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Tom Dehnel
Personal blog · tomdehnel.comwritingculturephilosophy
Tom Dehnel's personal blog at tomdehnel.com covers writing, culture and philosophy. Since 2019, 9 different Hacker News readers have linked it 14 times, most often “What Is Russell Conjugation?”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-28, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (7) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link his post explaining "Russell Conjugation", the habit of describing the same behaviour with different loaded words, and use it as shorthand for that loaded phrasing in threads.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 7 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Writing on SEO, AI search, marketing, philosophy, and assorted other things by Tom Dehnel.
Most-linked posts?
- What Is Russell Conjugation?7 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2020-07-09
What Hacker News says?
> A big part of what made people feel uncomfortable with the taco truck story was, I suspect, that these recipes were not freely shared. Instead they were reverse-engineered. Just as a thought experiment. If they went to Italy and did the same thing to learn how to make pasta, then opened their own Italian restaurant, would anyone care? If they went to France and spied on pastry shops to learn how to make the perfec…
Comment linking /what-is-russell-conjugation/
on “The Demise of Scientific American”Submitted Crushing the Myth of Late-Stage Capitalism as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI think the term "Russell Conjugation" captures this well. https://tomdehnel.com/what-is-russell-conjugation/
Comment linking /what-is-russell-conjugation/
on “Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media”Submitted What Is Russell Conjugation? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionRe: Russel conjugations - there was no "spin" to anything I said, I stated facts that were neutral - yes, that neutrality which is certainly a better light than you're appearing to believe Ted Cruz deserves (which has nothing to do with my own perception of him - it's your own belief or reaction you're applying to the facts). There is a difference - and if you read the examples at Google for searching "what is russe…
Comment linking /what-is-russell-conjugation/
on “SolarWinds CEO blames intern for password leak”Submitted How Companies Subtly Stack the Deck Against You in Job Interviews as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis may just be a Russel Conjugation. https://tomdehnel.com/what-is-russell-conjugation/
Comment linking /what-is-russell-conjugation/
on “Why wood has gotten so dang expensive”Submitted Best Pizza in San Francisco (2019) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion> What is Russell Conjugation? https://tomdehnel.com/what-is-russell-conjugation/ > Russel used the following examples to describe the phenomenon: > • I am firm, you are obstinate, he is a pig-headed fool. > • I am righteously indignant, you are annoyed, he is making a fuss over nothing. > • I have reconsidered the matter, you have changed your mind, he has gone back on his word. > Russell Conjugations don’t always…
Comment linking /what-is-russell-conjugation/
on “Mark Zuckerberg on the Lex Fridman Podcast [video]”Submitted Everything Is Racist as a story · 1 points
HN discussionhttps://tomdehnel.com/what-is-russell-conjugation/
Comment linking /what-is-russell-conjugation/
on “New Economic Challenges and the Fed's Monetary Policy Review”Submitted The word “impact” doesn’t have any impact at all as a story · 1 points
HN discussion'notorious' is a Russell Conjugation unless it The Notorious B.I.G. https://tomdehnel.com/what-is-russell-conjugation/
Comment linking /what-is-russell-conjugation/
on “Apple employees petition demanding investigation into ‘misogynistic’ new hire”Submitted Why Backlinks Are Good for SEO as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
