Top all-time · #61
Kevin Kelly
Personal blog · kk.orgculturephilosophy
Kevin Kelly's personal blog at kk.org covers culture and philosophy. Since 2007, 472 different Hacker News readers have linked it 785 times, most often “1,000 True Fans (2008)”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Sometimes recommended · 9 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Kevin Kelly for essays like 1,000 True Fans, Better Than Free and the Shirky Principle, and for books like Out of Control and Cool Tools.
- Recommended for · 9 comments
- Called 'Better Than Free' a must-read; 'You Are Not Late' a great read; Out of Control great; Asia Grace worth reading.
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.
Most-linked posts?
- 1,000 True Fans (2008)32 people · 40 mentions · first linked 2018-09-23
- All you need are 1,000 true fans15 people · 16 mentions · first linked 2008-03-05
- Amish Hackers (2009)11 people · 21 mentions · first linked 2018-10-15
- 1,000 True Fans (2008)11 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2015-10-07
- Shirky Principle (2010)7 people · 16 mentions · first linked 2018-08-15
- The irresistible future7 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2021-10-25
- Amish Hackers (2009)7 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2015-08-06
- Better Than Free (2008)7 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2019-10-04
- Amish Hackers7 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2009-02-11
- Kevin Kelly: 101 Additional Advices7 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2024-04-19
What Hacker News says?
You don't need a fancy site to have a viable business. You just need customers. Sounds like they have their 1,000 true fans[0]. [0]: https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/
Comment linking /thetechnium/1000-true-fans/
on “I Sell Onions on the Internet”Submitted Bits of advice I wish I had known as a story · 1109 points
HN discussion> (I can't remember the thing now) Don’t worry about the details; it was just a made-up story in the book Art & Fear ; I have never seen any evidence such a pottery class ever existed. https://kk.org/cooltools/art-fear/ > The 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…
Comment linking /cooltools/art-fear/
on “How to do hard things”Submitted 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice as a story · 477 points
HN discussionThanks so much for taking time to answer these. As a fellow founder/eng in the digital consumer privacy space, I can tell you that it remains fringe. And it isn't clear if it will take off in an exponential way anytime soon as, from what I have noticed, VC-backed startups in this space trying to pry out growth have indeed struggled (SilentCircle, as one example). Competing with free [0], as it turns out, may make fo…
Comment linking /thetechnium/better-than-fre/
on “Show HN: We built an end-to-end encrypted alternative to Google Photos”Submitted Pain of the New: The Hobbit at 48 fps as a story · 335 points
HN discussionkk isn't really just some random old person, he was Wired for all intents and purposes for a long time, he is an astounding and empathetic travel photographer and is one of Stewart Brand's best friends. I realize you were speaking generally but I hope we can all make an exception for this one random old person. Do yourself a favor and turn the pages of Asia Grace. Ageism is a hell of a drug. https://kk.org/books/asi…
Comment linking /books/asia-grace/
on “Bits of advice I wish I had known”Submitted You are not late (2014) as a story · 313 points
HN discussion> In the process of creating stricter control the bureaucrat increases the the power of their bureaucracy while shifting the blame for any problems to a faceless entity. They are basically using software to preserve the problem to which they are the solution. i.e. the shirky principle https://kk.org/thetechnium/the-shirky-prin/
Comment linking /thetechnium/the-shirky-prin/
on “Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates”Submitted 50 Years of Travel Tips as a story · 295 points
HN discussionDo you mean this [Cool Tools]( http://kk.org/cooltools/ ) ( http://kk.org/cooltools/ )?
Comment linking /cooltools/
on “Does anyone remember websites?”Submitted Construction is life as a story · 279 points
HN discussionInnovation happens because people are curious and want to make their (or other's) lives easier, this has nothing to do with patents, or if it's private or government run. Want to see real innovation? See for example the home made radio receivers people made in WWII, that fit in a small tin can, or visit an Amish settlement ( http://kk.org/thetechnium/amish-hackers-a/ ). Not to mention hacker/maker spaces and fablabs…
Comment linking /thetechnium/amish-hackers-a/
on “Drug Goes from $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight”Submitted You Are Not Late as a story · 268 points
HN discussionI ran a personal blog ~2007-2013, retiring it after one-too-many'a THC-infused evening of personal expression. Several of my posts received 100k+ views, one with 1M+, typically exploring minor technical hacks. A couple posts resulted in minor sales of bespoke hardware adapters, which was a nice "side hustle" for a few years. None of this would ever had made me rich, but it was a neat introduction to information shar…
Comment linking /cooltools/
on “Why blog if nobody reads it?”Submitted Reasons to tour by bicycle as a story · 267 points
HN discussionAs a counterpoint, consider reading Kevin Kelly’s “The Inevitable.” I also avoid most social media and have an aversion to all things “smart,” but these may actually be “inevitable.” In a capitalist society, these forces feel inevitable because there’s no Anubis balancing the scales. Only local decisions, often short-sighted. When demand is being created in a market, people will compete to capture it any way possibl…
Comment linking /books/the-inevitable
on “This is not the future”Submitted 99 bits of unsolicited advice as a story · 266 points
HN discussionAnother good resource for learning how to draw realistically is the book: "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". The premise is that your brain wants to take shortcuts and group/chunk things together on what they should look like, instead of what things actually look like. But even a rectangle in real life has non-right-angles because of perspective, etc.. And if you draw what you actually see, then the drawings…
Comment linking /cooltools/drawing-on-the-right-side-of-the-brain/
on “Animals Made from 13 Circles (2016)”Submitted Incredible Secret Money Machine as a story · 219 points
HN discussionHere is a different quiz about what you know about your local area. Pretty interesting. https://kk.org/thetechnium/the-big-here-quiz/
Comment linking /thetechnium/the-big-here-quiz/
on “Show HN: A game that tests how well you know your local area”Submitted The Clock in the Mountain as a story · 217 points
HN discussionI mean the solution to that predates personal computers... https://kk.org/ct2/heinleins-fan-mail-solution/
Comment linking /ct2/heinleins-fan-mail-solution/
on “I must announce the immediate end of service of SSLPing”Submitted Heinlein's Fan Mail Solution as a story · 206 points
HN discussionKevin Kelly wrote about "co-evolution" in his book [0] Out of Control . Great book, by the way. I don't think he coined the term, but co-evolution regards how relationships between different kinds of species can effect the adaptations that each species undergo. So in your example, wolves have a definite effect on the sheep population's genepool, but the truth is the sheep have a similar effect on the wolves. [0] htt…
Comment linking /outofcontrol/
on “First Mechanical Gear Found in a Living Creature”Submitted Better than Free (2008) as a story · 194 points
HN discussionI agree that we as a society should make sure that artists can make a living. But I am honestly not sure an open-access approach to music would be any worse financially. Historically, the recording industry was one of the most exploitative. You can find a hundred stories of bands that sell a lot of records only to see barely-getting-by money in return. You can find a thousand stories of modest-selling bands getting…
Comment linking /thetechnium/better-than-fre/
on “We've failed: open access is winning and we must change our approach”Submitted Free Kindle This November as a story · 188 points
HN discussionBy 'better than free', are you referring to this[1] by Kevin Kelly. To quote from it:When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied. And goes ahead to list 8 qualities of what can be sellable once distribution is no longer the value-getter. [1] http://kk.org/thetechnium/better-than-fre/
Comment linking /thetechnium/better-than-fre/
on “We've failed: open access is winning and we must change our approach”Submitted The Best Magazine Articles Ever (2012) as a story · 165 points
HN discussion
