Top all-time · #849
boz.
Personal blog · boz.com/articlescareerproductivityprogramming
boz. is a personal blog at boz.com about career, productivity and programming. Since 2014, 77 different Hacker News readers have linked it 107 times, most often “Be Kind”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-17, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (14) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Boz, a Meta CTO, writes about workplace conduct, careers and management. HN readers link his essays on being kind, giving hard feedback, career cold starts, incentives and influence over authority.
- Recommended for · 3 comments
- Called an amazing post on being kind, a correct piece of advice, and a good read on influence over authority.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 14 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Musings of boz.
Most-linked posts?
- Be Kind7 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2015-05-12
- A career cold start algorithm6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2020-04-29
- Be Kind5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2019-11-10
- Incentives and the Cobra Effect4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2024-01-12
- What Executives Do3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-11-10
- Be Plainspoken3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-01-28
- Focus3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-01-31
- Self Actualization2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-10-11
- Malcontents2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-10-28
- Get It Done2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-06-18
What Hacker News says?
Facebook / Meta has argued in court that their “fact checks” are opinion and not subject to defamation etc: https://mobile.twitter.com/PoliticalShort/status/14696740408... This position aligns with Meta CTO boz’s thesis of the “Platinum Rule:” choose personal success over authenticity. https://boz.com/articles/malcontents The sad thing for BMJ is they spent so much time “investigating” and trying to criticize here.…
Comment linking /articles/malcontents
on “Open letter from the BMJ to Mark Zuckerberg”Submitted Be Kind as a story · 1198 points
HN discussionI've been blown away by the thoughtfulness on this thread. For those who are interested, here is the first in a series of follow up posts about the same period of time in my life that gets into some of the very fair issues raised in this thread (namely, that Dustin really should have given me this feedback long before it got to the point of nearly getting fired) http://boz.com/articles/give-hard-feedback-fast.html
Comment linking /articles/give-hard-feedback-fast.html
on “Be Kind”Submitted A Career Cold Start Algorithm as a story · 792 points
HN discussionFunnily enough, his about page is entitled: "Who Are You and Why Should I Care?" Link: http://boz.com/about.html
Comment linking /about.html
on “Be Kind”Submitted Say No as a story · 336 points
HN discussionThis was posted a few weeks back... Career Cold Start. http://boz.com/articles/career-cold-start.html
Comment linking /articles/career-cold-start.html
on “Look for the duct tape”Submitted You are how you act as a story · 332 points
HN discussionReminds me of an article by Andrew Bosworth: https://boz.com/articles/be-kind This advice is correct.
Comment linking /articles/be-kind
on “It’s Not Enough to Be Right – You Also Have to Be Kind”Submitted Breaking bad news as a story · 298 points
HN discussionHe does seem like a bit of a bully himself: http://boz.com/articles/be-kind.html
Comment linking /articles/be-kind.html
on “Internal Facebook posts of employees discussing leaked memo”Submitted Ask for Advice, Not Permission (2015) as a story · 264 points
HN discussionThere's another "be kind" story that's also been submitted to HN in the past: http://boz.com/articles/be-kind.html - Brian recalls a time he was treated with kindness, and remembers to be kind to others. - Boz recalls a time he was almost fired due to not being kind, and remembers to be kind to others. So remember, be kind! Previously: - 2475 points, 2 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12707606 (Brian)…
Comment linking /articles/be-kind.html
on “Be kind (2016)”Submitted Incentives and the Cobra Effect as a story · 65 points
HN discussionTwo recommendations: * On Writing Well * Google's free, self-guided technical writing courses Using these, you should get much better at refining your writing. Write naturally, then go back and edit when rereading according to the your new skills. Another thing to get better at is layering your message. Assume that some percentage of people drop off each paragraph. Important details for the entire audience should be…
Comment linking /articles/communication-is-the-job
on “Ask HN: How to level up your technical writing?”Submitted Inbox Ten as a story · 57 points
HN discussionNotably absent from article: the surprisingly equanimous opinion of Boz —- Agrippa to Zuck’s Augustus. I have to reread his post on perverse incentives now https://boz.com/articles/incentives https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39277516
Comment linking /articles/incentives
on “The People Deliberately Killing Facebook”Submitted Ask for Advice, Not Permission (2015) as a story · 44 points
HN discussionI think this amazing post on being kind is needed by the author. http://boz.com/articles/be-kind.html Quote: "But believing deeply that I am responsible for how I make others feel has been life changing for me. Being kind turns out to be a long term strategy for maximizing impact."
Comment linking /articles/be-kind.html
on “Firing Well”Submitted The Hacker Way – Boz as a story · 5 points
HN discussionI'm sure you can understand how if an article with religion at its core makes it to the front of HN, discussions about that religion are completely on topic and justified (and not at all generic). This is not meant as a flame war or a tangent. When I say I find religion scary, it's in response to the article pointing out that a blogger who focused on the absence of religious tolerance was hacked to death with a mach…
Comment linking /articles/be-kind.html
on “Bangladesh blogger Ananta Bijoy Das hacked to death”Submitted A career cold start algorithm as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI think there's four things I suggest you consider. 1. Writing is thinking [1][2][3] There are a number of articles that explain this concept better than I can here, but assuming you understand the idea, I'll continue. The next time you're thinking about some problem, try to write your thoughts and reasoning down as notes. Your writing should be an extension of reasoning, and help formulate and refine your ideas. Wh…
Comment linking /articles/writing-thinking](https://boz.com/articles/writing-thinking)
on “Ask HN: How do you find motivation to write blog posts?”Submitted Sense of Urgency as a story · 4 points
HN discussion“The first step is to find someone on the team and ask for 30 minutes with them. In that meeting you have a simple agenda: For the first 25 minutes: ask them to tell you everything they think you should know. Take copious notes. Only stop them to ask about things you don’t understand. Always stop them to ask about things you don’t understand. For the next 3 minutes: ask about the biggest challenges the team has righ…
Comment linking /articles/career-cold-start
on “Ask HN: How do you onboard yourself for a new job?”Submitted Good Interfaces Make Good Neighbors as a story · 3 points
HN discussionBox’s “influence over authority” is a good read: https://boz.com/articles/influence-over-authority
Comment linking /articles/influence-over-authority
on “How to boss without being bossy”Submitted Focus as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Self Actualization as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Antifragile (2018) as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
