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Hyperbole and a Half
Personal blog · hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.comculturehealth
Hyperbole and a Half is a personal blog at hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com about culture and health. Since 2010, 81 different Hacker News readers have linked it 96 times, most often “Depression Part Two (2013)”. The last post was in 2020, but the archive is still widely read.
Sometimes recommended · 6 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Allie Brosh's blog, especially her depression posts, as the clearest lay description of what depression feels like, plus her older humour posts.
- Recommended for · 6 comments
- Commenters call the depression posts the best layman explanation of depression, and one says it helped them understand someone close to them.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Depression Part Two (2013)21 people · 21 mentions · first linked 2013-05-09
- The Alot Is Better Than You at Everything19 people · 20 mentions · first linked 2010-06-20
- Adventures in Depression9 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2011-10-28
- /2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2023-06-24
- /4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-05-13
- Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-12-22
- Menace (2013)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-06-13
- Richard2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-09-21
- The Alot is Better Than You at Everything2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-06-24
- Depression Part Two2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-03-27
What Hacker News says?
> depression seems to be something everybody has to a certain degree One of the things that infuriates my wife, who suffers from clinical depression, is the conflation between "clinical depression" vs. the run of the mill use of "depression", eg, "I'm depressed because my team lost this weekend." Many people think clinical depression is just like the trivial kind of depression but it the person can't shake it off. I…
Comment linking /2011/10/adventures-in-depression.html
on “Psilocybin for major depression granted Breakthrough Therapy by FDA”Submitted This is Why I'll Never be an Adult as a story · 274 points
HN discussionIt's a "she" by the way. Allie Brosh. Her blog was incredibly popular a few years ago before she went mostly silent but for an ominous entry about depression. Anyone who's new to her writing should definitely go through the back catalog from brighter, funnier times. E.G.: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/07/dog.html
Comment linking /2010/07/dog.html
on “Depression Part Two”Submitted The Four Levels of Social Entrapment as a story · 159 points
HN discussionYou should really check out her back catalog. The following is one of my favorites: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better...
Comment linking /2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html
on “Depression Part Two”Submitted Depression Part Two (2013) as a story · 113 points
HN discussionThe comment threads about this post are definitely an exercise in irony. She touches on, but doesn't get into the fact that she can still pick up on all social cues, and still feels obligated to respond to the imposition that others put on her to feel better and be happy despite the fact that she's unable. And it's the fact that it's not possible for the depressed person to fulfill the social interaction that non-de…
Comment linking /2011/10/adventures-in-depression.html
on “Depression Part Two”Submitted Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving as a story · 58 points
HN discussionCan he draw an "alot" made of tokens? https://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-bette...
Comment linking /2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html
on “Gemma 3 270M: Compact model for hyper-efficient AI”Submitted Depression Part Two as a story · 45 points
HN discussionhttps://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-bette...
Comment linking /2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html
on “Large Enough”Submitted The Alot Is Better Than You at Everything as a story · 8 points
HN discussionThe term may be overused, but depression unfortunately does have a specific clinical meaning. Depression is not simply being sad. In fact, people suffering from depression often describe it less as sadness and more as feeling nothing at all. One of my favorite examples are these Hyperbole and Half posts ( http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2011/10/adventures-in-... , http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2013/05/…
Comment linking /2013/05/depression-part-two.html
on “Optimism”Submitted Adventures in Depression as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThe title reminded me of "Hyperbole and a Half" http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/11/dogs-dont-unde... which manages to fit some pretty complex emotional expressions into mspaint-based stick figures.
Comment linking /2010/11/dogs-dont-understand-basic-concepts.html
on “A 97-Year-Old Man Who Draws Using Microsoft Paint from Windows ’95”Submitted Richard as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThis is one reason that the famous Hyperbole and a Half entries describing depression were always so surprising to me. The first entry starts like this: > Some people have a legitimate reason to feel depressed, but not me. I just woke up one day feeling sad and helpless for absolutely no reason. http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2011/10/adventures-in-... http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2013/05/depression-p…
Comment linking /2013/05/depression-part-two.html
on “Anxiety and Depression Are Symptoms, Not Diseases”Submitted Depression as a story · 4 points
HN discussionNo. It's not good for that at all. Depression is a monster. It eats relationships for breakfast. Friends who have not had depression will not understand it. There will be almost nothing they can do to help, but they'll want to help and find it a very frustrating experience. In the long run, those relationships will be very difficult to maintain. Hyperbole and a Half has what I think is the best "layman" explanation…
Comment linking /2011/10/adventures-in-depression.html
on “Founder Depression”Submitted Adventures in Depression as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSomething different for every person, which is why I hate the 1-10 pain score. Some people will declare a stubbed toe a 10; others will self-amputate an arm and deem it a 6 because they weren't on fire while doing it. Medical staff don't really help by describing a 10 as "the worst pain you can imagine", given variance in imaginations. I much prefer the "Hyperbole and a Half" author's pain scale. http://hyperboleand…
Comment linking /2010/02/boyfriend-doesnt-have-ebola-probably.html
on “One in five Covid-19 patients develop mental illness within 90 days – study”Submitted Depression Part Two (2013) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionFor me, doing those small things did seem impossible and even when I managed to achieve it, I didn't feel the reward. There didn't seem any point in making the bed if I felt the same whether the bed was made or not. Eventually I reached a mental place where I could turn that around: If it doesn't make a difference in how I feel, why not make the bed? I had to more or less take it on faith that eventually the rewards…
Comment linking /2013/05/depression-part-two.html
on “Tips for the depressed”Submitted The Alot Is Better Than You at Everything as a story · 2 points
HN discussionyou...uh, are not alone https://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2020/09/richard.html
Comment linking /2020/09/richard.html
on “Using Home Assistant, adguard home and an $8 smart outlet to avoid brain rot”Submitted Richard as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIANAL, but since the content in question is not a trademark, I do not think that genericization applies. Since Hyperbole and a Half is Creative Commons licensed (CC-NC-ND), it looks like its licensing requirements would be satisfied by attributing the original source ( "Proper credit includes a prominent, easily visible link to the source of the material you want to use..." )[1]. I think making sure that images in y…
Comment linking /p/faq_10.html
on “Should All Web Traffic Be Encrypted?”Submitted Depression Part Two as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSorry, off-topic, but as a fan it really bugs me that graphic halfway down appears taken without attribution from Hyperbole and a Half. http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/
Comment linking /
on “Should All Web Traffic Be Encrypted?”Submitted The Alot is Better Than You at Everything (2010) as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
