Top all-time · #142
Zed Shaw
Personal blog · zedshaw.comprogrammingwritingpolitics
Zed Shaw writes Zed A. shaw, a personal blog at zedshaw.com about programming, writing and politics. Since 2007, 281 different Hacker News readers have linked it 392 times, most often “Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them All”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Sometimes recommended · 7 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Zed Shaw's posts on open source, statistics and programming. Most links cite his 'Beggar Barons' essay on corporations and open source; a few essays are called good reads.
- Recommended for · 7 comments
- Called an excellent distinction, a good read, worth reading and a classic; one commenter says the article speaks reason.
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.
Personal essays and writings by Zed A. Shaw.
Most-linked posts?
- Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them All20 people · 21 mentions · first linked 2010-01-09
- The Beggar Barons (2022)13 people · 26 mentions · first linked 2022-03-23
- Why I (A/G)PL10 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2011-10-22
- Programmers Need to Learn Statistics8 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2014-12-06
- Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them All (2005)7 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2009-04-01
- /archive/indirection-is-not-abstraction/6 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2017-08-01
- The Master, The Expert, The Programmer6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2009-12-27
- Rails is a Ghetto... [NSFW for Language]6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2007-12-31
- Ragel State Charts6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2009-06-11
- Educational Mithridatism6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2015-09-14
What Hacker News says?
Won't you think of the poor trillionaire corporations? They are just poor developers with nothing to their names. https://zedshaw.com/blog/2022-02-05-the-beggar-barons/ > No, this begging is particularly different because it capitalizes on the good will of open source developers. > Microsoft, Apple, and Google are standing on the internet in their trillion dollar business suits with a sign that reads "Starving and h…
Comment linking /blog/2022-02-05-the-beggar-barons/
on “Getting forked by Microsoft”Submitted Dear Paul as a story · 469 points
HN discussionSpeaking of reconfiguration, why not buff the controversy penalty instead of outright banning political discussion? Couldn't you also enable an enhanced slow mode on threads that seem political in nature? Maybe something like the "hate tax" system proposed here[1]. I feel as though political topics tend to generate a knee-jerk response in people, especially when they are in an...shall we say, altered state of mind.…
Comment linking /archive/ragel-state-charts/
on “Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week”Submitted Early vs. Beginning Coders as a story · 414 points
HN discussionYeah, I've never forgotten it. He hasn't stopped blogging either. https://zedshaw.com/blog/2022-02-05-the-beggar-barons/ https://zedshaw.com/blog/2018-03-25-the-billionaires-vs-bran... That last link is about this place and covers some abuse he got here on HN over that GPL article. All the way back from 2009.
Comment linking /blog/2018-03-25-the-billionaires-vs-brandonm/
on “XZ backdoor: "It's RCE, not auth bypass, and gated/unreplayable."”Submitted Zed Shaw: Why I (A/L)GPL as a story · 279 points
HN discussionHere's a different perspective. https://zedshaw.com/blog/2018-03-25-the-billionaires-vs-bran...
Comment linking /blog/2018-03-25-the-billionaires-vs-brandonm/
on “Apple HomeView”Submitted The Master, The Expert, The Programmer as a story · 195 points
HN discussionhttps://zedshaw.com/blog/2018-03-25-the-billionaires-vs-bran...
Comment linking /blog/2018-03-25-the-billionaires-vs-brandonm/
on “Apple HomeView”Submitted Zed's "One Battery Review" of Django as a story · 188 points
HN discussionhttps://zedshaw.com/archive/stackish-an-xml-alternative/
Comment linking /archive/stackish-an-xml-alternative/
on “YAML: probably not so great after all (2017)”Submitted Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them All (2005) as a story · 174 points
HN discussionSee also "Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them All", by the same author. http://zedshaw.com/essays/programmer_stats.html
Comment linking /essays/programmer_stats.html
on “Advice From An Old Programmer”Submitted Zed Shaw: Librelist to take on Google, Yahoo mailing lists as a story · 173 points
HN discussionYou may also like this essay of his: http://zedshaw.com/essays/master_and_expert.html
Comment linking /essays/master_and_expert.html
on “Advice From An Old Programmer”Submitted Curing Python's Neglect as a story · 149 points
HN discussionHe's a popular blogger: https://zedshaw.com/
Comment linking /
on “Oracle attempt to hide cybersecurity incident from customers?”Submitted Oh Yeah? Where's Your Patches Zed? as a story · 140 points
HN discussionRelated: https://zedshaw.com/blog/2022-02-05-the-beggar-barons/
Comment linking /blog/2022-02-05-the-beggar-barons/
on “WordPress.org bans WP Engine”Submitted Dear Reddit, Hacker News... as a story · 133 points
HN discussionAlso the second run probably used stuff that was put in the npm cache during the first run. Not sure how good a test this is. A good read: "Programmers need to learn statistics or I will kill them all" http://zedshaw.com/archive/programmers-need-to-learn-statist...
Comment linking /archive/programmers-need-to-learn-statistics-or-i-will-kill-them-all/
on “Disabling npm's progress bar yields a 2x npm install speed improvement”Submitted Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them All as a story · 130 points
HN discussionOpen source is just the transfer of property and capital from well meaning developers straight into the pockets of corporations and billionaires. Developers are well advised to always apply the AGPLv3 to everything they make. It's either AGPLv3 or all rights reserved, everything in between makes no sense. https://zedshaw.com/blog/2022-02-05-the-beggar-barons/ > To the Beggar Baron, open source's value is its free do…
Comment linking /blog/2022-02-05-the-beggar-barons/
on “Unity’s Open-Source Double Standard: the ban of VLC”Submitted The Impermanence, Karma, and Bad Behavior of Why The Lucky Stiff as a story · 126 points
HN discussionhttps://zedshaw.com/blog/2018-03-25-the-billionaires-vs-bran...
Comment linking /blog/2018-03-25-the-billionaires-vs-brandonm
on “Mighty Makes Google Chrome Faster”Submitted Why there's no real startup culture in New York as a story · 115 points
HN discussionAs far as I understood what I do about C, is that most of C's here called "quirks" have actually been enablers for much of the portability and performance of modern platforms. Therefore I don't like "undefined behavior" and the like being criticised for being such a "hindrance". I hence doubt the author's familiarity with C is much beyond the basics, which kind of makes the case for why the author also had to namedr…
Comment linking /2015/01/04/admitting-defeat-on-kr-in-lcthw/
on “C Is Not a Low-Level Language”Submitted I'm Moving To San Francisco, I Need A Job as a story · 108 points
HN discussionI like Zed, and appreciate his open source work and his programming books. I think he let himself get a little carried away. "Taking criticism in stride is just part of quality, and trying to eliminate any criticism of your ideas is a sign of both immaturity and abuse of power." http://zedshaw.com/2015/04/05/and-then-you-have-no-taste/
Comment linking /2015/04/05/and-then-you-have-no-taste/
on “Dear Paul”Submitted Rails is a Ghetto (retracted) as a story · 102 points
HN discussion
