Top all-time · #3576
Max Levchin
Personal blog · max.levch.instartupsbusiness
Max Levchin writes Tumblr, a personal blog at max.levch.in about startups and business. Since 2012, 22 different Hacker News readers have linked it 22 times, most often “Shamir Secret Sharing – how PayPal nearly died”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Max Levchin's blog mainly for his Shamir secret sharing post, a story about an implementation that caused chaos at PayPal. Other linked posts cover startups and encryption failures.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
mlevchin@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu
Most-linked posts?
- Shamir Secret Sharing – how PayPal nearly died6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2023-08-11
- Max Levchin: To Build a Meritocracy6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2024-10-29
- Shamir Secret Sharing4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-07-31
- High Leverage Individuals2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-11-30
What Hacker News says?
Thanks! If you'd like to read another encryption related horror story, this one served as a bit of stylistic inspiration: https://max.levch.in/post/724289457144070144/shamir-secret-s...
Comment linking /post/724289457144070144/shamir-secret-sharing-its-3am-paul-the-head-of
on “Mind the encryptionroot: How to save your data when ZFS loses its mind”Submitted Shamir Secret Sharing – how PayPal nearly died as a story · 14 points
HN discussionIndeed, this comment reminded me of this story: https://max.levch.in/post/724289457144070144/shamir-secret-s...
Comment linking /post/724289457144070144/shamir-secret-sharing-its-3am-paul-the-head-of
on “Major ICQ security hole (1998)”Submitted Max Levchin: To Build a Meritocracy as a story · 10 points
HN discussionI've been working on startups more or less for most of my 20s (both as a founder and an employee at a venture-backed startup), I've learned a great deal from it, lost a lot from it and endured a lot of hardship, but I think the journey also transformed me and cut me out of wood ( http://max.levch.in/post/36289276742/strengthen-your-startup... ). So no regrets, I'm really excited about the future and I'm thinking lon…
Comment linking /post/36289276742/strengthen-your-startup-skeleton
on “I want to get into startups, but I don’t know where to start”Submitted Max Levchin's DLD13 Keynote as a story · 7 points
HN discussionThere was a post about shamir secret sharing recently by levchin (and chaos that it caused at paypal): https://max.levch.in/post/724289457144070144/shamir-secret-s... This is 100% one of my favorite algorithms, but I have to say I've started to wonder if I just have an academic fascination with it and the practical use cases are more limited (limiting?) than I think
Comment linking /post/724289457144070144/shamir-secret-sharing-its-3am-paul-the-head-of
on “Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments”Submitted To Build a Meritocracy as a story · 4 points
HN discussionwhich is in fact by Max Levchin: https://max.levch.in/post/724289457144070144/shamir-secret-s...
Comment linking /post/724289457144070144/shamir-secret-sharing-its-3am-paul-the-head-of
on “How Shamir's Secret Sharing Works”Submitted To Build a Meritocracy as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSee also a story about an implementation from Max Levchin: https://max.levch.in/post/724289457144070144/shamir-secret-s...
Comment linking /post/724289457144070144/shamir-secret-sharing-its-3am-paul-the-head-of
on “How Shamir's Secret Sharing Works”Submitted To Build a Meritocracy as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted To Build a Meritocracy as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted To Build a Meritocracy as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Shamir Secret Sharing as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Shamir Secret Sharing as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Story behind Max Levchin's Affirm as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted High Leverage Individuals as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Max Levchin: Strengthen Your Startup Skeleton as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Shamir Secret Sharing as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Shamir Secret Sharing as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted High Leverage Individuals as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
