Top all-time · #100
Rands in Repose
Personal blog · randsinrepose.com/archivescareerprogramming
Rands in Repose is a personal blog at randsinrepose.com about career and programming. Since 2007, 375 different Hacker News readers have linked it 750 times, most often “Welcome to Rands Leadership Slack”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-20, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 14 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Michael Lopp's blog as a source on engineering management and leadership, citing posts such as 'Shields Down' and 'The Old Guard'. Commenters also point to his Leadership Slack.
- Recommended for · 14 comments
- Called timeless and 'one of my favorite writers on development'; 'I like how Rands thinks'; told to read every post and the archives.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Stories about the humans who build software
Most-linked posts?
- Welcome to Rands Leadership Slack14 people · 20 mentions · first linked 2020-02-06
- The Builder's High13 people · 13 mentions · first linked 2011-07-29
- The Update, the Vent, and the Disaster (2010)11 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2019-09-09
- Rands in Repose: Free Electrons10 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2009-01-22
- Shields Down (2016)8 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2019-09-01
- /8 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2020-07-07
- /8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2010-10-25
- N.A.D.D.8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2008-01-19
- Bored people quit (2011)7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2014-04-20
- The Update, the Vent, and the Disaster (2010)7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2014-11-04
What Hacker News says?
So much great and timeless stuff was written in the 2000's, it's great and should be part of everyone's read list. Another one that's still pretty timeless is https://randsinrepose.com/
Comment linking /
on “Plain Vanilla Web”Submitted Bored People Quit as a story · 840 points
HN discussion> I'm just facing this with a contractor doing repairs in my house Are you saying that you give your contractor a list of seven things to address, and find that they only address two and say they're done? I can't remember where I heard of using painter's tape for this, but it's used as a metaphor in this article https://randsinrepose.com/archives/the-blue-tape-list/ .... I also found this link while looking for the…
Comment linking /archives/the-blue-tape-list/
on “I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it”Submitted Please learn to write as a story · 516 points
HN discussionExcellent book! Adding Managing Humans to that. https://randsinrepose.com/books/
Comment linking /books/
on “Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?”Submitted Happy people don’t leave jobs they love as a story · 360 points
HN discussionChecking my rss reader ... https://feld.com/ (VC, but wide ranging) https://mapbrief.com/ Snarky GIS content https://randsinrepose.com/ Management advice for a level I'll never get to :) http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/ Right of center economics https://ultrasaurus.com/ Tech https://www.eugenewei.com/ Big pic tech and society
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on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”Submitted Seven Levels of Busy as a story · 306 points
HN discussionSubscribe to Rands' blog, read through his archives, and get on his Slack. http://randsinrepose.com/ https://rands-leadership.slack.com/?redir=%2Fmessages%2Fgene...
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on “Who Killed the Junior Developer?”Submitted The Nerd Handbook as a story · 247 points
HN discussionRands is one of my favorite writers on development. http://randsinrepose.com/archives/a-hard-thing-is-done-by-fi... this article is pretty good when it comes to forgiving yourself for procrastination in terms of starting something. In terms of finishing, for me that is a question of self-image. I am someone who completes things. I build my reputation on delivering things on time and with attention to detail througho…
Comment linking /archives/a-hard-thing-is-done-by-figuring-out-how-to-start/
on “Ask HN: Is it 'normal' to struggle so hard with work?”Submitted The Builder's High as a story · 199 points
HN discussionOn #2, there are a ton of well-written and entertaining articles by the author—Michael "Rands" Lopp—on his website. https://randsinrepose.com/ He also hosts a slack that's up to something like 100,000 people. Ask a lot of dumb questions. https://randsinrepose.com/welcome-to-rands-leadership-slack/
Comment linking /welcome-to-rands-leadership-slack/
on “Ask HN: Advice for a new and inexperienced tech lead?”Submitted Ok, so you can’t decide as a story · 197 points
HN discussionJoin the Rands Leadership Slack group [0] if you're into slack communities. This question gets asked a lot and there are dedicated channels to chat about exactly this and overall it's a supportive community :) [0] https://randsinrepose.com/welcome-to-rands-leadership-slack/
Comment linking /welcome-to-rands-leadership-slack/
on “Ask HN: Advice for a new and inexperienced tech lead?”Submitted Hacking is Important as a story · 181 points
HN discussionHonestly I think it's a shame when people are so picky about graphics. Some of the best games I've ever played were purely ASCII-based. I'm talking about various BBS games, or MUD-based games. There were also some really novel interfaces like like mTrek [0], and BattleTech 3030 MUX [1]. So much fun to play. [0] http://randsinrepose.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/mtrek.pn... [1] http://bt-thud.sourceforge.net/thud/bi…
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2014/07/mtrek.png
on “Why All of Our Games Look Like Crap”Submitted The Wolf as a story · 178 points
HN discussionMind throwing some links my way? I love me some Scott Forstall anecdotes. Here, I'll start: - https://randsinrepose.com/archives/innovation-is-a-fight/ - https://youtu.be/IiuVggWNqSA - https://amazon.com/dp/B07D435DFQ
Comment linking /archives/innovation-is-a-fight/
on “Apple introduces a universal design across platforms”Submitted What we lost as a story · 165 points
HN discussionMore on the management side of development, but I like rands a lot http://www.randsinrepose.com/
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on “Ask HN: What programming blogs do you read daily?”Submitted The Rands Test as a story · 162 points
HN discussionDive and save is one option you have, as admittedly being a long time at a company does not usually end up in a great salary. Related: https://randsinrepose.com/archives/the-diving-save/ The other more popular approach is to "play the game" as I think of it, I.e. every 18-24 months you switch to a new job with a substantial increase in pay as result. I wish this wasn't the case, but I guess it is what it is.
Comment linking /archives/the-diving-save/
on “Dear Google Cloud: Your Deprecation Policy Is Killing You”Submitted Bored people quit (2011) as a story · 159 points
HN discussionIt needn't devolve into status. I like how Rands thinks about nerd herding. https://randsinrepose.com/archives/the-update-the-vent-and-t...
Comment linking /archives/the-update-the-vent-and-the-disaster/
on “Show HN: A Senior Engineer's CheckList”Submitted Rands in Repose: Managing Nerds as a story · 153 points
HN discussionFor sure, with any change comes risk, but at a rapidly growing company there's even bigger risk with lack of change. ( http://randsinrepose.com/archives/the-old-guard/ has some good perspective on this, I think.) In any case, of things that keep me up at night, falling into a boring role is definitely not one of them :).
Comment linking /archives/the-old-guard/
on “#define CTO”Submitted Rands in Repose: The Noise as a story · 152 points
HN discussionI've said it in another comment (might be here or Reddit, I don't even know anymore) and it feels like basic skills are just overlooked or taken for granted these days - computer use, mouse / keyboard / typing skills, reading comprehension, writing ability, communication skills, etc. I'm nowhere near a hiring position but if I was I'd add assessing that to the application procedure. It feels like this is part of a s…
Comment linking /archives/nadd/
on “The Rise of Whatever”Submitted A Distributed Meeting Primer as a story · 129 points
HN discussion
