Top all-time · #475
Craig Mod
Personal blog · craigmod.comwritingdesignculture
Craig Mod's personal blog at craigmod.com covers writing, design and culture. Since 2009, 120 different Hacker News readers have linked it 246 times, most often “Fast Software, the Best Software”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-21, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 10 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Craig Mod's site for essays on software speed ("Fast Software, the Best Software") and for his walking newsletter Ridgeline and membership-funded writing about Japan. Comments also cite his essays on digital reading, photography and e-ink devices.
- Recommended for · 10 comments
- One commenter says speed is a feature "said well"; others recommend the Ridgeline newsletter as refreshing.
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.
The homepage of author and photographer Craig Mod — long walks across Japan, pizza toast, books, photography, literature, and more.
Most-linked posts?
- Fast Software, the Best Software14 people · 15 mentions · first linked 2019-07-24
- /5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2021-05-28
- Software Bonkers5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2026-03-13
- /4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2018-08-02
- Brilliant Hardware in the Valley of the Software Slump4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-06-09
- Running a Membership Program: Four Years In4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-03-04
- Running a Successful Membership / Subscription Program4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-02-04
- On Being a Good Newsletterer4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-01-11
- Electric Bike, Stupid Love of My Life4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-09-06
- A Swarm of Blood Robots4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2026-08-13
What Hacker News says?
Reminds me "Fast Software, the Best Software" by Craig Mod: https://craigmod.com/essays/fast_software/
Comment linking /essays/fast_software/
on “Fast”Submitted Fast Software, the Best Software as a story · 470 points
HN discussionCraig Mod puts Sublime Text in the “fast software” category: https://craigmod.com/essays/fast_software/ > (…) Sublime Text has — in my experience — only gotten faster. I love software that does this: Software that unbloats over time. This should be the goal of all software. The longer it’s around, the more elegant it should become. Smooth over like a river stone. I have full trust in the engineering of Sublime Text…
Comment linking /essays/fast_software/
on “Sublime Text 4”Submitted I Got My Attention Back (2017) as a story · 310 points
HN discussionHi, I come across a lot of blogs when I curate for my newsletter Interesting Things [1]. Just looking through the links that have been curated in the past month or so, I would suggest: Tech - https://wasteofserver.com/ - https://tonsky.me/ - https://brianschrader.com/ - https://blog.thea.codes/ - https://fasterthanli.me/ - https://jvns.ca/ - https://blog.royalsloth.eu/ Non-tech - https://www.drorpoleg.com/ - About w…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”Submitted Overtourism in Japan, and how it hurts small businesses as a story · 244 points
HN discussionAnything from Craig Mod - https://craigmod.com
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”Submitted Oh God, It's Raining Newsletters as a story · 209 points
HN discussionMy own random Apple-connected moment of delight. In 2005, when they announced Dashboard widgets, I was running a data-visualization site built off Google News called Buzztracker [0]. It was a really simple idea and hackneyed execution, but it worked and was quite popular: it mapped the news from 1000s of sources onto a map, allowing you to navigate via geography into the day's events. I took an afternoon and knocked…
Comment linking /images/misc/buzztracker_apple.jpg
on “Unofficial Apple Archive”Submitted Fast Software, the Best Software (2019) as a story · 186 points
HN discussionYes, do it! Hugo is great because it's fast. [1] Fast software is the best software. [2] (Comments: [3]) Speed is the killer feature. [4] (Comments: [5]) Slow software is an opportunity for competitors. [6] [1]: https://gavinhoward.com/2019/12/performance-matters-jekyll-v... [2]: https://craigmod.com/essays/fast_software/ [3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20517144 [4]: https://bdickason.com/posts/speed-is-th…
Comment linking /essays/fast_software/
on “No More Medium – Build Your Own Site (2019)”Submitted Brilliant Hardware in the Valley of the Software Slump as a story · 183 points
HN discussionI learned about Figma recently, in this HN-frontpage article about fast software: https://craigmod.com/essays/fast_software/ It really is delightfully fast. It's no surprise that the team behind it is producing this caliber of content.
Comment linking /essays/fast_software/
on “How to build a plugin system on the web and also sleep well at night”Submitted Walking Tokyo for Seven Days as a story · 157 points
HN discussionHere's my personal website: https://matall.in I'm a fan of personal sites, too. Some of the ones that I like most, in no particular order: https://macwright.org https://zachholman.com https://warpspire.com https://paulstamatiou.com http://francisco.dance https://craigmod.com
Comment linking /
on “Building a Kickass Portfolio”Submitted The momentum of Steve Jobs as a story · 130 points
HN discussionI recently heard Craig Mod[1] in an interview. He has walked thousands of miles in Japan and has produced books that document some of what he has seen. The photographs he has published online are beautiful, but I've never seen any of his books so I can't comment on those. Anyway, in the interview, he talked about places that sound like what you are describing in the first paragraph but he called them kissa s. [1]: h…
Comment linking /
on “Backyard Coffee and Jazz in Kyoto”Submitted Stab a Book, the Book Won't Die as a story · 120 points
HN discussion> only those which access the Play Store I'll bet this means an enormous number of outdated devices outside the first world are missing. In particular, any area without cheap and reliable data access is probably eschewing the Play Store for some kind of local-area app sharing like Zapya. Not your fault obviously, these are fascinating stats as is. But I'm also really curious how many smartphones have gone "off the g…
Comment linking /sputnik/smartphones_in_myanmar/
on “There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use”Submitted The Leica Q: A six month field test as a story · 113 points
HN discussionSpeed is a feature, said well: https://craigmod.com/essays/fast_software/
Comment linking /essays/fast_software/
on “Apple's follow-up to M1 chip goes into mass production for Mac”Submitted On Building Flipboard for iPhone as a story · 112 points
HN discussionFor me, the Leica Q camera. I've fallen in and out of love with photography over the years and it (along with a toddler who makes for a great subject) has certainly rekindled things for me. I took a (film) photography course as a teen that initially sparked this interest, and received a secondhand Canon AE-1 film SLR camera as a gift from a relative. I had fun experimenting with this for a while, but when I went to…
Comment linking /essays/leica_q/
on “Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?”Submitted Walking Venice as a story · 86 points
HN discussionGlad to see Torres del Paine there. I did the W Trek a year ago and can’t recommend it enough. Absolutely breathtaking. Also recommended: Craig Mod’s Ridgeline newsletter about walking in Japan[1]. He recently completed the Tōkaidō road. [1]: https://craigmod.com/ridgeline/
Comment linking /ridgeline/
on “Show HN: Thruhikes – A list of long distance hikes around the world”Submitted Getting the iPad to “Pro” as a story · 72 points
HN discussionIf reading a newsletter is also your thing, I recommend Craig Mod's newsletter on his walks around Japan. Quite refreshing. https://craigmod.com/ridgeline/
Comment linking /ridgeline/
on “Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?”Submitted Subcompact Publishing as a story · 72 points
HN discussionI definitely found myself wasting more time recently scrolling through Twitter e.g. in the evening or when compiling code. I actually quite like the site but I find there's more and more irrelevant stuff on my feed so I don't really like feel like I get as much value from it, yet the addictive nature of the feed still makes you refresh it. I was aware I was doing this but didn't do anything about it until I was prom…
Comment linking /essays/how_i_got_my_attention_back/
on “'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle”Submitted Garbage in Japan as a story · 71 points
HN discussion
