Top all-time · #4470
@giansegato
Personal blog · giansegato.com/essays · on HN as giansegatostartupsai
@giansegato is a personal blog at giansegato.com about startups and ai. Since 2020, 17 different Hacker News readers have linked it 38 times, most often “Why Ed-Tech Startups Don't Scale (2022)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-08-18, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (1) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
One HN commenter links Gian Segato's essay 'Edutainment is not learning' as a counterpoint to a book review, arguing that learning must be effortful to happen.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 1 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
hacker, researcher, writer, entrepreneur • currently Anthropic • early Replit
Most-linked posts?
- Why Ed-Tech Startups Don't Scale (2022)4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2022-11-21
- Agency Is Eating the World4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2025-04-21
- The dawn of a new startup era3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2024-09-03
- Learning needs to be effortful to be effective2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-07-04
What Hacker News says?
Agree. I got quite interested in the topic in the past [1] — it ultimately boils down to optimizing for attention (modern YouTube) vs optimizing for data retention (traditional education). [1] https://giansegato.com/essays/edutainment-is-not-learning/
Comment linking /essays/edutainment-is-not-learning/
on “1937 film explains how a car differential works”Submitted Building AI products in the probabilistic era as a story · 192 points
HN discussionThere's no such thing as learning by reading. It's always learning by acting (as opposed to passive reception, that just doesn't stick). [1] https://giansegato.com/essays/edutainment-is-not-learning/
Comment linking /essays/edutainment-is-not-learning/
on “Write More, but Shorter”Submitted What's the Future of IDEs? as a story · 134 points
HN discussionRecently, I tackled Genetic Algorithms to solve some specific NP-hard problems, and Zero Knowledge Proofs. Now I'd love to pick up Elixir and some frontend development. I routinely keep a web page updated with all my learning projects, both the ones I did and the ones I'd like to do [1]. I found that it keeps me accountable, plus it might be useful for some. This thread is a gold mine of ideas to expand it! [1] http…
Comment linking /learning/
on “Ask HN: What Are You Learning?”Submitted Why Ed-Tech Startups Don't Scale (2022) as a story · 82 points
HN discussionI don't think there's anything about YC inherently misaligned with the next startup era — in fact, they're adapting their model accordingly, hedging their bets + investing in harder tech with higher capex and longer feedback loops. It's gonna take a while to see the new strategy play out, much longer than before in fact. That said, agreed with the general point that the model is changing and the old playbook is not…
Comment linking /essays/dawn-new-startup-era
on “Y Combinator is predicated on startups that require low capitalization”Submitted I Beat the Berlin Rental Market with a Python Script as a story · 67 points
HN discussionhigher ROI than anything else I've ever done for my career, by a long shot with my website [1] I found investors, I was contacted by a highly sought after silicon valley startup, moved to the US and got my visa sponsored, I even found friends here to get my network going and a professional network much more significant than anything I could ever have on linkedin the only downside is that writing on your blog takes a…
Comment linking /essays
on “Ask HN: Did you personal website help you get hired? Tell about it”Submitted How to choose your college degree (2021) as a story · 34 points
HN discussionI truly hope you make it to your seed round. I think your biz is ultra solid. Happy to chat if 1. you happen to expand in Berlin, 2. you wish to fundraise around here. I have some data [1] that you might benefit from. Also: I think you'd rock in cities like this :) [1] https://giansegato.com/essays/how-i-beat-the-berlin-rental-m...
Comment linking /essays/how-i-beat-the-berlin-rental-market-with-a-python-script/
on “Launch HN: Pabio (YC S21) – Interior design and furniture rental as a service”Submitted Replit: The Bundling of Software Development as a story · 20 points
HN discussionI still have a tab open with an old article [1] that seems to argue the opposite: that learning must be effortful to happen. I didn't read the book reviewed here so I don't know if there really is a conflict between the two approaches. (I suspect the "you can make it easy" part is just marketing.) [1] https://giansegato.com/essays/edutainment-is-not-learning (discussed on HN here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?i…
Comment linking /essays/edutainment-is-not-learning
on “Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning Is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy”Submitted The dawn of a new startup era as a story · 17 points
HN discussionSubmitted Learning needs to be effortful to be effective as a story · 12 points
HN discussionSubmitted What's the future of IDEs? as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSubmitted Agency Is Eating the World as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Edutainment Is Not Learning as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted Agency Is Eating the World as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Ed-Tech Startups Don't Scale (2022) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Ed-Tech Startups Don't Scale as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted When I got back my Instagram account by sending Facebook a letter as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted I dreamt about the US startup scene for ages; now I get to be part of it as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Ebb and the Flow of Product Development as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Write as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Agency Is Eating the World as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Dawn of a New Startup Era as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The dawn of a new startup era as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Ed-Tech Startups Don't Scale (2022) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to choose your college degree as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
