Top all-time · #126
James Clear
Personal blog · jamesclear.com · on HN as jamesclearproductivityhealthwriting
James Clear's personal blog at jamesclear.com covers productivity, health and writing. Since 2012, 302 different Hacker News readers have linked it 389 times, most often “Facts don’t change our minds (2018)”. 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 James Clear's posts on habits, productivity and mental models, often pointing to Atomic Habits and his book summaries, and to the repetitions and environment-design posts.
- Recommended for · 6 comments
- "Far better job" on why facts don't change minds; "fantastic" book; "nice summary"; "trove of top-tier content"; "best expressed" marginal gains.
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.
James Clear is a writer and speaker. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Atomic Habits and the popular 3-2-1 newsletter.
Most-linked posts?
- /atomic-habits14 people · 14 mentions · first linked 2019-07-30
- Facts don’t change our minds (2018)11 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2018-12-10
- Why Trying to Be Perfect Won’t Help You Achieve Your Goals (and What Will)9 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2019-05-20
- Thinking from First Principles8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2019-06-20
- Marginal Gains: This Coach Improved Every Tiny Thing by 1% and Here It Is8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2018-11-01
- Warren Buffett’s “2 List” Strategy: How to Master Your Priorities7 people · 13 mentions · first linked 2018-09-14
- Great Talks Most People Have Never Heard7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2018-07-30
- Inversion: The Crucial Thinking Skill Nobody Ever Taught You6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2018-02-16
- Forget About Setting Goals. Focus on This Instead6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2018-02-23
- /heroin-habits5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2018-03-28
What Hacker News says?
It worked for Seinfeld, too! [0] [0] https://jamesclear.com/stop-procrastinating-seinfeld-strateg...
Comment linking /stop-procrastinating-seinfeld-strategy
on “The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday”Submitted The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do as a story · 389 points
HN discussionI've read in the book Atomic Habits by James Clear that the solution is to only do that much time and actually just stop right afterwards, even if you want to do more. Therefore, it's at most 30 min rather than at least. This teaches you rigor and in fact motivates you more because now you know it's not actually a trick. """ The Two-Minute Rule can seem like a trick to some people. You know that the real goal is to…
Comment linking /how-to-stop-procrastinating
on “Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it”Submitted The 1 Percent Rule: Why a Few People Get Most of the Rewards as a story · 249 points
HN discussionJames Clear calls this the 2 minute rule: https://jamesclear.com/how-to-stop-procrastinating , I too find it super helpful.
Comment linking /how-to-stop-procrastinating
on “Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it”Submitted A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012) as a story · 198 points
HN discussionIn a similar vein, James Clear outlines this same sort of principle as "habit stacking"[0] in his book, Atomic Habits. [0]: https://jamesclear.com/habit-stacking
Comment linking /habit-stacking
on “Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it”Submitted How to Stop Procrastinating on Your Goals by Using the “Seinfeld Strategy” as a story · 178 points
HN discussionI have found that this is because our explanations handle the rational aspects of belief without tackling the emotional aspects. I could explain more but honestly James Clear has done a far better job here: https://jamesclear.com/why-facts-dont-change-minds
Comment linking /why-facts-dont-change-minds
on “Tell HN: Interviewed with Triplebyte? Your profile is about to become public”Submitted Facts don’t change our minds (2018) as a story · 168 points
HN discussionOne of my favorite Charlie Munger speeches seems relevant [1]. > I have a friend who carried a big stack of linen cards about this thick, and when somebody would make a comment that reflected self-pity, he would take out one of the cards, take the top one off the stack and hand it to the person, and the card said, “Your story has touched my heart. Never have I heard of anyone with as many misfortunes as you. Sure, y…
Comment linking /great-speeches/2007-usc-law-school-commencement-address-by-charlie-munger
on “Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?”Submitted Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones as a story · 152 points
HN discussionI can recommend reading the books Atomic Habits, Deep Work and Digital Minimalism. The biggest takeaway from all 3 imho is environment design [1] [2], explained best in Atomic Habits (but also "used" in the other 2). Also I'd recommend the Pomodoro technique, which is quite useful for me. [1] https://jamesclear.com/power-of-environment [2] https://jamesclear.com/environment-design-organ-donation
Comment linking /environment-design-organ-donation
on “Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time”Submitted The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do as a story · 115 points
HN discussionThis story is somewhat true actually if you correct for the literary license taken. James Clear reached out to the authors of Art& Fear and this is his footnote: (Link: https://jamesclear.com/repetitions ) This story comes from page 29 of Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. In an email conversation with Orland on October 18, 2016, he explained the origins of the story. “Yes, the ‘ceramics story’ in ‘Art & Fea…
Comment linking /repetitions
on “How to do hard things”Submitted What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: Book Summary as a story · 94 points
HN discussionI've heard a very similar story but with a photo class at UF from James Clear's Atomic Habits. Still, very interesting outcome, although I can't say I was surprised based on the odds. Thanks for the share. https://jamesclear.com/repetitions
Comment linking /repetitions
on “How to do hard things”Submitted Great Talks Most People Have Never Heard as a story · 74 points
HN discussion"the ability to concentrate without distraction on hard tasks is becoming increasingly valuable in an increasingly complicated economy. Social media weakens this skill because it’s engineered to be addictive." Interesting viewpoint. Does the author really follow this? Has a webpage, blog and an archive that stretches for 91 pages ~ http://calnewport.com/blog/archive/ Not a good sign if the author thinks you should q…
Comment linking /ivy-lee
on “Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It”Submitted Overdosing on Celebrity Gossip, The News, and Low Quality Information as a story · 63 points
HN discussionAgreed. James Clear demonstrates this with a similar story. About a real professor’s photography class. The quantity students got a lot better at photography, than the quality group. https://jamesclear.com/repetitions
Comment linking /repetitions
on “Six Months of Tiny Projects”Submitted The Mindlessness of Ostensibly Thoughtful Action (1978) [pdf] as a story · 51 points
HN discussionThis is interesting. Potentially, inserting the "because" keyword could enhance the effect. See [1] "The Mindlessness of Ostensibly Thoughtful Action: The Role of `Placebic` Information in Interpersonal Interaction". > Langer had people request to break in on a line of people waiting to use a busy copy machine on a college campus. The researchers had the people use three different, carefully worded requests to break…
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2015/03/copy-machine-study-ellen-langer.pdf
on “Why I Quit Being So Accommodating (1922)”Submitted Successful People Start Before They're Ready as a story · 39 points
HN discussionit's currently very cool to announce to everybody how little time you spend on your phone, it's like the new "I'm vegan" or "I use arch btw". people don't realise how addiction works - see the Vietnam veterans case: https://jamesclear.com/heroin-habits we have bigger (social) problems that's causing the phone addiction: if it wasn't a phone, it would be video games, TV or alcohol or something else.
Comment linking /heroin-habits
on “Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone”Submitted 40 Yr Stanford Study Found People with Delayed Gratification More Likely Succeed as a story · 38 points
HN discussionTry book "Mastery" by George Leonard. https://jamesclear.com/book-summaries/mastery
Comment linking /book-summaries/mastery
on “How Smart People Sabotage Their Success”Submitted Entropy: Why Life Always Seems to Get More Complicated as a story · 36 points
HN discussionYou're not actually learning but feeding your novelty-seeking brain. The best way to learn is to actually take photos, not research lenses. Being in motion vs action: http://jamesclear.com/taking-action
Comment linking /taking-action
on “The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity”Submitted Why Trying to Be Perfect Won’t Help You Achieve Your Goals (and What Will) as a story · 33 points
HN discussion
