Top all-time · #6071
Ed Conway
Personal blog · edconway.substack.comeconomicsbusiness
Ed Conway writes Material World, a personal blog at edconway.substack.com about economics and business. Since 2023, 13 different Hacker News readers have linked it 24 times, most often “Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of car coatings”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-17, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link his Substack for posts on oil, fossil fuels and energy history, and as a preview of his book Material World. Surname and electric car pieces are also linked.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Unexpected stories from the underbelly of the modern world.
Most-linked posts?
- Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of car coatings3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-02-24
- Kerosene did not save the sperm whale (2024)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-04-04
- The Glass Famine2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-07-15
- The Diesel Weapon2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-10-16
What Hacker News says?
Here's an exception to these general rules (first names appearing in surnames) is Peterman: you'd think it was some kind of relation to a relative named peter, but it is actually a name for a profession. A Peterman was someone tasked with finding deposits of saltpeter for the production of fertlizer and gunpower. A partial documentation is on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltpetre_works A better narrativ…
Comment linking /p/welcome-to-the-material-world
on “Surnames from nicknames nobody has any more”Submitted Kerosene did not save the sperm whale (2024) as a story · 190 points
HN discussionLiquid fuel wasn't new (the etymology of "oil" is olive oil , in use for literally thousands of years < https://www.etymonline.com/word/oil >), but cheap, abundant, geologically-sourced liquid fuels were. Whale oil may have been big business in the 18th century, but the entire history of whale-hunting produced the equivalent of a few days of present petroleum extraction in terms of fuel. Oh, and Whale hunting did in…
Comment linking /p/no-kerosene-did-not-save-the-sperm
on “Map of Near and Middle East Oil 1965”Submitted How the Chorleywood Bread Process transformed British bread as a story · 135 points
HN discussionI'm just finishing "Material World" by Ed Conway. A great read. Check his substack for a preview : https://edconway.substack.com/
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: What's the best book you've read so far in 2024?”Submitted Globalisation is a far, far bigger deal than you think as a story · 15 points
HN discussionYes but it's still absolutely dwarfed by the staggering amounts of fossil fuels we're extracting (and the absolute environmental catastrophe that goes with them): https://edconway.substack.com/p/the-hump
Comment linking /p/the-hump
on “Are electric cars too expensive to tempt motorists away from petrol vehicles?”Submitted America still needs Canadian oil as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of car coatings as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Glass Famine as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted The North Sea Gas is not just about the North Sea Gas as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Britain's headlong slide from silicon supremacy to silicon irrelevance as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Diesel Weapon as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The 30k-mile fish finger as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Salt Diaspora as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Watching Paint Dry: Car coatings and what they tell us about the modern world as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The MoneySavingExpert Economy as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Diesel Weapon as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Are We Approaching "Peak Ship"? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Most Important Trainer You've Never Heard Of as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Tinned Soup and Tariffs as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Glass Famine as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Watching Paint Dry as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted It's the Energy Stupid as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
