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Nat Bennett

Personal blog · simplermachines.comprogrammingcareerproductivity

Nat Bennett writes Simpler Machines, a personal blog at simplermachines.com about programming, career and productivity. Since 2021, 19 different Hacker News readers have linked it 20 times, most often “What was special about Pivotal?”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-01, and you can follow it by feed.

Visit the blog
20mentions?
19HN people?
2021–2026first – last linked?
Links on Hacker News per year · peak 6 in 2024

Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?

Why HN links it

HN commenters cite Nat Bennett's Simpler Machines blog on software development and leadership, linking a post on why not everyone does XP and a post on leadership and company meetings.

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.

Essays and photography from Nat Bennett. Based in Minneapolis.

Most-linked posts?

  1. What was special about Pivotal?
    3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-06-20
  2. The mortifying ordeal of pairing all day
    3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-05-08
  3. DevOps for Application Developers
    2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-05-15
  4. Don't Lie in Interviews
    2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-04-30

What Hacker News says?

  1. Oh my, I’m conflicted about this post. (Disclaimer - I’m CEO of a small company and also adore the Turn Your Ship Around book and partly base my leadership style on that book. ) I suspect that the author would be fine with the company meeting if he didn’t already have well formed (and it appears, justifiably formed) opinions about the competence of the company’s leadership. Human beings are wired in a particular way…

    Comment linking /mr-reciprocity/

    on “Leadership is a hell of a drug”
  2. Submitted I keep a WTF notebook (2021) as a story · 564 points

    HN discussion
  3. I've found myself more than once referred to Nat Bennett's Simpler Machines ; most recently: Why doesn't everyone do XP? [0]. 0. https://www.simplermachines.com/why-doesnt-everyone-do-xp/

    Comment linking /why-doesnt-everyone-do-xp/

    on “Ask HN: Favorite blog in 2024?”
  4. Submitted The mortifying ordeal of pairing all day as a story · 315 points

    HN discussion
  5. Submitted Lessons Learned from 5 years using Pivotal Tracker as a story · 38 points

    HN discussion
  6. Submitted The Mortifying Ordeal of Pairing All Day as a story · 8 points

    HN discussion
  7. Submitted Let's not call it "tech debt," it's just "mess" as a story · 4 points

    HN discussion
  8. Submitted Management at Pivotal as a story · 4 points

    HN discussion
  9. Submitted The Mortifying Ordeal of Pairing All Day as a story · 4 points

    HN discussion
  10. Submitted Something Is Very Wrong in San Francisco as a story · 3 points

    HN discussion
  11. Submitted Don't Lie in Interviews as a story · 3 points

    HN discussion
  12. Submitted Don't Lie in Interviews as a story · 3 points

    HN discussion
  13. Submitted DevOps for Application Developers as a story · 3 points

    HN discussion
  14. Submitted App Mindset, Infra Mindset (2022) as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  15. Submitted What I would copy from the Pivotal interview process as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  16. Submitted Please Stop Writing Dockerfiles as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
  17. Submitted Should You Use Concourse? as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
  18. Submitted What was special about Pivotal? as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
  19. Submitted What was special about Pivotal? as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
  20. Submitted DevOps for Application Developers as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion

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