Top all-time · #19723
Mayank Verma
Personal blog · thinkingthrough.substack.comcareerprogramming
Mayank Verma writes Thinking Through, a personal blog at thinkingthrough.substack.com about career and programming. Since 2021, 3 different Hacker News readers have linked it 93 times, most often “Context switching costs more than we give it credit for”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-01-28, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Mayank Verma's posts on the cost of context-switching in DevOps work and on making tech interviews more inclusive, citing them as support for their own points.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Sharing the time-tested, industry-vetted tips & tricks for software engineers and engineering managers who looking for growth in the Tech Industry.
Most-linked posts?
- Context switching costs more than we give it credit for2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-01-18
- Don’t do interviews, do discussions2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-11-07
What Hacker News says?
https://thinkingthrough.substack.com/ My personal blog where I write about various aspects of software engineering, people management, and personal productivity.
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Share your personal site”Submitted Context switching costs more than we give it credit for as a story · 590 points
HN discussionYep had the same experience multiple times in tech industry especially when hiring via contracting companies. I asked around and while what you encountered is one way they cheat, there are many ways the do it. I collected all possible ways candidates cheat and redflags to look out for when interviewing candidates in my blog post. (here is post link) https://thinkingthrough.substack.com/p/how-to-catch-a-cheati... * i…
Comment linking /p/how-to-catch-a-cheating-candidate
on “Ask HN: Have you experienced “hiring fraud?””Submitted Don’t do interviews, do discussions as a story · 550 points
HN discussionIt's a context-switch. It's a huge, unavoidable context-switch squarely in the middle of your workflow. And those are a recipe for disaster: https://thinkingthrough.substack.com/p/context-switching-cos...
Comment linking /p/context-switching-cost-more-than
on “DevOps is broken”Submitted WallStreetBets vs WallStreet: It's not about the money anymore as a story · 344 points
HN discussionYeah completely matches my experience. Twitter banned my account for far less and unlike Ben, I dont have major presence or large audience. I wrote about my experience on the blog [0] so others can learn but what I learned is that there is an automated system to flag and automated system to respond to your questions and the later system rejects 99.99% of cases. You have to be in Ben's position to fall into that .01%…
Comment linking /p/twitter-ban
on “An account was suspended”Submitted Stop Swiss Cheesing your calendar as a story · 224 points
HN discussionI have started using chatgpt with assistance on research and now I am able to go down rabbit holes faster and further on a topic i am researching. The full technique is written on this post https://thinkingthrough.substack.com/p/going-down-the-rabbit... tl;dr “In my ChatGPT custom instructions, I have instructed ChatGPT to “Give me 2-4 follow-up questions that I can ask on the topic” (⬅ copy-paste that into your pro…
Comment linking /p/going-down-the-rabbit-hole-with-chatgpt
on “Ask HN: How do you learn and research every day?”Submitted A Linux Command Got My Twitter Account Locked for Abuse and Violation as a story · 58 points
HN discussionThere are many reasons and there is a long way to go for these interviews to be inclusive and logical. I have been trying my best to change the culture around interviews and mention this to all hiring managers and interviewers to be more inclusive and use points from the following articles (not a complete list): Don’t Do Interviews, Do Discussions! https://thinkingthrough.substack.com/p/dont-do-interviews-do... Tech…
Comment linking /p/dont-do-interviews-do-discussions
on “Why Are Interviews Harder Than the Job?”Submitted How to Catch a Cheating Candidate in an Interview as a story · 30 points
HN discussionSubmitted Make better decisions by running small experiments as a story · 11 points
HN discussionSubmitted Build vs. Buy: Vendor Contract Shenanigans as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted Make better decisions by running small experiments as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Focusing as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Build vs. Buy: One Aspect That No One Talks About as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Linux Command Got My Twitter Account Locked for Abuse and Violation as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Subconscious productivity hack when WFH as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to Win at Interviewing as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to Win at Interviewing as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted We All Are Playing Squid Game with One Exception as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Is Work From Home now part of Total Compensation package? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Is Work From Home now part of Total Compensation package? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Do we need a new open-source license? Amazon vs. Elastic Part I as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted One Productivity Tip to Rule Them All as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Mistakes Mentee Make During Mentorship that you can avoid as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Designing My Perfect Sabbatical: 23 Years in Making as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to Build and Ship Projects Fast as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Transform Your Life by Overriding Inaction with Tan as a story · 2 points
HN discussion