Top all-time · #2220
Experimental History
Personal blog · experimentalhistory.substack.comsciencephilosophy
Experimental History is a personal blog at experimentalhistory.substack.com about science and philosophy. Since 2022, 36 different Hacker News readers have linked it 41 times, most often “The Rise and Fall of Peer Review”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-28, and you can follow it by feed.
1) Find what's true and make it useful. 2) Publish every other Tuesday. 3) Photo cred: my dad. Click to read Experimental History, by Adam Mastroianni, a Substack publication with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
Most-linked posts?
- The Rise and Fall of Peer Review8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2022-12-13
- Dance of the naked emperors: A followup to “The rise and fall of peer review”4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-12-27
- Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-09-06
- Good conversations have lots of doorknobs3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-08-21
- Against All Applications2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-05-04
- You can't reach the brain through the ears2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-03-15
- Bureaucratic Psychosis2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-02-08
- Oligopoly Everywhere2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-09-20
- /p/pop-culture-has-become-an-oligopoly?s=r2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-05-03
What Hacker News says?
pretty hard when about 80% of new films these days are a sequel, remake, or tie into an existing universe[1]. Yes, just watch old films you say, but they're not on the front page of netflix and disney+, where the average person goes for entertainment recommendations. [1] https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/pop-culture-has-b...
Comment linking /p/pop-culture-has-become-an-oligopoly?s=r
on “I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea”Submitted Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs as a story · 742 points
HN discussionbalance, in all things keep your mind on your self and it's surroundings, and let your self be one with both pleasure and struggle. let not the words of others compel you to eat too many frogs [1] [1]: https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/excuse-me-but-why...
Comment linking /p/excuse-me-but-why-are-you-eating
on “What it takes to make a game by yourself”Submitted Good conversations have lots of doorknobs as a story · 585 points
HN discussionI have a friend who is a Barker, who I am always annoyed at because I am a Meek type and I more often than not cannot finish making my points to her. I do not feel that she listens to me. Why do I still like her? This article, to me, pairs very well with the other top post on HN right now [1]. Thanks to that article I learned that we feel more connected towards someone the quicker they reply to us [2]. There's no co…
Comment linking /p/good-conversations-have-lots-of-doorknobs
on “The Church of Interruption (2018)”Submitted Why aren't smart people happier? as a story · 348 points
HN discussionIn his article [1] he mentions the Internet as part of a possible explanation in terms of it being easier for amateurs to create and distribute material. But I think the Internet also plays a huge part in the consolidation of fandom. Before the internet, the majority of us could really only share our opinions with those physically nearby, so there were less connections per each node. Enter the internet, now each nod…
Comment linking /p/pop-culture-has-become-an-oligopoly?s=r
on “Pop culture has become an oligopoly”Submitted Hacking the Hedonic Treadmill as a story · 238 points
HN discussionFor those of you who are considering the same, the following articles make good arguments - Rolf Dobelli - Towards a healthy news diet [ https://www.gwern.net/docs/culture/2010-dobelli.pdf ] - Adam Mastroianni - Reading the news is the new smoking [ https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/reading-the-news-... ]
Comment linking /p/reading-the-news-is-the-new-smoking
on “Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?”Submitted Pop culture has become an oligopoly as a story · 234 points
HN discussionIdentify elements of good/bad communication patterns: https://consilienceproject.org/endgames-of-bad-communication... Non-violent communication is a very structured approach to guiding people through perceived difficult behaviour: https://www.clearerthinking.org/post/2019/03/06/Want-to-impr... Gain a little understanding about the give and take of communication: https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/good-conver…
Comment linking /p/good-conversations-have-lots-of-doorknobs
on “Ask HN: How do I learn to communicate effectively?”Submitted Bureaucratic Psychosis as a story · 13 points
HN discussionHere's some good advice on what not to do, which you might be doing: https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/excuse-me-but-why... Your problem is not that your "mental state is affecting your ability to learn effectively" as if you were a robot created only to work and learn. Look at yourself with some dignity and compassion.
Comment linking /p/excuse-me-but-why-are-you-eating
on “Ask HN: Tips to relearn how to care about my job?”Submitted Dance of the naked emperors: A followup to “The rise and fall of peer review” as a story · 6 points
HN discussionIn practice, peer review isn't even that. Most referees are not double-checking your statistical analysis. What they focus on is whether the research is interesting and has it appropriately considered relevant literature. Even that is not always done carefully. Here is an argument that peer review is basically a failed experiment: https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/the-rise-and-fall...
Comment linking /p/the-rise-and-fall-of-peer-review
on “There is a worrying amount of fraud in medical research”Submitted Ideas aren’t getting harder to find and anyone who tells you so is a coward as a story · 5 points
HN discussionhttps://theconversation.com/hate-the-peer-review-process-ein... This article mentions Einstein being offended that his paper was submitted to peer review by Physical Review, and submitting it elsewhere instead: "We (Mr. Rosen and I) had sent you our manuscript for publication and had not authorised you to show it to specialists before it is printed. I see no reason to address the – in any case erroneous – comments o…
Comment linking /p/the-rise-and-fall-of-peer-review
on “Scientific papers and patents are becoming less disruptive over time”Submitted Against All Applications as a story · 5 points
HN discussionI came across this recently and your post made me wonder what you'd think of it: https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/the-rise-and-fall... I won't butcher the piece with a poor summary but it's a critical look at the peer review process.
Comment linking /p/the-rise-and-fall-of-peer-review
on “Scientists have discovered the first virovore – an organism that eats viruses”Submitted Oligopoly Everywhere as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIndeed, a publishing everything and sometimes retracting it system would work better than our actual system of peer review, which has little to recommend it, isn’t very historical, and mainly leads to unreadable papers. https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/the-rise-and-fall...
Comment linking /p/the-rise-and-fall-of-peer-review
on “Mathematician withdraws preprint 24 years after initial submission”Submitted Bureaucratic Psychosis as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted You can't reach the brain through the ears as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Dance of the Naked Emperors as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Against All Applications as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted You'll forget most of what you learn as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Against All Applications as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why doesn't good design win? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted You can’t reach the brain through the ears as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
