Top all-time · #323
Scott Berkun
Personal blog · scottberkun.comdesigncareerwriting
Scott Berkun's personal blog at scottberkun.com covers design, career and writing. Since 2007, 163 different Hacker News readers have linked it 244 times, most often “Asshole Driven Development”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-08, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 14 of 38 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Berkun's essays and books on project management, remote work and innovation myths, and recommend his book Making Things Happen as a starting point.
- Recommended for · 14 comments
- Called good, amazing, great and interesting; one commenter said they learned a lot from a book.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 38 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Author and Speaker Scott Berkun
Most-linked posts?
- Asshole Driven Development5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2012-10-13
- How Many Companies are 100% Distributed4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2013-03-05
- A conversation with Pixar's Ed Catmull4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2010-04-21
- How to be a free thinker3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2009-01-29
- How to Innovate Right Now3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2008-03-18
- The No UI Debate Is Rubbish3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-03-17
- It’s Time to Learn3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-04-20
- Time-Lapsed Video: How to write 1000 words3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-12-22
- Why smart people defend bad ideas (old essay, but good read)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2008-02-22
- The Cult of Busy2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-09-05
What Hacker News says?
Few technologies will ever stand up to the will of adolescents trying to do things they’re told they’re not allowed to do -- Scott Berkun [1] [1] https://scottberkun.com/essays/37-how-to-build-a-better-web-...
Comment linking /essays/37-how-to-build-a-better-web-browser/
on “Gorilla Youngsters Seen Dismantling Poachers’ Traps (2012)”Submitted A Critique of “Don’t Fuck Up The Culture” as a story · 151 points
HN discussionLike many others I agree with this. My company is completely distributed (we prefer "distributed" over "remote" because we aren't remote from anything) and has employees in 50+ countries. There was a pretty good book written a few years ago by a former employee of ours about how distributed work and culture go together: http://scottberkun.com/yearwithoutpants/
Comment linking /yearwithoutpants/
on “Ask HN: How to make a career working remotely?”Submitted Asshole driven development as a story · 146 points
HN discussionHere are my thoughts: Reading your comment is a totally superior experience to reading pg's essay. You explained your viewpoint. You reasoned it out. You backed up your views. You didn't make seemingly unconnected bald statements with a single sentence and then moved on. If pg has thought deeply on the subject, it's impossible to tell. He doesn't "show his work" at all. He doesn't explain how he came to a conclusion…
Comment linking /blog/2012/on-writing-vs-speaking/
on “Writing and Speaking”Submitted What Microsoft gets for $2 billion as a story · 126 points
HN discussionHi, in addition to checking out if any of the suggested resources work extremely well for you, I'd like to suggest this book. It answered a lot of the questions about design process I had some ten years ago. (I am now involved in UX and product design) http://scottberkun.com/making-things-happen/ If you go briefly through it, you'll certainly find some sections useful for clearing things up with information design,…
Comment linking /making-things-happen/
on “Ask HN: Good books or articles on UI design?”Submitted The cult of busy as a story · 119 points
HN discussionI worked for Mullenweg for a year at WordPress.com to write a book about all of these questions. It documents all the tools I used and what life was like as a remote manager of a development team. http://www.amazon.com/Year-Without-Pants-WordPress-com-Futur... You can read a free chapter about culture from the book here: http://scottberkun.com/2014/why-culture-always-wins-an-excer...
Comment linking /2014/why-culture-always-wins-an-excerpt-from-the-year-without-pants/
on “How Paul Graham Is Wrong”Submitted Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021) as a story · 116 points
HN discussionSee: The myth we love new ideas - people resist change, including progress from https://scottberkun.com/2013/ten-myths-of-innnovation/ > We are a conservative species: try something as simple as standing, rather than sitting, in your next group meeting. How accepting were your peers? Conformity is deep in our biology. While talking about creativity is very popular, actually being creative puts your social status at…
Comment linking /2013/ten-myths-of-innnovation/
on “The social obligation to be bad at things”Submitted Why you get ideas in the shower as a story · 116 points
HN discussionSadly, in Seattle, most drivers drive as though there is a stop sign at the end of every Interstate on-ramp. Not sure what causes this behavior. For a bit of humor: http://scottberkun.com/2011/help-me-teach-seattle-how-to-dri...
Comment linking /2011/help-me-teach-seattle-how-to-drive/
on “Uber’s First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month”Submitted Why software sucks? as a story · 113 points
HN discussionWish more companies are like that. Scott Berkun maintains a list of companies with distributed teams, if anyone looks for a new job :-) http://scottberkun.com/2013/how-many-companies-are-100-distr...
Comment linking /2013/how-many-companies-are-100-distributed/
on “How I thought I wanted to become a digital nomad”Submitted Why I left Microsoft as a story · 105 points
HN discussionI presented time-lapsed video of myself writing an essay and presented it at an event, with audio commentary. I didn't know about Etherpad at the time, but there are some things captured here it wouldn't get, as they happen outside the browser. It also might be more educational, as I explain in voice-over what's going on: http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2010/video-how-to-write-1000...
Comment linking /blog/2010/video-how-to-write-1000-words/
on “The Simple Software That Could--But Probably Won't--Change the Face of Writing”Submitted Asshole Driven Development as a story · 102 points
HN discussionScott Berkun (formerly of Microsoft and author of three bestsellers) did a talk at Ignite about this where he recorded himself writing an essay: http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2010/video-how-to-write-1000... Really interesting to see how much work even a 1000 essay takes!
Comment linking /blog/2010/video-how-to-write-1000-words/
on “The Simple Software That Could--But Probably Won't--Change the Face of Writing”Submitted Inside Pixar's Leadership as a story · 80 points
HN discussionMany developers try to keep track of everything in their head. That won't work as a PM. Your time will usually be much more fractured than it was a dev, as you track multiple ongoing projects at various levels of detail. If you try to keep everything in your head, you will most likely start dropping balls, and if there's anyone who shouldn't drop balls, it's a PM. So, my advice: make lists and track the status of ev…
Comment linking /2012/how-to-make-things-happen/
on “Ask HN: Switching from developer to project manager. What to keep in mind?”Submitted Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work as a story · 74 points
HN discussionI think there's a similar mechanism by which geeks end up "too geeky". http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/40-why-smart-people-defend... http://amzn.com/0300090331
Comment linking /essays/40-why-smart-people-defend-bad-ideas/
on “What Really Keeps Poor People Poor”Submitted The lost cult of Microsoft program managers as a story · 67 points
HN discussionI guess the every family is different. The key is to being present, either physically, or virtually via one of the many social networks. Just being able to reach out is important. I just finish Scott Berkun's frank novel [1] about his relationship with his father. It pains me to see how Scott's attempts to reach out his father goes unanswered. Unfortunately, he was not successful is forming a close bond with his fat…
Comment linking /the-ghost-of-my-father/
on “The Myth of Quality Time”Submitted The future of UI will be boring as a story · 66 points
HN discussionE.g. I like this self-summary (i.e. but its own author): http://scottberkun.com/2013/ten-myths-of-innnovation/
Comment linking /2013/ten-myths-of-innnovation/
on “The Need to Read”Submitted Why boycotting Whole Foods is Stupid as a story · 62 points
HN discussionScott Berkun rails against Jonah Lehrer here. http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2012/in-defense-of-brainstor...
Comment linking /blog/2012/in-defense-of-brainstorming-2/
on “Brainstorming Doesn't Really Work”Submitted Asshole driven development (2007) as a story · 59 points
HN discussion
