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peterme.com
Personal blog · peterme.comdesignculturecareer
peterme.com is a personal blog at peterme.com about design, culture and career. Since 2007, 17 different Hacker News readers have linked it 17 times, most often “Pics of the Original Macintosh User Manual”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Peter Merholz's blog for posts on UI discoverability, tagging and ontology, pedestrian walkways, and quote and blog-term origins. Links are mostly to older posts on information organisation.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Pics of the Original Macintosh User Manual3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-08-16
- /archives/000558.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-02-10
- Thoughts on, and pictures of, the original Macintosh User Manual2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-12-11
What Hacker News says?
> I really curious about how mac user before google exists find them out. Before Google existed, software came with manuals. You buy software in a fancy box, but within the box there's not just a CD/floppy disks, there's also a large tome of written material teaching you how to use it. You would sit down, read through it, and learn to use the software. It is more of a testament to humanity's decreasing attention spa…
Comment linking /2007/08/27/thoughts-on-and-pics-of-the-original-macintosh-user-manual/
on “Undiscoverable UI Madness”Submitted Thoughts on, and pictures of, the original Macintosh User Manual as a story · 187 points
HN discussionGreat quote, thank you. A buddhist blog [1] attributes it to Shirdi Sai Baba, and notes the phrase is also attributed to the Quakers. [also, 2] ("Before you speak, ask yourself: Is it kind, is it true, is it necessary, does it improve upon the silence?") [3] cites it as a Spanish proverb. 1: http://thebuddhistblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/does-it-improve-... 2: http://www.peterme.com/archives/000047.html 3: http://quote…
Comment linking /archives/000047.html
on “"When you're done talking, stop"”Submitted San Francisco Design Agencies Feeling the Squeeze as a story · 20 points
HN discussionThey should send a bottle of wine to Peter Merholz :) http://www.peterme.com/archives/00000205.html
Comment linking /archives/00000205.html
on “Automattic Purchases .blog TLD for $19M”Submitted Original Macintosh User Manual (everything needed an explanation) as a story · 17 points
HN discussionI'm pretty sure that whole "pedestrians defining the sidewalks" thing is actually a myth. It may happen sometimes nowaways since the myth is now so widespread but it's associated with so many schools now that I can't possibly tell if any of them actually ever did it. (And I'm pretty sure the majority didn't.) My favourite example is when I hear that Berkley did it which doesn't seem at a plausible given articles lik…
Comment linking /?p=18
on “Let pedestrians define the walkways”Submitted The original Macintosh user manual as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThen there'd be two ways to view the word "tagging." One is the UI and organization style you popularized through del.icio.us. The other is the common English gerund of "to tag", which is the way Common Tag is using it. Maybe it would have been better for them to call it Common Label... Re: common "tags" through a shared namespace -- seems like it'd be a good thing to do and would increase the relevancy of our stuff…
Comment linking /archives/000558.html
on “New tagging standard released by Yahoo, Freebase, AdaptiveBlue, Zemanta...”Submitted Applying for jobs as Undergrad: Stop with the bullshit school projects. as a story · 3 points
HN discussionA criticism of Shirky's essay, which IIRC was fair: http://www.peterme.com/archives/000558.html I'm fascinated with tagging, ontology and organizing information, and consider current methods badly flawed; so much so that I tried to make a startup out of my ideas (turned out to be too complex/ambitious). My conclusion was that improving on existing systems is possible, but will require an awful lot of effort. The way…
Comment linking /archives/000558.html
on “Ontology is Overrated: Categories, Links, and Tags ”Submitted On Working (in design) at Facebook as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Pics of the Original Macintosh User Manual as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Design should drive product and engineering, not vice versa as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Reframing “UX Design” as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Thoughts on (and pics of) the original Macintosh User Manual as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Way more about paths at UC Berkeley than you'd ever want to read. as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
