Top all-time · #15792
Glen Lipka
Personal blog · commadot.comdatabusiness
Glen Lipka's personal blog at commadot.com covers data and business. Since 2010, 5 different Hacker News readers have linked it 5 times. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-27, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (3) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Comments link Glen Lipka's "WTF per minute" post as a reference for the WTF test in API design and for judging how confusing code or software feels.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 3 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
by Glen Lipka
Most-linked posts?
- /wtf-per-minute/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-08-04
What Hacker News says?
As with other types of interface design, the best way to write a good api is to get frequent feedback from the intended users. Liberal application of the WTF test is critical[1]. As the author of the api, you yourself will be too close to it to judge fairly. Poorly named functions and over-complicated architecture will appear perfectly reasonable to you if you don't seek outside opinions. 1: http://commadot.com/wp-c…
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2009/02/wtf.png
on “Annoyances of API Design”Submitted Easy Magic and Hard Magic as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSo we are just talking about the "WTF per minute" metric: https://commadot.com/wtf-per-minute/
Comment linking /wtf-per-minute/
on “Good code is rarely read”Submitted A/B Testing and HiPO [2007] as a story · 1 points
HN discussioni still use MacOS and windows from time to time, and i simply have to disagree. using MacOS has just as many WTF moments as i get with Gnome (and KDE too i think, but i haven't used that in a while) a windows just leaves me baffled every time i have to touch it. ( https://commadot.com/wtf-per-minute/ )
Comment linking /wtf-per-minute/
on “GNUStep Now Has Badges”
