Work in progress: 181,232 of 181,233 sites checked so far, more every week · updated 2 Nov 2026Missing a blog? Tell us

Top all-time · #8643

J

Jason Punyon

Personal blog · jasonpunyon.com/blog · on HN as JasonPunyonprogrammingculture

Jason Punyon's personal blog at jasonpunyon.com covers programming and culture. Since 2012, 9 different Hacker News readers have linked it 22 times, most often “Providence (ML at Stack Overflow): Failure Is Always an Option”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.

Visit the blog
22mentions?
9HN people?
2012–2024first – last linked?
Links on Hacker News per year · peak 6 in 2013

Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?

Why HN links it

HN readers link Jason Punyon's writing on system design and project scope, mainly his Providence post on failure and keeping projects small, plus an article on implementing analytics at Stack Overflow.

Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.

The author on HN?

JasonPunyon · 831 karma · member since 2009

- jasonpunyon.com - cv.jasonpunyon.com - https://hachyderm.io/@JasonPunyon

From their public HN profile, which links to this site.

Most-linked posts?

  1. Providence (ML at Stack Overflow): Failure Is Always an Option
    2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2015-02-12
  2. Fun with Random Numbers: Random Projection
    2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-12-12
  3. Providence (ML at Stack Overflow): Architecture and Performance
    2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-02-10
  4. /blog/2015/02/12/providence-failure-is-always-an-option/
    2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-06-12
  5. Rock Stars Went Where?
    2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-07-15

What Hacker News says?

  1. pcsanwald · 2019-06-12Recommends
    I found this article quite interesting, it's about implementing an analytics system at stackoverflow: https://jasonpunyon.com/blog/2015/02/12/providence-failure-i...

    Comment linking /blog/2015/02/12/providence-failure-is-always-an-option/

    on “Ask HN: Good tech talks on how analytics systems are implemented?”
  2. Submitted Geography's The Fuck as a story · 104 points

    HN discussion
  3. Hey, I'm the Jason Punyon drob's gushing about in the post. I wanted to tell you that this is 100% totally realistic, everyone on the Data team at Stack Overflow besides Dave Robinson is living proof. In the beginning the Data Science Team at Stack Overflow was just me and Kevin Montrose. We're both ~30, we had some skills that were data-ish, but they were general critical thinking and math skills. By no means were…

    Comment linking /blog/2015/02/12/providence-failure-is-always-an-option/

    on “One Year as a Data Scientist at Stack Overflow”
  4. Submitted Providence (ML at Stack Overflow): Failure Is Always an Option as a story · 17 points

    HN discussion
  5. gbrayut · 2020-07-30Recommends
    Case in point, one of my favorite system architecture/design blog posts: Providence: Failure Is Always An Option https://jasonpunyon.com/blog/2015/02/12/providence-failure-i... Which has one of my favorite quotes about scope creep: Kevin and I have essentially become allergic to big projects. We attempt to practice “What can get done by Friday?” driven development. Keeping things small precludes a whole class of err…

    Comment linking /blog/2015/02/12/providence-failure-is-always-an-option/

    on “Migrating a 40TB SQL Server Database”
  6. Submitted Farey Numbers and Linked Lists as a story · 7 points

    HN discussion
  7. Fog Creek's sister company, Stack Exchange, has near zero full-time dev staff from Ivy League schools. It probably makes sense to look for the best interns there, but it may not be a requirement. http://jasonpunyon.com/blog/2012/07/15/rockstars-went-where/

    Comment linking /blog/2012/07/15/rockstars-went-where/

    on “Fog Creek's Intern Hiring Process”
  8. Submitted Fun with Random Numbers: Random Projection as a story · 7 points

    HN discussion
  9. You got it! By approximate category and in no particular order: ## MISCELLANEOUS - [Low Tech Magazine]( https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com ), a solar-powered website showcasing the amazing low-tech things you can do with a little ingenuity, - [Stephen Wolfram's Blog]( https://writings.stephenwolfram.com ) on math, compsci, and everything else, - [Cool Macrophotography]( https://www.barrywebbimages.co.uk/Images/Macro/…

    Comment linking /

    on “Ask HN: Favorite Little Corners of the Internet?”
  10. Submitted So You Want a Zillion Developers… as a story · 7 points

    HN discussion
  11. Submitted A Wild Anomaly Appears! as a story · 6 points

    HN discussion
  12. Submitted Fun with Random Numbers: Random Projection as a story · 3 points

    HN discussion
  13. Submitted Providence (ML at Stack Overflow): Architecture and Performance as a story · 3 points

    HN discussion
  14. Submitted A Guy Walks Into An Apple Store... as a story · 3 points

    HN discussion
  15. Submitted Rock Stars Went Where? as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  16. Submitted Don't Be Represented by Contingency Recruiters as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  17. Submitted Providence: Architecture and Performance as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
  18. Submitted Providence: Failure Is Always an Option as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
  19. Submitted Providence (ML at Stack Exchange): Testing and Results as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
  20. Submitted Fun with RNGs: Calculating π as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
  21. Submitted Things that, were I to unfortunately wake up as a recruiter, I would never do as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
  22. Submitted Get Your Redis On on Windows as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion

Search all of HN for jasonpunyon.com