Top all-time · #1130
Austin Kleon
Personal blog · austinkleon.comwritingcultureproductivity
Austin Kleon's personal blog at austinkleon.com covers writing, culture and productivity. Since 2009, 59 different Hacker News readers have linked it 75 times, most often “Quantity leads to quality (the origin of a parable)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-28, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (27) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Commenters link Kleon's short posts on creativity and practice, especially "Quantity leads to quality" (the pottery parable), and his book Show Your Work. Most links cite posts as support.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 27 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
My long-awaited followup to the Steal Like an Artist trilogy is in bookstores today!
Most-linked posts?
- Quantity leads to quality (the origin of a parable)11 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2021-01-01
- How To Steal Like An Artist3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-03-31
- Reading with a pencil3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-09-03
- Something small, every day2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2014-01-14
- /2017/05/12/scenius/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-08-14
- McCartney on not-knowing and doing it now2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-07-21
- Never waste your midlife crisis2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-07-11
- Output Depends on Your Input2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-03-06
- /show-your-work/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-01-26
What Hacker News says?
Maybe the flowery words obscured the message for you. If it helps, I first came across the quote in a blog post by Austin Kleon[0], an author, talking about people who say they have a book in them. "I never feel like I have a book in me. I always feel like there’s a book around me. It’s like I’m a planet and there’s all this space junk orbiting me, and all the junk starts smashing together and forming book chapters.…
Comment linking /2019/06/06/its-not-inside-you-trying-to-get-out-its-outside-you-trying-to-get-in/
on “Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life”Submitted Start before you think you’re ready as a story · 299 points
HN discussionHere is a good, fun, and quick-to-read book -- Show Your Work! https://austinkleon.com/show-your-work/
Comment linking /show-your-work/
on “Do things, tell people (2012)”Submitted Find a new city as a story · 233 points
HN discussionThanks for the thoughtful comment. It's complicated. I'm a perfectionist miniature painter by hobby. I love the stories floating around about how quantity can lead to quality (photography, pottery): https://austinkleon.com/2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality... In most of my hobbies I feel like my growth and talent is limited by lack of volume, not my care or attention to detail. It's hard to let go and use one col…
Comment linking /2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality-the-origin-of-a-parable/
on “Things that aren't doing the thing”Submitted Reading with a pencil as a story · 139 points
HN discussionBy coincidence, a relevant Austin Kleon blog post from today: https://austinkleon.com/2021/10/04/a-blessed-unrest/ This is Agnes de Mille conversing with the great dancer Martha Graham: > “But,” I said, “when I see my work I take for granted what other people value in it. I see only its ineptitude, inorganic flaws, and crudities. I am not pleased or satisfied.” > “No artist is pleased.” > “But then there is no satis…
Comment linking /2021/10/04/a-blessed-unrest/
on “Curiosity Is Better Than Being Smart?”Submitted Something small, every day (2013) as a story · 126 points
HN discussionTo support your point that we we make choices among alternative, see this document I put together circa 2010 with about 50 alternatives -- some good, some obviously bad -- we can use to address the socio-economic changes needed to maintain healthy human communities in the face of increased automation: https://pdfernhout.net/beyond-a-jobless-recovery-knol.html "This article explores the issue of a "Jobless Recovery"…
Comment linking /2017/05/12/scenius/
on “Amazon grows to over 750k robots, replacing 100k humans”Submitted I love my paper dictionary (2017) as a story · 96 points
HN discussionCheck this : https://austinkleon.com/tag/logbook/ I started actually something like this for a month now :)
Comment linking /tag/logbook/
on “Ask HN: Best solutions for keeping a personal log?”Submitted How To Steal Like An Artist as a story · 49 points
HN discussionThis reminds me of a book I enjoyed, Show Your Work. https://austinkleon.com/show-your-work/
Comment linking /show-your-work/
on “Making is show business now (2020)”Submitted Fore-Edge Indexing Books as a story · 9 points
HN discussion+e^x for Kenny Werner's book. Kenny Werner's philosophy if you can summarize it in one sentence - is if you are a trumpet player - you must master breath control, fingering so by the time you are in performance - you are truly playing without thinking of the mechanics. There are many analogies to really focused coding, Kenny Werner's philosophy, and Mihály Csíkszentmihályi's concept of flow [1]. You must master the…
Comment linking /2013/12/29/something-small-every-day/
on “The Science and Art of Practicing”Submitted Books with Unusual but Brilliant Structures as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI remember the same anecdote, but about pottery https://austinkleon.com/2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12653203 https://blog.codinghorror.com/quantity-always-trumps-quality...
Comment linking /2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality-the-origin-of-a-parable/
on “Why Speed Matters”Submitted Something small, every day as a story · 4 points
HN discussionTechnical skill has very, very little to do with the emotional impact of music. One of the most famous mantras in punk music was "this is a chord, this is another, now make a band"[1]. "Imagine" by John Lennon is a song written using the simplest scale and chord progressions, using a very low 4/4 tempo. The hard part is not knowing the biggest amount of chords, it's knowing what not to use to carry your emotions. Al…
Comment linking /2019/01/13/this-is-a-chord-this-is-another/
on “Show HN: Sonauto API – Generative music for developers”Submitted Ray Bradbury on feeding your creativity as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThat's such bullshit. I've managed some incredibly prolific developers and some very slow ones, and the prolific ones are pretty much always the ones more available, more willing to fix things, more willing to take feedback. And also: they make less mistakes because their skills are sharp . This anecdote comes to mind: https://austinkleon.com/2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality... If you have to constantly rational…
Comment linking /2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality-the-origin-of-a-parable/
on “If you are asking for human attention, demonstrate human effort”Submitted On reading more than one book at a time as a story · 3 points
HN discussionParable of the Pots - Quantity leads to quality https://austinkleon.com/2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality... [A] ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he…
Comment linking /2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality-the-origin-of-a-parable/
on “SpaceX giant rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas”Submitted Quantity leads to quality (the origin of a parable) (2020) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIt's almost like there's some truth to the "Trying to make dozens of shitty pots actually produces better pots than trying to make a single perfect pot". Iteration eats inspiration for breakfast. https://austinkleon.com/2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality...
Comment linking /2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality-the-origin-of-a-parable/
on “The Beatle Who Got Away”Submitted Quantity leads to quality (the origin of a parable) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAnother interesting post on the same subject: http://www.austinkleon.com/2005/12/17/graph-a-story-with-mr-...
Comment linking /2005/12/17/graph-a-story-with-mr-vonnegut/
on “Kurt Vonnegut explains drama”Submitted On Keeping a Logbook (2010) as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> From that point, an LLM, which remembers everything verbatim and mixing them together is arguably making plagiarism from many sources to create their own works, while being unable to cite them accurately. A very useful property, indeed. I think this is a weak point in your argument. I support the rest of your reasoning, but this point can be attacked. For plagiarism to exist, the original work has to be easily det…
Comment linking /steal/
on “The music industry's A.I. experiments”Submitted Never waste your midlife crisis as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
