Top all-time · #3781
Erik McClure
Personal blog · erikmcclure.com/blog · on HN as blackholeprogrammingsystems
Erik McClure's personal blog at erikmcclure.com covers programming and systems. Since 2020, 20 different Hacker News readers have linked it 34 times, most often “Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (7) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Erik McClure's posts criticising Terra, a Lua-based systems language, and explaining sRGB and CSS gradient handling, plus a piece calling Factorio the best technical interview.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 7 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Applied mathematician and software architect who occasionally writes music.
Most-linked posts?
- Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2021-03-26
- A Rant on Terra (2019)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-05-30
- Stop making me memorize the borrow checker2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-11-15
- People Can't Care About Everything2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-10-21
- Welcome to the Age of Bullshit2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-02-13
- Blockchain Is the New JavaScript2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-10-19
- Pressure Base Anti-Spam for Discord Bots2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-01-16
What Hacker News says?
"I am here to warn you, traveler, that Terra sits on a throne of lies. I was foolish. I was taken in by their audacious claims and fake jewels. It is only when I finally sat down to dine with them that I realized I was surrounded by nothing but cheap plastic and slightly burnt toast." Source: https://erikmcclure.com/blog/a-rant-on-terra/
Comment linking /blog/a-rant-on-terra/
on “Lua is so underrated”Submitted Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone as a story · 412 points
HN discussionI remember reading something particularly negative about terra in 2019[1]. Although I haven’t used terra at all since the time I first tried it (not long after I read the above mentioned article), I think it’s relevant to mention that at least at one point, terra has had major problems regarding design. If anyone has used terra in any non-trivial capacity I’d love to hear what your experience with it has been like.…
Comment linking /blog/a-rant-on-terra/
on “Terra: Low-level system programming language meta-programmed from Lua”Submitted We Need New Motherboards Before GPUs Collapse Under Their Own Gravity as a story · 312 points
HN discussionAlso the reason why linear gradients aren't done properly in CSS, and W3C is aware of this. https://erikmcclure.com/blog/everyone-does-srgb-wrong-becaus...
Comment linking /blog/everyone-does-srgb-wrong-because/
on “Spreadsheet "breaks" Apple Vision Pro eye-tracking”Submitted We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't as a story · 292 points
HN discussion"Factorio Is The Best Technical Interview We Have" https://erikmcclure.com/blog/factorio-is-best-interview-we-h...
Comment linking /blog/factorio-is-best-interview-we-have/
on “Do games like Factorio or Eve Online sap the intellectual potential of humanity?”Submitted The Windows malloc() implementation from MSVCRT is slow as a story · 211 points
HN discussionPosted on HN recently: https://erikmcclure.com/blog/factorio-is-best-interview-we-h... Factorio is the game
Comment linking /blog/factorio-is-best-interview-we-have/
on “Ask HN: Games that made you better at your work?”Submitted Stop making me memorize the borrow checker as a story · 177 points
HN discussionSurely you’re thinking of “Shenzhen I/O”[1] which is “Suspiciously close to having a job as a circuit designer in Shenzhen China.”[2]? Or is it Factorio[3], which is “The Best Technical Interview We Have”[4]? [1] https://www.zachtronics.com/shenzhen-io/ [2] https://www.gog.com/game/shenzhen_io [3] https://www.factorio.com/ [4] https://erikmcclure.com/blog/factorio-is-best-interview-we-h...
Comment linking /blog/factorio-is-best-interview-we-have/
on “Ask HN: Games that made you better at your work?”Submitted Someone Is Stealing Tracker Songs and Selling Them as a story · 148 points
HN discussionDo you agree with edubart's runtime vs. compile time distinctions between Nelua and Terra? I was interested in Terra a while back, but it didn't seem to get a lot of traction. This three-year-old critique put the nail in the coffin for me: https://erikmcclure.com/blog/a-rant-on-terra/
Comment linking /blog/a-rant-on-terra/
on “Nelua, AOT statically typed Lua”Submitted Factorio Is the Best Technical Interview We Have (2021) as a story · 70 points
HN discussionSubmitted C++ Constructors, Memory, and Lifetimes as a story · 47 points
HN discussionSubmitted Do You Really Think We'll Have Genders in the Future? as a story · 13 points
HN discussionSubmitted Stop Making Me Memorize the Borrow Checker as a story · 12 points
HN discussionSubmitted People Can't Care About Everything as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Welcome to the Age of Bullshit as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Blockchain Is the New JavaScript as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted RISC is fundamentally unscalable (2019) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted You Can't Use Prebuilt LLVM 10.0 with C++17 as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Debugging Through WebAssembly Is Impossible as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted People Can't Care About Everything (2023) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Discord Should Remove Usernames as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Camp Vista – Growing Up Next to Microsoft as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Blockchain Is the New JavaScript as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Name shadowing should be an operator as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Pressure Base Anti-Spam for Discord Bots as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Software Engineering Is a Shit-Eating Contest as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
