Top all-time · #3446
Resident Contrarian
Personal blog · residentcontrarian.substack.comscienceculture
Resident Contrarian is a personal blog at residentcontrarian.substack.com about science and culture. Since 2020, 22 different Hacker News readers have linked it 35 times, most often “On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-04-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (8) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Resident Contrarian's posts on being poor or poor-ish, and on class and dating. Two commenters call posts a fantastic read or a really good 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.
Hamhanded metaphors and questionably interesting thoughts.
Most-linked posts?
- On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2021-03-01
- The FDA Could Be Better, but Nobody Will Ever Ask Them to Be3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-03-15
- On Common Core Math, Individual Variation, and Things You Can't Teach3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-04-15
- Contra Scott Alexander on Literally Everything2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-09-07
- Overnight Pizza and the Consistent Unreliability of Expert Guidelines2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-03-30
- On Being “Antiscience”, Xkcd, and the Mechanics of Scientific Bias Accumulation2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-06-14
What Hacker News says?
See also the follow-up article: https://residentcontrarian.substack.com/p/being-poor-ish-rev...
Comment linking /p/being-poor-ish-revisited-reader-questions
on “On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't”Submitted On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't as a story · 792 points
HN discussionI feel like this is an AI summary of https://residentcontrarian.substack.com/p/on-the-experience-... ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26300139 )
Comment linking /p/on-the-experience-of-being-poor-ish
on “Being poor vs. being broke”Submitted On incels, dead bedrooms and the hard problems of loneliness as a story · 544 points
HN discussion> Lonely? Make strong friendships! Spend your time with other men who like you and enjoy your company and validate you. The author has a great followup comment that should really be part of the original article that addresses this line of thinking exactly. Pasted below: ----- I want to have a dialogue about this, because I think it's important in a couple ways. To start, I agree in sort of generic terms that a lot o…
Comment linking /p/on-incels-dead-bedrooms-and-the-hard/comments
on “On incels, dead bedrooms and the hard problems of loneliness”Submitted Poor evidence that Q-tips are harmful as a story · 120 points
HN discussion> an American making minimum wage can easily afford a mobile phone, particularly a cheap $25 phone It's probably worth noting that "easily" probably doesn't belong in there for a lot of people. This is a really good read, if you're interested https://residentcontrarian.substack.com/p/on-the-experience-...
Comment linking /p/on-the-experience-of-being-poor-ish
on “Dating in Delhi when you're poor”Submitted Overnight Pizza and the Consistent Unreliability of Expert Guidelines as a story · 102 points
HN discussion"If Christians Read Their Bible, They'd Vote for X": A Primer For the Non-Religious https://residentcontrarian.substack.com/p/if-christians-read... Written by Resident Contrarian ( https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=residentcontrarian.su... )
Comment linking /p/if-christians-read-their-bible-theyd
on “Show HN: I made a new kind of Bible app”Submitted Contra Scott Alexander on Literally Everything as a story · 14 points
HN discussionFantastic substack post on being poor: https://residentcontrarian.substack.com/p/on-the-experience-...
Comment linking /p/on-the-experience-of-being-poor-ish
on “Rich people do have trouble understanding what it's like to be poor”Submitted Decoding Walkability: Digging Through the Layers of a Poorly Defined Movement as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSome people struggle because they make poor financial decisions, sure, but I’d bet that’s the exception rather than the rule. There’s a post about being poor(ish) that’s shown up on HN a few times [1]. I think far more people in that situation are financially savvy, acutely aware of the pros and cons of their limited options, simply because there’s so little margin for error. [1] https://residentcontrarian.substack.…
Comment linking /p/on-the-experience-of-being-poor-ish
on “Financial literacy is a passport to financial freedom”Submitted On the Artist/Craftsman Divide as a story · 5 points
HN discussionBig fan of Tom Gamon's Programming is a Losers Game (Sept 2020)[1]. Tom's short post was a very welcome introduction to the matter for me, very open ended, & Ben Hosking here elaborates much more clearly specific concerns & outlooks. [1] https://tomgamon.com/posts/a-losers-game/ Both Ben in this "Software" and Tom Gamon in "Programming" anchor their arguments to Charles Ellis, & his example of tennis as a game where…
Comment linking /p/overnight-pizza-and-the-consistent
on “Software development is a loser’s game”Submitted On Unbeatable Video Games: The Meaningless Challenges That Matter as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted On Being “Antiscience”, Xkcd, and the Mechanics of Scientific Bias Accumulation as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted On Common Core Math, Individual Variation, and Things You Can't Teach as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted He who submits a resume has lost as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Musings on Epsilon: We are failing to get ready for the next big thing as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted On Common Core Math, Individual Variation, and Things You Can't Teach as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Contra Scott Alexander on Literally Everything as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted On Christian Culture: A Look Inside the Church Bubble for the Unwashed Heathen as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted On Tiger Moms, Scissor Statements, and the Permanence of Shit-List Membership as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted On Common Core Math, Individual Variation, and Things You Can't Teach as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted On Common Core Math, Individual Variation, and Things You Can't Teach as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Contra Scott Alexander on Literally Everything as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Father's Day as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The FDA Could Be Better, but Nobody Will Ever Ask Them to Be as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The FDA could be better, but nobody will ask them to as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
