Top all-time · #3779
Zain Rizvi
Personal blog · zainrizvi.io/blog · on HN as ZainRizprogrammingcareerproductivity
Zain Rizvi's personal blog at zainrizvi.io covers programming, career and productivity. Since 2020, 20 different Hacker News readers have linked it 49 times, most often “Falsehoods programmers believe about time zones (2020)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-03-31, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (5) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Zain Rizvi's "falsehoods programmers believe" posts and a post on why software engineers like working on certain things. Most links are cited as support or as see-also references.
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.
Interested in software engineering, business, or psychology? You're in the right place
Most-linked posts?
- Falsehoods programmers believe about time zones (2020)7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2020-10-23
- Google taught me to turn Impostor Syndrome into an Advantage5 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2020-08-24
- Do More by Doing Less3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-08-11
- Why software engineers like woodworking3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-06-09
- P.A.R.A. vs. Zettelkasten: The False Binary2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-01-23
- Hacking the bureaucracy to get stuff done (2020)2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-07-25
- Remembering what you Read: Zettelkasten vs. P.A.R.A2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-08-23
What Hacker News says?
Your assumption is quite wrong. https://www.zainrizvi.io/blog/why-software-engineers-like-wo...
Comment linking /blog/why-software-engineers-like-woodworking/
on “Sanding UI”Submitted Interview advice that got me offers as a story · 642 points
HN discussion> why don't you think some other company has come along and toppled the Jira crown? Jira is the way it is because Jira ISN'T built for developers. Devs may have to use Jira, but they're not the ones who have to pay for it. I wrote about this a while back: "Who is Jira’s target customer? It’s certainly not the poor developer who struggles to add a link to his bug report. (I’m still mad at them) Take a look at Jira’s…
Comment linking /blog/never-focus-on-the-user
on “I fucking hate Jira”Submitted Why software engineers like woodworking as a story · 334 points
HN discussionhttps://zainrizvi.io It's a bit sparse but I try to post the more interesting things I'm learning about tech, business, psychology, and self improvement. About me: I'm a software engineer and I've spent over a decade working at Google and Microsoft, mostly building their clouds. Now I'm engineering at Stripe Here are a few of my favorite posts: * How to Setup a Free Custom Domain Email Address: https://zainrizvi.io/…
Comment linking /blog/a-more-beautiful-question-summary/
on “Ask HN: What is your blog and why should I read it?”Submitted Why software engineers like woodworking (2021) as a story · 226 points
HN discussionI've written an article comparing a couple of the more popular note taking strategies. It was even on the HN front page 13 hours ago :) https://www.zainrizvi.io/blog/remembering-what-you-read-zett... HN link: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24251068#24262190
Comment linking /blog/remembering-what-you-read-zettelkasten-vs-para/
on “Being OK with not being extraordinary”Submitted Remembering what you Read: Zettelkasten vs. P.A.R.A as a story · 118 points
HN discussion> creators can get just as much value out of creating their original content and connecting with like-minded people. Strong resonance here. I recently became more prolific about blogging, and this was the mindset that helps me stay consistent. I find that the mere act of writing an essay helps me clarify my own thoughts, and the essay often changes in the process. As a recent example, I started writing out about how…
Comment linking /blog/the-impostors-advantage/
on “Being OK with not being extraordinary”Submitted Hacking the bureaucracy to get stuff done (2020) as a story · 114 points
HN discussionI tried Zettelkasten a few months ago and I found a lot of what you said to be true. It also has a serious upfront labor overhead that really makes it hard to stick with. Then I discovered Building a Second Brain and it's P.A.R.A. method which was like Just-in-Time Zettelkasten and it's suddenly become a cornerstone of my productivity routine. I compare the two approaches in this blog post: I recently studied both Z…
Comment linking /blog/remembering-what-you-read-zettelkasten-vs-para/
on “Stop Taking Regular Notes; Use a Zettelkasten Instead”Submitted Google taught me to turn Impostor Syndrome into an Advantage as a story · 107 points
HN discussionI recently studied both Zettelkasten and Build a Second Brain's P.A.R.A note taking methods. They share some core principles but BASB seems much more practical for most people The biggest difference was that Zettelkasten required a ton of work up-front, which made it nearly impossible for me to stick with it. BASB on the other had was more Just-in-Time based which makes it much easier to stick with. I compared the t…
Comment linking /blog/remembering-what-you-read-zettelkasten-vs-para/
on “Stop Taking Regular Notes; Use a Zettelkasten Instead”Submitted Banks help scammers with their bad UI as a story · 96 points
HN discussionIf you think that's bad, there are three distinct time zones which each go by CST. And even Central Standard Time is ambiguous https://www.zainrizvi.io/blog/falsehoods-programmers-believe...
Comment linking /blog/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-time-zones
on “Timezone Bullshit”Submitted Falsehoods programmers believe about time zones (2020) as a story · 95 points
HN discussionHm, I thought I read about that here[1] but I can't find it now, so my brain may have made it up. Nepal is 45 minutes off, though, apparently! [1]: https://www.zainrizvi.io/blog/falsehoods-programmers-believe...
Comment linking /blog/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-time-zones/
on “IMGZ – Paid image sharing”Submitted Falsehoods programmers believe about time zones as a story · 60 points
HN discussionInstead of focusing on a goal for three years, try to focus on a goal that you can achieve in two weeks (or whatever your default attention span is) Design each two week goal so that you get a dopamine rush from doing it, get some value out of it, and it also helps your long term goal. I share my attempt at doing just that here: https://www.zainrizvi.io/blog/do-more-by-doing-less/
Comment linking /blog/do-more-by-doing-less/
on “How I stay motivated working on my long-term project”Submitted What's it like as a Senior Engineer? as a story · 30 points
HN discussionIt would be too coarse-grained to say I'm categorically dismissive of paper-based systems. My views are more nuanced. Right, I'm aware of Luhmann and Zettelkasten and ZK-inspired systems. I'm glad it works for him and many others. Still, if one goes down the rabbit holes of ZK and knowledge management systems, you will sooner or later find some videos that leave the realms of productivity and venture into the farcic…
Comment linking /blog/para-vs-zettelkasten-the-false-binary/
on “Excerpts from a conversation about personal information management”Submitted The Impostor's Advantage as a story · 6 points
HN discussionVenmo fraud is even worse. My sister got scammed out of thousands of dollars recently and her bank just said "pay up" I wrote about the story here: https://www.zainrizvi.io/blog/how-banks-help-scammers-with-t...
Comment linking /blog/how-banks-help-scammers-with-their-bad-ui/
on “Robinhood Accounts Looted, No Customer Support”Submitted Hacking the Bureaucracy to Get Stuff Done as a story · 4 points
HN discussionHere's a great blog post about fun coding around timezones https://www.zainrizvi.io/blog/falsehoods-programmers-believe...
Comment linking /blog/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-time-zones/
on “Julius Caesar's Year of Confusion”Submitted Unconventional tips for Mastering Software Interviews as a story · 4 points
HN discussionMakes sense that when you're interviewing programmers you don't have to look for candidates proficient in your particular area. You need someone willing to learn Conversely, if you're interviewing, signaling that you are highly interested in learning turns you into a strong candidate. I learned this one by accident when I interviewed at a company I didn't care about Relevant excerpt from a blog post I wrote [1]: > I…
Comment linking /blog/the-interview-advice-no-one-gives-you/
on “On Interviewing Programmers”Submitted P.A.R.A. vs. Zettelkasten: The False Binary as a story · 3 points
HN discussionAnd don't forget about https://www.zainrizvi.io/blog/falsehoods-programmers-believe...
Comment linking /blog/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-time-zones/
on “It's Time for a Change: Datetime.utcnow() Is Now Deprecated”Submitted 6 ways woodworking is like software engineering as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
