Top all-time · #5880
Paul Saffo
Personal blog · saffo.comculturephilosophy
Paul Saffo's personal blog at saffo.com covers culture and philosophy. Since 2007, 14 different Hacker News readers have linked it 16 times, most often “Strong Opinions weakly held (2008)”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (8) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers cite Paul Saffo's essays as the origin of the "strong opinions, weakly held" maxim and its context. One commenter recommends his essays on keeping a journal as inspirational and worth reading.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 8 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Strong Opinions weakly held (2008)5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2013-04-17
- /02008/07/26/strong-opinions-weakly-held/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-07-21
- Strong Opinions Weakly Held2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2008-09-01
What Hacker News says?
Paul Saffo is a potential source: > Since the mid-1980s, my mantra for this process is “strong opinions, weakly held.” Allow your intuition to guide you to a conclusion, no matter how imperfect — this is the “strong opinion” part. Then –and this is the “weakly held” part– prove yourself wrong. Engage in creative doubt. Look for information that doesn’t fit, or indicators that pointing in an entirely different direct…
Comment linking /02008/07/26/strong-opinions-weakly-held/
on “Be careful about what you dislike”Submitted Hot New Medium: Text (1993) as a story · 6 points
HN discussionCotap - San Francisco, CA https://www.cotap.com/ Senior iOS Engineer About Cotap Cotap helps people work better together. We’re building mobile tools to help people communicate and collaborate at work, whether they’re knowledge workers or line workers. Mobile phones can mean more than photo-sharing or checkins. They can mean better day-to-day work and more opportunities for people who were left out in the past. Cota…
Comment linking /02008/07/26/strong-opinions-weakly-held/
on “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2014)”Submitted Strong Opinions weakly held (2008) as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> Framework? That’s just silly. It’s a turn of phrase that helps you change your attitude or approach a problem from a new direction. While you're welcome to interpret it however you wish, one of the main points of the article is that it is a methodological framework laid out by Paul Saffo[1], but that most people ignore the framework and focus on the catchphrase. 1. https://www.saffo.com/02008/07/26/strong-opinions…
Comment linking /02008/07/26/strong-opinions-weakly-held/
on “‘Strong Opinions, Weakly Held’ Doesn't Work That Well”Submitted Strong Opinions Weakly Held as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI would distill my understanding of this paper as "Strong Opinions, Weakly Held" http://www.saffo.com/02008/07/26/strong-opinions-weakly-held...
Comment linking /02008/07/26/strong-opinions-weakly-held/
on “Fuck Nuance [pdf]”Submitted Move Over, the Robot's Driving as a story · 2 points
HN discussionHaving strong options isn't necessarily bad, it's how they're expressed that can be detrimental. One of (the?) original statements of "strong opinions, weakly held" ( https://www.saffo.com/02008/07/26/strong-opinions-weakly-hel... ) was to tear apart your own thought process, not express it as fact then expect others to do that for you. When forming an opinion spending time to think it through personally is a good p…
Comment linking /02008/07/26/strong-opinions-weakly-held/
on “Ask HN: How to be less opinionated?”Submitted Strong Opinions weakly held (2008) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionCame here to say the same. Sources for that phrase: http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/07/strong_opinio... http://www.saffo.com/02008/07/26/strong-opinions-weakly-held...
Comment linking /02008/07/26/strong-opinions-weakly-held/
on “There is No Right Way to Develop Software”Submitted "Strong Opinions, Weakly Held" as a story · 1 points
HN discussionOne way to keep away the electronic snoopers is to use a paper journal and secure it physically by putting it in a safe. Paul Saffo's inspirational comments are worth reading: http://www.saffo.com/02005/07/13/on-keeping-a-journal/ and http://www.saffo.com/02005/09/28/illustrating-a-journal/ . There is something very different writing on paper in a bound journal when compared to writing on a computer or event a paper…
Comment linking /02005/09/28/illustrating-a-journal/
on “Ask HN: How do I secure a personal journal?”Submitted Why the Next Computer Is Like the DeLorean Automobile as a story · 1 points
HN discussionFrom Paul Saffo "It's the Context" (Wired 1994) http://www.saffo.com/essays/its-the-context-stupid/ "The seductive chaos of the Internet today offers hints at why these agents to come will be so important. Like Alice’s Restaurant, you can get anything you want — but unless you have software help, you might never find what you are looking for." "It is this avalanche of content that will make context the scarce resour…
Comment linking /essays/its-the-context-stupid/
on “By 1995, it'll be evident that the Internet means as little as fax (1998)”
