Top all-time · #863
John Salvatier
Personal blog · johnsalvatier.org/blogphilosophyscience
John Salvatier's personal blog at johnsalvatier.org covers philosophy and science. Since 2017, 76 different Hacker News readers have linked it 88 times, most often “Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)”. The last post was in 2017, but the archive is still widely read.
Sometimes recommended · 11 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers almost always link John Salvatier's 2017 post "Reality has a surprising amount of detail" to explain hidden complexity in software, engineering, manufacturing and everyday tasks.
- Recommended for · 11 comments
- Called insightful, a good and great read, and excellent; described as beloved, and one commenter says it explains the idea better than the submission.
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?
- Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)69 people · 80 mentions · first linked 2017-05-15
- Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2026-06-22
- Submission and Dominance Among Friends2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-12-03
What Hacker News says?
Well that’s just because we understand internal combustion engines well enough that we can abstract away a lot of the details. Software engineering is nice because by design it is at a level of abstraction that we can grok it. We’re basically manipulating structural concepts of pure thought. But never forget that reality has a surprising amount of detail. When we interact with the physical world, we rely on abstract…
Comment linking /blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail
on “Internal Combustion Engine”Submitted Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017) as a story · 699 points
HN discussionCouldn't agree more. Tangentially, this article came to mind: http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-... You don't fully appreciate the details for what you're solving until you naively take it all on and show up everyday. Slowly uncovering every nook – solving an annoying bug over the course of a week, while implementing core pieces of your product you thought would take months within a day.
Comment linking /blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail
on “The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday”Submitted Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017) as a story · 498 points
HN discussionIt reminds me of this rather classic post: http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-... Science is not ideas: new conceptual schemes must be invented, confounding variables must be controlled, dead-ends explored. This process takes years. Engineering is not science: kinks must be worked out, confounding variables incorporated. This process also takes years. Technology is not engineering: the purel…
Comment linking /blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail
on “AI 2027”Submitted Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017) as a story · 386 points
HN discussionJonathan Blow's "Preventing the collapse of civilization" [1] makes a similar point. It is easy to assume that, if we can build EUV machines and space telescopes, then processing stainless steel and manufacturing PCBs is baby stuff, and is just waiting for the proper incentives to spring up again. Unfortunately that is not the case -- reality has a surprising amount of detail [2] and even medium-level technology tak…
Comment linking /blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail
on “America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back”Submitted Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017) as a story · 290 points
HN discussionI'm speaking as someone who has handled a fair share of timelines (with reasonable success) you have pointed out. To begin with, it is interesting to see you lumping up different kinds of timelines. For example, the cost of not meeting SEC timeline different one compared to demo to be shown in a press conference. > should we spend $50k announcing at conference Y in month Z, or should we wait until month A? What is i…
Comment linking /blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail
on “Individuals Matter”Submitted Reality has a surprising amount of detail as a story · 5 points
HN discussion> Details matter, You are on the money[1]. People want to estimate work without even telling what is it that needs to be done in the first place. [1] http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-...
Comment linking /blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail
on “Individuals Matter”Submitted Reality has a surprising amount of detail as a story · 5 points
HN discussion1. Building a time tracker that encourages deep work [1]. It's an interesting experience and I'm fascinated by the amount of complexity that is hidden behind building a "simple" time tracker. Reminds me of "Reality has a surprising amount of detail"[2]. 2. Writing more, but publishing less. In the past I've been publishing one article per week, but I've later realized that this doesn't improve my writing skills, but…
Comment linking /blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail
on “Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)”Submitted Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017) as a story · 4 points
HN discussionhttp://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-... About how simple tasks can have unexpected complexity, it didn't change my life but now I have something to send fellow developers when their "simple features" explode into a week of hard work.
Comment linking /blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail
on “Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?”Submitted Reality has a surprising amount of detail as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSo… a big systemic fix in other words. Allow to me cite another beloved HN blog by way of explanation for why this mostly appeals to people without a strong understanding of the systems they want to “fix”. https://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising...
Comment linking /blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail
on “Does Georgism work? Five years later”Submitted Reality has a surprising amount of detail as a story · 4 points
HN discussionReminds me of "Reality has a surprising amount of detail" [0] — unknown unknowns often remain that way until you get up close and personal with something new. [0] http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-...
Comment linking /blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail
on “My washing machine refreshed my thinking on software estimation”Submitted Reality has a surprising amount of detail as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI personally completely agree with all the thoughts exposed in the post. Though mostly I was intrigued by the figure labeled "Some important details for colonizing the universe.": http://johnsalvatier.org/assets/colonizing-the-universe.png Unfortunately author used it just as an illustration without giving any details. The dust and heating related constraints are self explanatory, what surprised me most was the slow…
Comment linking /assets/colonizing-the-universe.png
on “Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)”Submitted Reality has a surprising amount of detail as a story · 3 points
HN discussionYou might be interested in the article: Reality has a surprising amount of detail[1]. > It’s tempting to think ‘So what?’ and dismiss these details as incidental or specific to stair carpentry. And they are specific to stair carpentry; that’s what makes them details. But the existence of a surprising number of meaningful details is not specific to stairs. Surprising detail is a near universal property of getting up…
Comment linking /blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail
on “Ask HN: Do you also marvel at the complexity of everyday objects?”Submitted Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionJazz or jugaad as the Indians call it :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad Also http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-...
Comment linking /blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail
on “We quit our jobs to build a cabin”Submitted Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionOne of the links in the post was also a really great read, for those who skipped it. "Reality has a surprising amount of detail": http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-...
Comment linking /blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail
on “Why things might have taken so long”Submitted Reality has a surprising amount of detail as a story · 2 points
HN discussionDoing any sort of work is a constant process of invention, as you solve all the little problems involved. This other post linked from the article is a good read: http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-...
Comment linking /blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail
on “Why things might have taken so long”Submitted Reality has a surprising amount of detail as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
