Top all-time · #5686
Joshua Spodek
Personal blog · joshuaspodek.com · on HN as spodekstartupscareer
Joshua Spodek's personal blog at joshuaspodek.com covers startups and career. Since 2011, 14 different Hacker News readers have linked it 292 times, most often “Introversion is not the opposite of extroversion”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Joshua Spodek's travel writing, including a 2013 North Korea travel journal, a post on the ethics of visiting North Korea, and a piece on North Korea strategy. Comments only cite or point to them.
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?
- Introversion is not the opposite of extroversion3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-11-26
- Entrepreneurs: think twice before taking advice from venture capitalists2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-05-14
What Hacker News says?
More science doesn't hurt, but we lack leadership. Scientists are trained to research, report, and expand knowledge, but not the social and emotional skills to influence behavior. If we want other people to change, we have to recognize that information, however accurate and valuable, and telling people what to do is of limited effect. If we want different outcomes we have to do different things. Yes, still research,…
Comment linking /podcast
on “Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'”Submitted Introversion is not the opposite of extroversion as a story · 95 points
HN discussionThis community consistently poo-poos MBAs and business people who, it says, don't contribute and just shuffle paper or find ways to lay people off. I felt that way when I started my first company, finishing my physics degree. I figured, I helped launch a satellite, I can do what we needed. A couple patents later, we got our first funding and I knew how to solve what problems came our way. I could break down any prob…
Comment linking /leadership-step-by-step
on “Basic Social Skills Guide (2012)”Submitted The risks of someone calling you smart and how to avoid them as a story · 50 points
HN discussion" Once he reached the conclusion that the NSA's surveillance net would soon be irrevocable, he said it was just a matter of time before he chose to act. "What they're doing" poses "an existential threat to democracy", he said. " Thoughtful people brave enough to blow whistles seem to be the greatest check on what looks like a secret, unaccountable, illegal centralization of power based on lies from the top of the go…
Comment linking /
on “Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance”Submitted Google’s history shows that people did not believe good idea to start with as a story · 20 points
HN discussionMost books on leadership give principles and science, which don't hurt to know, but leading is a practice -- an active, social, emotional, expressive, performance-based field. We learn to perform by practicing the basics in any field. Leadership Step by Step https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Step-Become-Person-Others/... gives a set of 20 exercises that teach the basics of leading yourself and others. If you practic…
Comment linking /reviews-leadership-step-step
on “Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?”Submitted “Pride Destroyed the Park”, Washington Square Park After a Parade [video] as a story · 8 points
HN discussionInitiative: A Proven Method to Bring Your Passions to Life (and Work) https://www.amazon.com/Initiative-Proven-Method-Bring-Passio... Here's a video of the author (me) interviewing a reader who did all the exercises, in the process going from (his words) below middle management to creating his dream project with his dream business partner https://youtu.be/zfV3yNKp0h8 . The process costs nearly nothing in money and c…
Comment linking /this-is-one-of-the-greatest-classes-i-have-ever-taken-it-was-engaging-thought-provoking-challenging-and-fun
on “Ask HN: What are some books where the reader learns by building projects?”Submitted You don't need six months to prepare. You need an hour as a story · 7 points
HN discussionI'm not sure which issue you mean by "this issue," because the freedoms involved in free software touch many issues. I also can't recommend for others not knowing their needs and interests, but I can tell you some things I do. Maybe some things will translate to what you do. I use free software as much as possible, running gnu/linux on my computers since 1996. I stopped dual booting about ten years after that. I giv…
Comment linking /new_bryant_park_in_motion_videos
on “Richard Stallman Was Right All Along”Submitted If you miss one day you can miss two. If you miss two it’s over. as a story · 5 points
HN discussionRegarding beverages, things changed a lot when I learned that for most of human existence, after weaning, our ancestors drank only water. I've come to see how I used to look at other beverages as entitled, the result of marketing. I drink some other beverages, but mostly water, and I've found my total joy from drinking higher . Sort of like how in college I drank a lot of beer. Now I sip whiskey sometimes -- less al…
Comment linking /food-world-reviews
on “How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled”Submitted How I got my web page redesigned at no cost and made a friend in the process as a story · 5 points
HN discussionI posted a video on my blog here: https://joshuaspodek.com/year-emptied-garbage This post explains more: https://joshuaspodek.com/emptying-my-household-garbage-for-t...
Comment linking /emptying-my-household-garbage-for-the-first-time-in-2019
on “How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled”Submitted The Science Book of the Decade: Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet as a story · 3 points
HN discussionYou describe focusing on the solution. The inspiration to make your solution generally feels great, but doesn't endure. On the contrary, you'll get caught up in more and more solutions because you're mostly satisfying fleeting whims. Focusing on the problem and the people who feel it will generally engage and inspire you longer. When you ask someone about what's missing in their lives or specifically what emotions t…
Comment linking /initiative
on “Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?”Submitted Today starts my 6th month since I unplugged my fridge as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe control of information and people's lives in North Korea is incomparably more than the examples you gave. Respectfully, your comparisons are not close. The difference is not merely quantitative. North Korea's activity is well documented and overwhelming. If you want independent corroboration, sources here -- http://joshuaspodek.com/north-korea-bibliography , particularly in the human rights sections -- are a goo…
Comment linking /north-korea-bibliography
on “The Secret History of Kim Jung Il -- written by one of his high school teachers”Submitted Hustling is a valuable business skill one can develop (2016) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI wrote an extended series on North Korean strategy that begins by explaining the current incredible stability. Until Kim Jung Il died, since 1945 a country the world disliked and actively tried to change had two (!) leaders, father and son. It begins here -- http://joshuaspodek.com/north-korea-strategy-preview I believe a strategic systems perspective reveals why that stability is so durable, but reveals little opp…
Comment linking /north-korea-strategy-preview
on “The Secret History of Kim Jung Il -- written by one of his high school teachers”Submitted I declined nearly $10k to teach for an Ivy League school for a week in Shanghai as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI would recommend not watching the Vice Guide to North Korea. That series is more about Vice (which I've read and enjoyed for over a decade and otherwise recommend), using North Korea and their preconceptions to show themselves off, than about North Korea (though North Korea does show through). Yes, the place is weird, but Vice sensationalizes it out of proportion and shows themselves off. Great for Vice, but at the…
Comment linking /ultimate-frisbee-north-korea-part-1
on “The Secret History of Kim Jung Il -- written by one of his high school teachers”Submitted Technical solutions rarely solve social problems as a story · 3 points
HN discussionReducing is strategic. Reusing and recycling are tactical. If your strategy is in place, use all the tactics that contribute to it. But if you don't have your strategy in place, tactics can do nothing or even move you backward. Corporations like recycling because it promotes growth -- the opposite of reduction. We are stepping on the gas, thinking we're stepping on the brake. Covered in episode 183 of Leadership and…
Comment linking /guests/rants-raves-monologues-volume-6
on “Landfill is underrated and recycling overrated”Submitted How to Teach or Influence as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI've been collecting great opening lines to books. This line has topped the list -- not that I ranked them, but I put it first, followed by "It was inevitable. The scent of bitter almonds always reminded Dr. Juvenal Urbino of the fate of unrequited love." from Love in the Time of Cholera. If you know of others that are missing, let me know: http://joshuaspodek.com/great-opening-lines-to-books On a note of remembranc…
Comment linking /great-opening-lines-to-books
on “Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87”Submitted Entrepreneurs: think twice before taking advice from venture capitalists as a story · 3 points
HN discussionAfter my PhD in physics, I learned starting a company that I needed such skills and devoted myself to learning them. Now I teach the social and emotional skills underlying leadership, entrepreneurship, and initiative at NYU (student reviews: http://joshuaspodek.com/this-is-one-of-the-greatest-classes-... and videos of them describing the courses: http://joshuaspodek.com/nyu-students-speak-joshua-spodeks ). I made bo…
Comment linking /nyu-students-speak-joshua-spodeks
on “Ask HN: What people skills do you wish you learned earlier in your career?”Submitted Don’t “Become an entrepreneur.” Solve problems so well people pay you for it as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
