Top all-time · #6104
Pearl Leff
Personal blog · pearlleff.comprogrammingcareer
Pearl Leff's personal blog at pearlleff.com covers programming and career. Since 2019, 13 different Hacker News readers have linked it 23 times, most often “Seven Tips for Junior Developers”. 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 link Pearl Leff's essays on memorization and learning, plus her junior developer tips and a personal piece on stem cell donation. Commenters call the memorization essay a favourite and the donation piece a great read.
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?
- Seven Tips for Junior Developers4 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2019-11-06
- My Experience Donating Stem Cells3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-01-09
- /in-praise-of-memorization2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-02-19
- The Value of an Undergraduate Degree2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-06-13
- In Praise of Memorization2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-03-21
What Hacker News says?
There's this [1] which is one of my favorite articles on that topic; definitely worth a read. [1] https://www.pearlleff.com/in-praise-of-memorization
Comment linking /in-praise-of-memorization
on “AWS CEO says using AI to replace junior staff is 'Dumbest thing I've ever heard'”Submitted In Praise of Memorization as a story · 223 points
HN discussionTeaching developers how to find the answers to their problems is a crucial skill, and one that's often approached the wrong way - either new developers get all the answers easily and don't learn, or they spend days trying to unblock themselves. I recently wrote about that challenge in an article for junior developers. [1] [1] http://www.pearlleff.com/seven-tips-for-a-junior-developer
Comment linking /seven-tips-for-a-junior-developer
on “Developers mentoring other developers: practices I've seen work well”Submitted The Value of an Undergraduate Degree as a story · 49 points
HN discussionSee also: https://www.pearlleff.com/in-praise-of-memorization
Comment linking /in-praise-of-memorization
on “We can’t circumvent the work needed to train our minds”Submitted Seven Tips for Junior Developers as a story · 6 points
HN discussionTBF, memorizing stuff does lead to a model that allows you to understand the world[1]. I do agree that the focus of the education system has been to regurgitate stuff instead of testing students’ understanding. [1] https://www.pearlleff.com/in-praise-of-memorization
Comment linking /in-praise-of-memorization
on “Testing how hard it is to cheat with ChatGPT in interviews”Submitted The Value of an Undergraduate Degree as a story · 5 points
HN discussionOne of my coworkers recently shared her personal experience with stem cell donation and I thought it was worth highlighting. It's a great read and may even inspire you to consider donation yourself. You can read it here: https://www.pearlleff.com/stem-cell-donation
Comment linking /stem-cell-donation
on “A pilot raced through the airport to surprise the woman who saved his life”Submitted My Experience Donating Stem Cells as a story · 4 points
HN discussionto that point, you may enjoy this https://www.pearlleff.com/the-power-of-free-time
Comment linking /the-power-of-free-time
on “Why We Stopped Making Einsteins”Submitted Seven Tips for a Junior Developer as a story · 4 points
HN discussionAs a fresh grad SWE I have felt this as well. Pearl Leff's "Seven Tips for a Junior Developer" [0] has some good parts on asking for help, and on the pendulum between unblocking yourself versus reaching out to others. [0] https://www.pearlleff.com/seven-tips-for-a-junior-developer
Comment linking /seven-tips-for-a-junior-developer
on “The hardest part of being a Junior Developer”Submitted Advice for New Developers as a story · 4 points
HN discussionNeural network based compression algorithms[1] are a thing, so I believe Ted Chiang's assessment is right. Memorization (albeit lossy) is also how the human brain works and develops reasoning[2]. [1] https://bellard.org/nncp/ [2] https://www.pearlleff.com/in-praise-of-memorization
Comment linking /in-praise-of-memorization
on “GPTZero case study discovers it's only accurate on less than 50% of text”Submitted The Value of an Undergraduate Degree as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted In Praise of Memorization as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Seven Tips for a Junior Developer as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted On Donating Stem Cells as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Becoming a Better Engineer as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Advice for New Software Developers as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Seven Tips for a Junior Developer as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Tips for a Junior Developer as a story · 1 points
HN discussion