Top all-time · #2331
Ran Prieur
Personal blog · ranprieur.comculturephilosophy
Ran Prieur's personal blog at ranprieur.com covers culture and philosophy. Since 2008, 32 different Hacker News readers have linked it 41 times, most often “How to Drop Out (2004)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (22) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Ran Prieur's essays on dropping out, anti-consumerism, civilisation critiques, frugality and cars. Commenters call them favourites and worth reading in full.
- Recommended for · 9 comments
- Called a 'favourite critique of civilisation', 'love this essay', 'always thought provoking', and worth reading in full.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 22 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- How to Drop Out (2004)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-06-01
- How to Drop Out4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2009-11-02
- How to Drop Out (2004)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-07-09
- /essays/dropout.html2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2008-05-14
- /readings/illichcars.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-05-12
- /2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-04-06
- Judging Technology – By Ran Prieur2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-03-11
What Hacker News says?
There's also Chris Davis' Idle Theory: https://web.archive.org/web/20160513191724/http://www.idlex.... As Ran Prieur, owner of another similar rabbit hole, once put it: "The idea is that the purpose of life is not to accomplish something, but to do as little as possible." Ran Prieur is here (anti-consumerism and beyond): http://www.ranprieur.com
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite internet rabbit hole?”Submitted How to Drop Out (2004) as a story · 180 points
HN discussionhttps://cheapskatesguide.org -- Cheapskate's Guide to Computers and Internet. Low-end and frugal computing in the 21st century. Long, opinionated posts on a pink(!) background. http://ranprieur.com/ -- Ran Prieur. Frugality, societal collapse, "dropping out", and beyond. Has been constantly blogging for ages; it's really interesting to see how his views have changed in time. http://joeyh.name/ -- Joey Hess, former l…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”Submitted How to Drop Out as a story · 125 points
HN discussion> Does anyone here not remember the Industrial Revolution? The creation of the automobile? The switch to trains for long-distance travel? The usage of water or wind to turn mills to make bread? Pick something! This is the progress of civilization. Civilisation is not axiomatically good. This is one of my favourite critiques of civilisation: http://ranprieur.com/essays/beyondciv.html
Comment linking /essays/beyondciv.html
on “Are jobs obsolete?”Submitted The world in 1975 (2007) as a story · 69 points
HN discussionI'm going to argue a bit. "you've been integrated into society your whole life" Not really, no - this way you would have to say that wild foxes that eat garbage from backyards or birds that nest on buildings are integrated into society. "But mere creation is not enough to make money." That's true in a sense that you need other people to give you money to have money. Obviously self-created money is useless. But mere…
Comment linking /essays/dropout.html
on “I'm a shut-in. This is my story”Submitted 1975 as a story · 26 points
HN discussion> All I want for retirement is the same lifestyle I have now. So you are ultimately content with your current lifestyle? You could always change it. There are people who lived for $5 a year if I recall correctly, for years[1]. What you feel and what you call "reality" is actually just an illusion. You can get away from it. Simply knowing that there are people who made it gave me enough hope and confidence to perseve…
Comment linking /essays/dropout.html
on “How to be mediocre and be happy with yourself”Submitted How to Drop Out (2004) as a story · 17 points
HN discussionTotally ridiculous, victim-blaming comment. “If you add up everyone's responsibility for something, it doesn't equal 100% — it equals a billion percent if it has to, because any number of entities can be fully responsible for the same thing.” — Ran Prieur, The Mathematics of Responsibility ( http://ranprieur.com/essays/mathres.html )
Comment linking /essays/mathres.html
on “US Attorney Chided Swartz On Day of Suicide”Submitted Dumpster Diving FAQ (2004) as a story · 10 points
HN discussionHi. I recognized your name. Love this essay: http://ranprieur.com/essays/dropout.html Are you a technology worker? I've noticed many people with critiques of civilization are into technology.
Comment linking /essays/dropout.html
on “Sleepbox”Submitted The Age of Batshit Crazy Machines as a story · 7 points
HN discussionIf you're a doomer (i.e., not for everybody): an interesting perspective on radical disengagement: [0] Ran Prieur - discussed in another thread on HN, or [1] ** [0] https://youtu.be/dsNWH8ESCAM [1] http://ranprieur.com/essays/dropout.html
Comment linking /essays/dropout.html
on “How to Drop Out (2004)”Submitted Urban vs. Rural Sustainability as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThank you for introducing me to: http://ranprieur.com/readings/illichcars.html
Comment linking /readings/illichcars.html
on “We're Too Cheap to Fly Faster”Submitted How to Drop Out as a story · 2 points
HN discussionHe has in fact bought land: http://ranprieur.com/me/land.html
Comment linking /me/land.html
on “How to Drop Out”Submitted Preconquest Consciousness as a story · 2 points
HN discussion"he's just found a way to live within the system such that he can take from it without giving back" is a very poor summary of a complex article rich with ideas and insight. You should read the whole thing. Also see his page of criticism and response: http://ranprieur.com/essays/dropoutcrit.html
Comment linking /essays/dropoutcrit.html
on “How to Drop Out”Submitted Judging Technology – By Ran Prieur as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI tried homesteading too. All I ever wanted in life is to have nothing to do all day, and homesteading is the opposite. It's for workaholics, and also for people who love driving. And I don't think it will help you survive in a collapse. Here's a piece from 2004 that I mirrored on my own website, Urban vs Rural Sustainability by Toby Hemenway: http://ranprieur.com/readings/urbanrural.html
Comment linking /readings/urbanrural.html
on “Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?”Submitted The World in 1975 (2007) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionhttps://web.archive.org/web/20070613184827/http://yudkowsky.... http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html https://ranprieur.com/essays/dropout.html#HTDO https://unqualified-reservations.org/2008/04/open-letter-to-... http://localroger.com/prime-intellect/mopi1.html
Comment linking /essays/dropout.html
on “Amateurs obsess over tools, pros over mastery”Submitted How to Drop Out as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI've always thought about dropping out of the system; I think it parallels with the "I could rob this bank"thought that every man has. My favorite articles are below http://www.innerexplorations.com/catsimple/2.htm (simple living) http://www.ranprieur.com/essays/dropout.html (dropping out) http://www.zenzibar.com/articles/worksucks.asp (work sucks) as far as where I'm at, I'm currently living in a studio barn apartm…
Comment linking /essays/dropout.html
on “How to Live Well Without a Job and with (almost) no Money”Submitted Dumpster Diving FAQ as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI suggest you read a bit of Ivan Illich on cars and transportation in general ( http://ranprieur.com/readings/illichcars.html ). The money quote, as it were: Bicycles are not only thermodynamically efficient, they are also cheap. With his much lower salary, the Chinese acquires his durable bicycle in a fraction of the working hours an American devotes to the purchase of his obsolescent car. The cost of public utilit…
Comment linking /readings/illichcars.html
on “Human-sized cities: Cutting cars from our urban fabric”Submitted Steven Strogatz: Too Much Coupling (2013) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
