Top all-time · #567
Dustin Curtis
Personal blog · dustincurtis.com · on HN as dcurtisdesignwriting
Dustin Curtis's personal blog at dustincurtis.com covers design and writing. Since 2008, 105 different Hacker News readers have linked it 134 times, most often “You should follow me on Twitter”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.
Rarely recommended · 5 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Dustin Curtis's posts as examples in redesign debates (the American Airlines letters), on polyphasic sleep, and on his split-tested Twitter call-to-action.
- Recommended for · 5 comments
- Called well written and articulate; 'rings truer than ever'; readers may enjoy it; a source for sleep info.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Dustin Curtis is a person who does things on the internet.
Most-linked posts?
- You should follow me on Twitter15 people · 15 mentions · first linked 2011-03-31
- How to hack your brain - Part I: Sleep8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2009-06-25
- You should follow me on Twitter7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2009-07-14
- /dear_american_airlines.html6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2011-03-29
- /dear_dustin_curtis.html6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2011-07-29
- Sleep (or how to hack your brain)6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2011-05-14
- /incompetence.html4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2012-01-23
- Dear American Airlines...4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2009-05-18
- Response to Dustin Curtis from AA UX person4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2009-05-22
- /4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2009-07-20
What Hacker News says?
Update: image credit added after I posted this. Still, the image should be removed, this is copyright infringement. TheNextWeb is infamous for plagiarizing images for that section. Take this article, for example: http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2011/05/23/stylish-techno... The image at the top of the article is taken from this Dustin Curtis blog post: http://www.dustincurtis.com/press_on.html (the filename of the…
Comment linking /press_on.html
on “Plagiarism”Submitted The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X as a story · 323 points
HN discussionBut then there is this: http://www.dustincurtis.com/dear_american_airlines.html
Comment linking /dear_american_airlines.html
on “Codename: Obtvse”Submitted You should follow me on Twitter as a story · 263 points
HN discussionHow well it worked for Dustin Curtis? He got a guy fired http://www.dustincurtis.com/incompetence.html for his post.
Comment linking /incompetence.html
on “Wikipedia Redefined”Submitted The Flimsy Doorknob & The Forgettable Receipt as a story · 142 points
HN discussioneverything he does comes off as elitist and egotistical. http://www.dustincurtis.com/ - Dustin Curtis is a superhero are you fvckin' kidding me?
Comment linking /
on “The Best”Submitted Dear American Airlines... as a story · 136 points
HN discussionI thought exactly the same thing about the polyphasic sleep section. To be fair, most of it is admittedly written by Dustin Curtis. If anyone else thought that chapter sounded familiar, it's basically this web page with minimal editing. http://dustincurtis.com/sleep.html Going back, I see Tim mentions using the "Everyman" schedule with "great success." If you were cynical, you could interpret that as 'I managed to d…
Comment linking /sleep.html
on “NYT Review of ‘The 4-Hour Body’”Submitted How to hack your brain - Part I: Sleep as a story · 128 points
HN discussionPower naps can be very effective when used right (i.e if you're consistent with them). In the last month of my semesters I switch my sleep over to Polyphastic sleep schedule. 6 Hours of sleep at night and one 20minute nap in the afternoon. It gives me more time to study for finals/finish up class projects. Check out this post for more information: http://dustincurtis.com/sleep.html
Comment linking /sleep.html
on “Sleep: Everything You Need to Know”Submitted The Death of Files as a story · 108 points
HN discussionSlight off-topic, but reminded me of this: http://dustincurtis.com/how-mr-q-manufactured-emotion.html
Comment linking /how-mr-q-manufactured-emotion.html
on “Music to Let you Concentrate”Submitted A Tour of my Brain as a story · 101 points
HN discussionFrom http://dustincurtis.com/dear_american_airlines.html (struck-out): "Fire your entire design team, if you have one." I guess AA took some of that advice to heart here. I can only hope this guy does land a job someplace where the company culture isn't completely and utterly fucked all across the board, all the way from the hangar to the board room.
Comment linking /dear_american_airlines.html
on “The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X”Submitted Response to Dustin Curtis from AA UX person as a story · 94 points
HN discussionThis is nothing but positive, actually. Someone who is passionate, thoughtful, and caring about his trade will have a _much_ greater impact, career, and reward at a different organization than the one described by http://dustincurtis.com/dear_dustin_curtis.html
Comment linking /dear_dustin_curtis.html
on “The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X”Submitted Designers should be arbiters of truth - Mr. X of American Airlines as a story · 80 points
HN discussionMore interesting to me, the email that got the guy fired: http://dustincurtis.com/dear_dustin_curtis.html An articulate explanation of how good intentions at big companies can often be implemented only slowly.
Comment linking /dear_dustin_curtis.html
on “The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X”Submitted How Niko Tinbergen Reverse Engineered the Seagull as a story · 75 points
HN discussionD Curtis' A/B testing data does not support this: http://www.dustincurtis.com/you_should_follow_me_on_twitter....
Comment linking /you_should_follow_me_on_twitter.html
on “Why Your Links Should Never Say “Click Here””Submitted The Mouse And The Rectangle as a story · 62 points
HN discussionTell it to the UX designer that got fired for answering to Dustin Curtis. http://www.dustincurtis.com/incompetence.html
Comment linking /incompetence.html
on “The New French Hacker-Artist Underground”Submitted The 30-day flight as a story · 54 points
HN discussionSeems to be a bit of a statistic maniac. http://dustincurtis.com/about.html
Comment linking /about.html
on “You should follow me on Twitter”Submitted Something I've noticed about the rich and powerful as a story · 44 points
HN discussionI only count 14 articles on http://dustincurtis.com/index.html , of which the first bunch doesn't contain any of these Twitter 'invites'. Neither does his blog. Am I overlooking something?
Comment linking /index.html
on “You should follow me on Twitter”Submitted The Science of Entrepreneurship as a story · 40 points
HN discussionYou might enjoy reading this. http://www.dustincurtis.com/you_should_follow_me_on_twitter....
Comment linking /you_should_follow_me_on_twitter.html
on “How I negotiated my startup compensation (with numbers)”Submitted Humble Beginnings - The First Starbucks Store as a story · 35 points
HN discussion
