Top all-time · #6805
Matt Gemmell
Personal blog · mattgemmell.scotwritingproductivityprogramming
Matt Gemmell's personal blog at mattgemmell.scot covers writing, productivity and programming. Since 2022, 12 different Hacker News readers have linked it 30 times, most often “The Fallen Apple”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (3) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog's posts on Apple News ads being scams and on Apple and Microsoft products suffering from a focus on the stock price. Comments mostly discuss those topics rather than the writing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 3 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Thriller, Horror, and Suspense author
Most-linked posts?
- The Fallen Apple5 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2026-02-02
- Back to Mac4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2025-02-10
- TextIndex: Simple syntax for creating indexes in Markdown and text documents2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-07-25
What Hacker News says?
Sorry for uninvited advice, but you really shouldn't be using the keys in the corners for common actions (so common that you have a need to take the load off you pinkies). Utilise the CapsLock [1, 2]. (This key is so misbalanced in terms of prime key estate to utility ratio!) Better yet, try using home row modifiers [3]. [1]: https://wiki.c2.com/?RemapCapsLock [2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/vim/comments/1442ads/mappi…
Comment linking /home-row-mods/
on “Show HN: Bayleaf – Building a low-profile wireless split keyboard”Submitted Emacs as a story · 7 points
HN discussion> Shame on Apple for creating a honeypot for scam ads in what they consider to be a premium news service. This company cannot be trusted with ads in its products any more. As a longtime Mac nerd, this makes the ads story even worse than it already was. See this [0] (unrelated to me) article on the ways that Cook's focus on the stock has caused rot for a good summation of how software / services are tanking at Apple.…
Comment linking /the-fallen-apple/
on “I Now Assume That All Ads on Apple News Are Scams”Submitted Back to Mac as a story · 6 points
HN discussionAnd this is the broken mindset tanking multiple large companies' products and services (Google, Apple, MS, etc). Focus on the stock. The product and our users are an afterthought. Someone linked to a good essay on how success plus Tim Cook's focus on the stock has caused the rot that's consuming Apple's software[0]. I thought it was well reasoned and it resonated with me, though I don't believe any of the ideas were…
Comment linking /the-fallen-apple/
on “Microsoft's Pivotal AI Product Is Running into Big Problems”Submitted Write Less as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted Back to Mac as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Fallen Apple as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Fallen Apple as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted TextIndex: Simple syntax for creating indexes in Markdown and text documents as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Back to Mac as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted From iPad back to Mac after 8 years as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Fallen Apple as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted FigureMark: Simple syntax for marking up figures in Markdown documents as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted FigureMark: Simple syntax for marking up figures in Markdown as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Pandoc Novel as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Back to Mac as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Authorship as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to Like Things as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted An evolved 34-key layout for iPadOS as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted TextIndex as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Liberty Ad Resistance as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Fallen Apple as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Fallen Apple as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Living Outlines as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Second Screen as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to Like Things as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Identifying as an Artist as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted I Found My Suicide Note as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Four Bars as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
