Top all-time · #2383
Noah Brier and Colin Nagy
Personal blog · whyisthisinteresting.substack.comculturewriting
Noah Brier and Colin Nagy writes Why is this interesting?, a personal blog at whyisthisinteresting.substack.com about culture and writing. Since 2019, 32 different Hacker News readers have linked it 49 times, most often “The Regular Expression Edition: code, early neural networks, and AI pioneers”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (7) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
A daily newsletter from Noah Brier and Colin Nagy covering a mix of interesting topics, such as banking anti-patterns, Goodhart's Law, retail finance and advertising history, while avoiding current events and politics.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 7 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
A daily newsletter for the intellectually omnivorous, from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy. Edited by Louis Cheslaw.
Most-linked posts?
- The Regular Expression Edition: code, early neural networks, and AI pioneers4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-07-08
- The Programming Edition: On learning, mathematica, and being a novice2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-03-05
- Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-01-04
- Gift Card Economics2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-09-15
- How to Prepare a Go Bag2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-03-03
- The Tanforan Shell Edition2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-07-19
- On Interstitial Journaling2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-04-08
What Hacker News says?
A friend of mine wrote a newsletter on this topic last year - banks are full of anti-patterns! https://whyisthisinteresting.substack.com/p/why-is-this-inte...
Comment linking /p/why-is-this-interesting-the-security
on “Ask HN: A major USA bank is storing passwords in cleartext – what to do?”Submitted EBUG: The NHL's emergency backup goalie rule as a story · 226 points
HN discussionWas mostly referencing back to this on general systems stuff, not a specific metrics system that works. https://whyisthisinteresting.substack.com/p/why-is-this-inte...
Comment linking /p/why-is-this-interesting-the-systemic
on “Goodhart's Law and how systems are shaped by the metrics you chase”Submitted Goodhart's Law and how systems are shaped by the metrics you chase as a story · 160 points
HN discussionyou may find this useful: https://whyisthisinteresting.substack.com/p/the-gift-card-ec...
Comment linking /p/the-gift-card-economics-edition
on “Banks beware, Amazon and Walmart are cracking the code for finance”Submitted Father Knox’s decalogue: the ten rules of Golden Age detective fiction as a story · 90 points
HN discussionTo the general question “have ads changed?” Yes. The style of ads generally evolve to match the time. Some of this is because the industry learns what’s effective and some is because trends and aesthetics change. In the 80s there were a lot of jingles and characters in ads, which you see much less of now. In the late 90s/early 2000s Apple started to include pop songs and the rest of the industry followed suit. As to…
Comment linking /p/why-is-this-interesting-the-airspace
on “Ask HN: Have TV ads changed?”Submitted Can You Copyright Work Made by Artificial Intelligence? as a story · 89 points
HN discussionI'm a superfan of "Why is this interesting?" https://whyisthisinteresting.substack.com/ It's a daily newsletter that's a sort of potpourri of interesting topics. They're pretty digestible, and they make it a point to avoid current events/politics. The writing is also very high quality.
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Which newsletters do you subscribe to?”Submitted The Bidirectional Battery Edition as a story · 53 points
HN discussionHa, not even close to the Cox E-Z Flyer https://whyisthisinteresting.substack.com/p/the-worlds-most-...
Comment linking /p/the-worlds-most-dangerous-toy-edition
on “Was This the Most Dangerous Children's Toy Ever?”Submitted The Cultural Meaning of Shitposting as a story · 47 points
HN discussionPlease read the following: https://whyisthisinteresting.substack.com/p/why-is-this-inte... You just kinda had to be there. It was ever changing but snappy.
Comment linking /p/why-is-this-interesting-the-icq-edition
on a deleted threadSubmitted The Dazzle Camo Edition as a story · 12 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Is the 2x2 Interesting? as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Tanforan Shell Edition as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The P vs. NP Edition as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Gift Card Economics as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Regular Expression Edition: code, early neural networks, and AI pioneers as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to Prepare a Go Bag as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted On betting, predictions, and the language we use to forecast as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Safety Belt Edition as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Wildfire Go Bag as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Private Train Car Edition as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Platinum Photography Was Lost as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Bat Edition: On the pandemic, origin, and nature as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted On Conway’s Law and the mirroring hypothesis as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Regular Expression Edition as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Regular Expression Edition as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
