Top all-time · #6088
Xianhang Zhang
Personal blog · blog.figuringshitout.comphilosophyculture
Xianhang Zhang writes Figuring Shit Out, a personal blog at blog.figuringshitout.com about philosophy and culture. Since 2009, 13 different Hacker News readers have linked it 26 times, most often “The parable of the fisherman”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (5) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Xianhang Zhang's posts as follow-ups or related reading, including a parable of the fisherman and the investment banker, a Tarsnap follow-up, and posts on wealth and following dreams.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 5 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
A personal substack of Xianhang Zhang around technology, agency and empiricism. Launched 3 years ago.
Most-linked posts?
- The parable of the fisherman3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-10-23
- Three Types of Passion2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-02-18
What Hacker News says?
I don't know why you are being down-voted. Here's a follow-up and slightly different take on that story: http://blog.figuringshitout.com/the-parable-of-the-fisherman... Here's an HN discussion about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6602351
Comment linking /the-parable-of-the-fisherman/
on “What I Would Do If I Ran Tarsnap”Submitted The parable of the fisherman as a story · 154 points
HN discussionI have seen this point of view and understand where it's coming from, but I think it puts the cart before the horse. Maybe it should be the case that society should define success not by the status of your profession and the size of your bank account, but by your other contributions. However, at the current time, it does not. In the United States, money is everything. It decides whether your kids go to a decent scho…
Comment linking /the-parable-of-the-fisherman
on “Why women lose the dating game”Submitted Three Types of Passion as a story · 61 points
HN discussionThis is a great article and where I got the inspiration for the term Acting Sober: http://blog.figuringshitout.com/oct-28th-day-16-acting-sober...
Comment linking /oct-28th-day-16-acting-sober/
on “Professional Hacks: Tricks of the Trade”Submitted The Anti-Stupid as a story · 40 points
HN discussionhttp://blog.figuringshitout.com/anything-you-think-is-either... I would be more convinced if he had shown how he was being unoriginal rather than original.
Comment linking /anything-you-think-is-either-unoriginal-wrong-or-both/
on “Negative Mass An amusing thought experiment, or the Secret of the Universe?”Submitted People are twice as smart as they talk, three times as smart as they write as a story · 28 points
HN discussionI suppose what this boils down to is that you and I fundamentally disagree on what makes someone wealthy. The below is an interesting take on the old parable of the fisherman and the investment banker. Capitalism is not the be all, end all of economic systems. It is certainly the system that best enables federated wealth-building, but it is not like everybody benefits equally. For real-life proof, have a look at the…
Comment linking /the-parable-of-the-fisherman/
on “Accidental Tax Break Saves Wealthiest Americans $100 Billion”Submitted Technological Progress Happens via Simulated Annealing as a story · 24 points
HN discussionI thought this was an interesting study but, after spending a few minutes trying to find patterns in the data, I finally hacked up a quick null hypothesis graph in Excel and it looked virtually indistinguishable: http://blog.figuringshitout.com/another-way-to-lie-with-stat...
Comment linking /another-way-to-lie-with-statistics
on “Evaluating Bing with Mechanical Turk”Submitted The no obnoxious rich people paradox as a story · 9 points
HN discussionThat doesn't follow at all. A sufficiently smart AI could do all sorts of obtuse things to achieve its aims. It could speculate on the stock market or go on an identity theft spree to pay for more servers. It could start a business and hire employees to run a robot factory. It could start a propaganda campaign to persuade humans to do its bidding. It could lobby politicians to remove legal impediments. The fundament…
Comment linking /nov-12th-day-30-no-evil-geniuses/
on “The A.I. Anxiety”Submitted Anything you think is either unoriginal, wrong or both as a story · 6 points
HN discussionAlong the same lines: http://blog.figuringshitout.com/nov-5th-day-23-three-types-o...
Comment linking /nov-5th-day-23-three-types-of-passion/
on “The Danger of Following Your Dreams”Submitted The Persistently Stupid Idea as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThe first comment in the post references that paper: http://blog.figuringshitout.com/technological-progress-happe...
Comment linking /technological-progress-happens-via-simulated-annealing/
on “Technological Progress Happens via Simulated Annealing”Submitted Humor on the web & how to stop it as a story · 3 points
HN discussionTrevor, I would invite you to read my blog post on obviously wrong truths: http://blog.figuringshitout.com/nov-2nd-day-21-obviously-wro... . What you said is correct, my observation is obviously wrong. But at the same time, I think it's true... I know that sounds like a copout. I think the thing you're missing is that this is not a statement of futility. Wrong things are still worth doing. I think maybe the clearest…
Comment linking /nov-2nd-day-21-obviously-wrong-truths
on “Anything you think is either unoriginal, wrong or both”Submitted Figure out how something is produced as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Man-with-a-hammer syndrome as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to be a designer in 10 years as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Facebook Places & Keeping up with the Joneses as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Silicon Valley “Bubble” as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Ego Dilemma as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Dream Job as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
