third world debt crisis. I was involved in “drop the debt” campaigns of various sorts since at least 2000. What got me interested in some of the philosophica…
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/debts-history-implications-and-critical-perspective.pdf
on “How China's “debt traps” work”That’s just anarchism https://davidgraeber.org/articles/are-you-an-anarchist-the-a...
Comment linking /articles/are-you-an-anarchist-the-answer-maysurprise-you/
on “The best relationships are all-encompassing.”
