Top all-time · #332
Seth Godin
Personal blog · seths.blogbusinesswriting
Seth Godin writes Seth's Blog, a personal blog at seths.blog about business and writing. Since 2018, 158 different Hacker News readers have linked it 601 times, most often “Don't Shave That Yak (2005)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 6 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Seth Godin's daily posts as short, original, insightful writing, and for concepts like yak shaving, the minimum viable audience and 1000 true fans.
- Recommended for · 6 comments
- Called a daily, succinct, original and insightful read; recommended as a starting point and for his Top 100 list.
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.
Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect
Most-linked posts?
- Don't Shave That Yak (2005)11 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2019-01-10
- /7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2019-01-04
- Quality and Effort (2018)7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2018-11-01
- Investing in Slack3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-06-16
- NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-03-06
- Minimum Viable Audience3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-03-20
- The Conversation3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-03-17
- Ask an AI trained on Seth Godin's writing3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-05-04
- Impostor Syndrome2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-11-06
- The two simple secrets to good ideas2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-02-24
What Hacker News says?
Funnily this was on the front page recently: https://seths.blog/2025/04/how-to-win-an-argument-with-a-tod... Don't bother; they're a brand new user trying to cause trouble
Comment linking /2025/04/how-to-win-an-argument-with-a-toddler/
on “CVE program faces swift end after DHS fails to renew contract [updated]”Submitted NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap as a story · 772 points
HN discussionPaul should talk to Seth about education. He seems to have had the insights before him[1]. [1] https://seths.blog/2018/09/education-needs-to-be-inconvenien...
Comment linking /2018/09/education-needs-to-be-inconvenient/
on “The Lesson to Unlearn”Submitted How to win an argument with a toddler as a story · 728 points
HN discussionIt refers to yak-shaving, which often manifests as pointless tinkering with meaningless config files. https://seths.blog/2005/03/dont_shave_that/
Comment linking /2005/03/dont_shave_that/
on “Nova by Panic”Submitted Don't Waste the Good Days as a story · 611 points
HN discussionI still read some of the classics (surprised nobody mentioned them so far) and also a few newer ones: https://kottke.org/ https://daringfireball.net https://seths.blog https://www.freedomain.com/blog/ https://www.cringely.com https://www.zeldman.com https://captaincapitalism.blogspot.com http://quirksmode.org/blog/ http://hypercritical.co
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”Submitted Hard work vs. Long work (2011) as a story · 208 points
HN discussionSeth Godin has written a short, thoughtful post every day for 13 years : https://seths.blog Also worth reading is Seth’s top 100: https://seths.blog/top-100/
Comment linking /top-100/
on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”Submitted Attention is a luxury good as a story · 195 points
HN discussionSince many still use RSS and since this post on Seth's Blog is so popular, thought I would point out that the blog has an RSS feed: https://seths.blog/rss
Comment linking /rss
on “NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap”Submitted Other People’s Problems as a story · 194 points
HN discussionReminds me of this piece from Seth Godin on the importance of building slack into our lives: https://seths.blog/2019/06/investing-in-slack/ (Not the chat app)
Comment linking /2019/06/investing-in-slack/
on “Efficiency is dangerous and slowing down makes life better”Submitted On paying for software as a story · 186 points
HN discussionThis message is suspiciously like being told to draw the outline of an owl then draw the rest of the fucking owl. https://seths.blog/2014/01/how-to-draw-an-owl/ The word recursively does a lot of work in the post. Every project I go into thinking I can do it quick and it never works that way because the minimal viable or minimum lovable thing is a long way from the minimum actual concept of what I have in mind. I fe…
Comment linking /2014/01/how-to-draw-an-owl/
on “How to build quickly”Submitted Ignore Sunk Costs (2009) as a story · 149 points
HN discussionVery true. Reminds me of what Seth Godin wrote on how the internet has changed people's behaviour: > Most people, most of the time, don't buy things if there's a free substitute available. A hundred million people hear a pop song on the radio and less than 1 percent will buy a copy. Millions will walk by a painting in a museum, but very few have prints, posters or even inexpensive original art in their homes. (In th…
Comment linking /2011/06/discovery-free-145/
on “Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus”Submitted Half Baked as a story · 128 points
HN discussionA.k.a Yak Shaving [1] [1] https://seths.blog/2005/03/dont_shave_that/
Comment linking /2005/03/dont_shave_that/
on “Repair and Remain (2022)”Submitted Don't Shave That Yak (2005) as a story · 128 points
HN discussionI think the term for that is "Shaving the Yak" https://seths.blog/2005/03/dont_shave_that/ (I am not associated with this site)
Comment linking /2005/03/dont_shave_that/
on “How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?”Submitted Quality and Effort (2018) as a story · 125 points
HN discussionI genuinely don't understand why there's any surprise here. Lack of confidence / fear / worry... it's a HUMAN trait. Not a gender-specific one. Of course, this would strike men just as hard as women. Why would there be any difference at all? On a related note... one of the best articles I've ever read on the subject... it's a Seth Godin blog post. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED https://seths.blog/2017/10/imposter-syndrome/
Comment linking /2017/10/imposter-syndrome/
on “Impostor syndrome strikes men just as hard as women in technical interviews”Submitted Trading trust as a story · 124 points
HN discussionReminds me of this quote from Stop Stealing Dreams [1]: > Philosopher Jeremy Bentham argued that if two kids playing hopscotch or push-pin are gaining as much joy and pleasure as someone reading poetry, they have enjoyed as much utility. > John Stuart Mill took a different approach. He argued, “it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfie…
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2019/05/stop-stealing-dreams6print.pdf
on “Why aren't smart people happier?”Submitted The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing) as a story · 96 points
HN discussionAgreed. Reminds me of this: https://seths.blog/2019/03/the-minimum-viable-audience-2/
Comment linking /2019/03/the-minimum-viable-audience-2/
on “Nobody wants to read your shit (2009)”Submitted “I’m not that smart” as a story · 70 points
HN discussionI really liked the definition of AI (back in 2015) by Seth Godin - a marketer! > One common insightful definition of AI: Artificial Intelligence is everything a computer can't do yet. As soon as it can, we call it obvious. If the term is used like that it does make sense to me. https://seths.blog/2015/04/the-noise-in-our-head-and-artific...
Comment linking /2015/04/the-noise-in-our-head-and-artificial-intelligence/
on “Stop Calling Everything AI, Machine-Learning Pioneer Says”Submitted Hilbert’s list as a story · 68 points
HN discussion
