Top all-time · #8643
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.
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.
Most-linked posts?
- Providence (ML at Stack Overflow): Failure Is Always an Option2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2015-02-12
- Fun with Random Numbers: Random Projection2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-12-12
- Providence (ML at Stack Overflow): Architecture and Performance2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-02-10
- /blog/2015/02/12/providence-failure-is-always-an-option/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-06-12
- Rock Stars Went Where?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-07-15
What Hacker News says?
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?”Submitted Geography's The Fuck as a story · 104 points
HN discussionHey, 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”Submitted Providence (ML at Stack Overflow): Failure Is Always an Option as a story · 17 points
HN discussionCase 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”Submitted Farey Numbers and Linked Lists as a story · 7 points
HN discussionFog 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”Submitted Fun with Random Numbers: Random Projection as a story · 7 points
HN discussionYou 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?”Submitted So You Want a Zillion Developers… as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Wild Anomaly Appears! as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Fun with Random Numbers: Random Projection as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Providence (ML at Stack Overflow): Architecture and Performance as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Guy Walks Into An Apple Store... as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Rock Stars Went Where? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Don't Be Represented by Contingency Recruiters as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Providence: Architecture and Performance as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Providence: Failure Is Always an Option as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Providence (ML at Stack Exchange): Testing and Results as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Fun with RNGs: Calculating π as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Things that, were I to unfortunately wake up as a recruiter, I would never do as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Get Your Redis On on Windows as a story · 1 points
HN discussion