Top all-time · #5324
Eddie Smith
Personal blog · practicallyefficient.comproductivitywritingdesign
Eddie Smith writes Practically Efficient, a personal blog at practicallyefficient.com about productivity, writing and design. Since 2011, 15 different Hacker News readers have linked it 16 times, most often “Boiling lead and black art: a history of mathematical typography”. The last post was in 2017, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Linked for posts on the adjacent possible idea, the history of math typesetting, and setting up Little Snitch for different networks. Commenters recommend the typesetting history essay.
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.
Practically Efficient is Eddie Smith's personal blog.
Most-linked posts?
- Boiling lead and black art: a history of mathematical typography7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2017-10-15
What Hacker News says?
Google acquired Android before 2 years before iOS came about. I think it was more a case of "adjacent possible" developments [1] happening in parallel and learning from each other (as great artists are prone to do). 1. http://www.practicallyefficient.com/home/2010/09/28/the-adja...
Comment linking /home/2010/09/28/the-adjacent-possible
on “What killed Blackberry? Employees started buying their own devices”Submitted Boiling lead and black art: a history of mathematical typography as a story · 138 points
HN discussionEnjoy some history of math typesetting http://www.practicallyefficient.com/2017/10/13/from-boiling-... Famously, Knuth lamented about the state of math typesetting at the time https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1979-01-02/S0273-0979-1979... and in some ways TEX/Metafont was inspired by older examples from the early 1900s
Comment linking /2017/10/13/from-boiling-lead-and-black-art.html
on “A simple proof that pi is irrational [pdf] (1946)”Submitted An essay on the history of mathematical typography (2017) as a story · 12 points
HN discussionNot quite the same concept, but I setup Little Snitch to work differently on my home/work networks versus tethered phone or untrusted wireless. I originally did this because I didn't want updates running while tethered at a coffee shop. This article got me started: http://www.practicallyefficient.com/home/2014/7/8/little-sni...
Comment linking /home/2014/7/8/little-snitch
on “Google is working on a new VPN service for use on open WiFi networks”Submitted Boiling lead and black art: a history of mathematical typography (2017) as a story · 9 points
HN discussionInteresting to get experiences from people who lived in that era. For those of you interested in the subject I remember enjoying reading this essay also covering the topic in a cohesive way: http://www.practicallyefficient.com/2017/10/13/from-boiling-...
Comment linking /2017/10/13/from-boiling-lead-and-black-art.html
on “Writing math papers in pre-LaTeX era (2010)”Submitted Static and free as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted From boiling lead and black art: The history of mathematical typography (2017) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted An essay on the history of mathematical typography (2017) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Online education: We're learning what doesn't work as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The colour of creativity as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Facebook, Google... Let's not be friends as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Choice is beautiful, productive even as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted A slightly entropic post on OmniFocus financial management as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Evolving the word processor as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
