Top all-time · #3993
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.
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?
- What was special about Pivotal?3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-06-20
- The mortifying ordeal of pairing all day3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-05-08
- DevOps for Application Developers2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-05-15
- Don't Lie in Interviews2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-04-30
What Hacker News says?
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”Submitted I keep a WTF notebook (2021) as a story · 564 points
HN discussionI'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?”Submitted The mortifying ordeal of pairing all day as a story · 315 points
HN discussionSubmitted Lessons Learned from 5 years using Pivotal Tracker as a story · 38 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Mortifying Ordeal of Pairing All Day as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted Let's not call it "tech debt," it's just "mess" as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Management at Pivotal as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Mortifying Ordeal of Pairing All Day as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Something Is Very Wrong in San Francisco as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Don't Lie in Interviews as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Don't Lie in Interviews as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted DevOps for Application Developers as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted App Mindset, Infra Mindset (2022) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted What I would copy from the Pivotal interview process as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Please Stop Writing Dockerfiles as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Should You Use Concourse? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted What was special about Pivotal? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted What was special about Pivotal? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted DevOps for Application Developers as a story · 1 points
HN discussion