Top all-time · #3664
David R. MacIver
Personal blog · drmaciver.substack.comphilosophyproductivity
David R. MacIver writes Overthinking Everything, a personal blog at drmaciver.substack.com about philosophy and productivity. Since 2020, 20 different Hacker News readers have linked it 34 times, most often “How to think about task estimation”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-02-24, and you can follow it by feed.
Miscellaneous thoughts as I figure out life. Click to read Overthinking Everything, by David R. MacIver, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.
Most-linked posts?
- How to think about task estimation3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-07-20
- Using a list to manage executive function3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-07-10
- Two Types of Work3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-09-04
- This is important2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-06-25
- Looking for Dragons Drives Progress2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-03-17
- The hard problem with hard problems (Getting Claude to write a solar system SIM)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-02-13
- You Can't “Solve” Procrastination2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-07-17
What Hacker News says?
This reminds me somewhat of a system by David MacIver: https://drmaciver.substack.com/p/using-a-list-to-manage-exec... He builds his list from scratch every morning. The list is flat, so as you go about your day and subtasks occur to you, they are added to the list without explicit links to the main task. I thought it might be risky to start with a blank list, because something important might be forgotten. But it t…
Comment linking /p/using-a-list-to-manage-executive
on “A receipt printer cured my procrastination”Submitted People don't work as much as they say as a story · 492 points
HN discussionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi_method > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26368011 https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/yes-you-should-estimate/ > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27006853 https://josephmate.github.io/PowersOf2/ Complexity Estimator https://earthly.dev/blog/thought-leaders/ > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27467999 https://jacobian.org/2021/may/20/estimation/ > https://news.ycombina…
Comment linking /p/task-estimation-101
on “Estimates are difficult for developers and product owners”Submitted Using a list to manage executive function as a story · 263 points
HN discussionFor me, it depends on the type of problem I'm trying to solve. Specifically, I ask is it hard work or a difficult problem? (see also [1], [2], and HN commentary at [3] from a short time ago). Hard work is something that a big corp can solve by throwing bodies at the problem. A proprietary data format or protocol but with an available, thorough specification (eg. a giant PDF from an international standard, an industr…
Comment linking /p/difficult-problems-and-hard-weeks?s=r
on “Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?”Submitted How to think about task estimation as a story · 85 points
HN discussionSomeone may enjoy this article on advice in "Overthinking Everything" blog as well: https://drmaciver.substack.com/p/how-to-give-good-advice
Comment linking /p/how-to-give-good-advice
on “The Advice Gap”Submitted In Defence of Half-Arsing as a story · 79 points
HN discussionSubmitted Looking for Dragons Drives Progress as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to Do Everything as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted The hard problem with hard problems as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The hard problem with hard problems (Getting Claude to write a solar system SIM) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted This is important as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Two Types of Work as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Two Types of Work as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted You Can't “Solve” Procrastination as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted You Can't “Solve” Procrastination as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to pick a number for any purpose as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to think about task estimation as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Looking for Dragons Drives Progress as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Distributing Blame as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How Pen Caps Work as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Behaving as if you were trying to succeed as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Larger Selves as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Using a list to manage executive function as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted This is Important as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Two types of work: crunchy and squishy as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Ubj gb ernq EBG13 (How to read ROT13) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The problem shows you how to solve the problem as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Cohering and Decohering as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
