Top all-time · #8764
Peter Gray
Personal blog · petergray.substack.comscienceculture
Peter Gray writes Play Makes Us Human, a personal blog at petergray.substack.com about science and culture. Since 2023, 9 different Hacker News readers have linked it 16 times. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-27, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Peter Gray's Substack for its writing on childhood play, autonomy and schooling. Commenters highly recommend it and call it a very nice blog.
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.
Letters about the roles of play in human evolution, child development, culture, and daily living.
What Hacker News says?
I highly recommend Peter Gray's writing: https://petergray.substack.com/ Relevant to the discussion about online spaces and autonomy in childhood, I'd jump into this discussion about teen suicide rates: https://petergray.substack.com/p/d3-why-did-teen-suicides-es... We have robbed our children of autonomy and freedom and then wonder why anxiety and depression are rampant.
Comment linking /p/d3-why-did-teen-suicides-especially
on “Where do the children play?”Submitted The Toxic Consequences of Attending a High Achieving School as a story · 64 points
HN discussionAs another product of the British 'education' system, this is all very familiar. If you're interested in some content that really helped me understand why I hated school so completely, I recommend "Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling" by John Taylor Gatto, and "Free to Learn" by Peter Gray. Peter Gray also has a very nice blog called "Play Makes Us Human" at https://petergray.substack.com/…
Comment linking /
on “Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?”Submitted Attempts to Improve Critical Thinking in Higher Education - Play Makes Us Human as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Origin and Harm of Federal Education Mandates as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Long-Term Harm of Early Academic Training as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted They Dream of School, and None of the Dreams Are Good as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted #57. The Good Enough Parent Is the Best Parent as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Common Core Is the Main Cause of Youth Mental Health Deterioration Since 2010 as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Hunter-Gatherers' Work Was Play as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted "Free Range" Offline and On as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Culture of Childhood: We've Almost Destroyed It as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Lord of the Flies: A Harmful Distortion of Children's Nature as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Brief History of Moral Panics Concerning Kids and Their Chosen Media as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Social Norms, Moral Judgments, and Irrational Parenting as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
