Top all-time · #1
Randall Munroe
Personal blog · xkcd.comscienceculturemath
Randall Munroe writes xkcd, a personal blog at xkcd.com about science, culture and math. Since 2007, 9,868 different Hacker News readers have linked it 19,967 times, most often “Standards (Xkcd)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Rarely recommended · 1 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link xkcd comics as shorthand for recurring tech situations, such as standards sprawl, dependencies, and Torvalds's userspace rule.
- Recommended for · 1 comments
- Says 'nice' after remixing the diagram in the comic, swapping in 'possibly a state-level attacker'.
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?
- Standards (Xkcd)1140 people · 1314 mentions · first linked 2012-03-30
- Xkcd: Ten Thousand684 people · 902 mentions · first linked 2012-08-21
- Relevant in these crypto days – $5 wrench attack561 people · 661 mentions · first linked 2012-03-21
- Every change breaks someone's workflow (2013)425 people · 499 mentions · first linked 2013-02-11
- Dependency238 people · 288 mentions · first linked 2020-08-17
- /386/226 people · 250 mentions · first linked 2011-04-07
- Earth Temperature Timeline221 people · 272 mentions · first linked 2016-09-16
- Constructive206 people · 293 mentions · first linked 2012-03-27
- Xkcd: Standards198 people · 220 mentions · first linked 2011-07-20
- Password Strength192 people · 196 mentions · first linked 2012-04-04
What Hacker News says?
Aw man. I don't have anything profound, but I always smile when I read this XKCD - https://xkcd.com/799/
Comment linking /799/
on “Stephen Hawking has died”Submitted X as a story · 896 points
HN discussionIn the world of cryptography, it is always possible, because you can always be lucky and guess the right "unlock" code. In fact, social engineering is normally used to find the right "unlock" code[0]. The FBI can also unsolder the components in the phone, make a full image of the content, find the encrypted section and then brute-force. This is what is done for SSD. They do not power up the drive, unsolder, put the…
Comment linking /538/
on “A Message to Our Customers”Submitted Dependency as a story · 808 points
HN discussionI suppose I think verbose-ness will help people see the other side of things. I think I was also trying to convince myself that you aren’t just into conspiracy theories, but given that you’re now accusing me of being suspicious… :shrug: it did come full circle where in my first comment I said you would start accusing me. I guess neither of us have anything more to say to each other because we are both too locked int…
Comment linking /386/
on “Backdoor in upstream xz/liblzma leading to SSH server compromise”Submitted Trade (and Tariffs) as a story · 558 points
HN discussionRelevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/2347/
Comment linking /2347/
on “Backdoor in upstream xz/liblzma leading to SSH server compromise”Submitted Xkcd: Heartbleed Explanation as a story · 558 points
HN discussionwe should take this diagram and change "random person in nebraska" to "possibly a state-level attacker" https://xkcd.com/2347/ nice
Comment linking /2347/
on “Backdoor in upstream xz/liblzma leading to SSH server compromise”Submitted Machine Learning as a story · 546 points
HN discussionfunding model of OSS work is obviously a problem, but these problems are deeper than that. even a very well compensated OSS developer can get a knock on the door from a government agency (or anyone with a "$5 wrench")[1] and they might feel "compelled" to give up their maintainer creds. [1]: https://xkcd.com/538/
Comment linking /538/
on “Backdoor in upstream xz/liblzma leading to SSH server compromise”Submitted Survivorship Bias as a story · 464 points
HN discussionLiterally this https://xkcd.com/2347/
Comment linking /2347/
on “Backdoor in upstream xz/liblzma leading to SSH server compromise”Submitted Xkcd: Click and Drag as a story · 418 points
HN discussionhttps://xkcd.com/538/
Comment linking /538/
on “Backdoor in upstream xz/liblzma leading to SSH server compromise”Submitted The day I discovered that Apple Maps is Kind of Good now as a story · 361 points
HN discussionI am thinking more in so-called rubberhose cryptoanalysis. https://xkcd.com/538/
Comment linking /538/
on “Backdoor in upstream xz/liblzma leading to SSH server compromise”Submitted PhD Timeline as a story · 355 points
HN discussion> As a rule of thumb there should be at least ten alternatives I think you mean 14. https://xkcd.com/927/ > When the entire society and economy are being digitized AND that digitisation is controlled and passes through a handful of choke points its an invitation to major disaster. Once again, it's Microsoft, directly, or indirectly, choosing a strategy of eventually getting all worldwide Windows desktops online, and…
Comment linking /927/
on “CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops”Submitted xkcd: Instagram as a story · 332 points
HN discussionObligatory XKCD : dependency [0] [0] https://xkcd.com/2347/
Comment linking /2347/
on “CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops”Submitted Python Environment as a story · 307 points
HN discussionduty calls hey? https://www.xkcd.com/386/
Comment linking /386/
on “Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber”Submitted Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect as a story · 289 points
HN discussion... ahem , the Balmer Peak disagrees: https://xkcd.com/323/
Comment linking /323/
on “Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber”Submitted Frequency as a story · 274 points
HN discussionRelevant XKCD : https://xkcd.com/605/
Comment linking /605/
on “Sora: Creating video from text”Submitted Fifteen Years as a story · 211 points
HN discussionHaha, reminds me exactly of this. https://xkcd.com/810/
Comment linking /810/
on “A search engine that favors text-heavy sites and punishes modern web design”Submitted Operating Systems as a story · 191 points
HN discussion
