Top all-time · #997
Ryan Holiday
Personal blog · ryanholiday.netwritingproductivity
Ryan Holiday writes RyanHoliday.net, a personal blog at ryanholiday.net about writing and productivity. Since 2008, 70 different Hacker News readers have linked it 132 times, most often “Career Advice Ryan Holiday Wishes He'd Known Earlier”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-28, and you can follow it by feed.
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Most-linked posts?
- Career Advice Ryan Holiday Wishes He'd Known Earlier3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-02-25
- How to Read More – A Lot More3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2015-12-29
- The Notecard System (2014)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-01-22
- This Is What Real Analysis Looks Like2 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2010-10-04
- How and Why to Keep a “Commonplace Book” (2014)2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-01-19
- Books Every Young and Wildly Ambitious Person Should Read2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2017-06-02
- /reading-list/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-01-17
- You Don't Have to Be Lucky, You Just Have to Be Good2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-08-06
- 38 Rules for Better Reading2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-09-10
- All Success Is a Lagging Indicator2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-12-29
What Hacker News says?
http://stevehanov.ca/blog/ -- Updates infrequently. Very good programming articles. http://duartes.org/gustavo/blog/ -- Updates infrequently. Good articles on Linux and Programming. Start here: http://duartes.org/gustavo/blog/best-of http://catonmat.net -- He doesn't update much anymore since he's working on his startup but the archives are still good. Mostly unix tools and CompSci stuff IIRC. http://chneukirchen.or…
Comment linking /an-introduction-to-me/
on “Ask HN: What programming blogs do you read daily?”Submitted Interviews vs. auditions as a story · 210 points
HN discussionOne of my favorite articles I always share when someone does an unsolicited redesign without putting the requisite analysis into it: http://www.ryanholiday.net/this-is-what-real-analysis-looks-...
Comment linking /this-is-what-real-analysis-looks-like/
on “Wikipedia Redefined”Submitted Lessons from Owning a Bookstore as a story · 123 points
HN discussionYou can read a lot more than you'd think. Ryan Holiday had a great post about this very topic: http://ryanholiday.net/how-to-read-more-a-lot-more/
Comment linking /how-to-read-more-a-lot-more/
on “Best things and stuff of 2015”Submitted Adequate Sleep Is Necessary for Sanity and Success as a story · 56 points
HN discussionIt's not a perfect system, but I find index cards to be superior to notebooks in almost every way. Notebooks are good for linear content, but for most of what you described index cards are better because they are modular, fileable, and sortable. Before the Internet, the world ran on index cards. Cool quote in a book? Put it on a card and file it by theme. Reminder about feedback I want to write up for a colleague? P…
Comment linking /how-and-why-to-keep-a-commonplace-book/
on “Ask HN: How do you organise/integrate all the information in your life?”Submitted So You Want To Be A Writer? That’s Mistake #1 as a story · 49 points
HN discussionWhen I saw their new boarding pass I just had to laugh. Someone awhile back went and redesigned Delta's boarding pass[1] and got a lot of crap over it for not taking into account why the boarding pass was the way it was.[2][3] But apparently someone at Virgin was taking notes. [1] http://passfail.squarespace.com/ [2] http://blog.timoni.org/post/318322031/a-practical-boarding-p... [3] http://www.ryanholiday.net/this-…
Comment linking /this-is-what-real-analysis-looks-like/
on “The new VirginAmerica.com”Submitted Career Advice Ryan Holiday Wishes He'd Known Earlier as a story · 18 points
HN discussionhttp://www.ryanholiday.net/the-imaginary-audience/ Schopenhauer had a name for this empty talk, he called it “fencing in the mirror.” It’s more common than you think. Consider all the times you’ve seen some blogger apologize for not posting recently – profusely addressing some concern that likely was never expressed. Or the Twitter updates to 38 followers, half of which are bots or uncaring companies. More realistic…
Comment linking /the-imaginary-audience/
on “Buzz Kill”Submitted Life Happens in Public. Get Used to It as a story · 15 points
HN discussionI am in a tiny minority here, but I just don't care to travel. You have a friend in Emerson: http://www.ryanholiday.net/emerson-on-travel/
Comment linking /emerson-on-travel/
on “Traveling, Writing and Programming”Submitted A Stoic Guide to Navigating the Modern Workplace as a story · 10 points
HN discussionI've taken quite a few things from Ryan Holiday's approach to reading: https://ryanholiday.net/the-notecard-system-the-key-for-reme... https://ryanholiday.net/read-to-lead-how-to-digest-books-abo... I also go through all notes on a subject [from other books I've read] when reading a new book to see how my new view of the whole subject might change given the new information.
Comment linking /read-to-lead-how-to-digest-books-above-your-level/
on “How I read books: a guide on how to learn”Submitted Ryan Holiday: 37 (Or So) Lessons from a 37 Year Old as a story · 8 points
HN discussionFollowing Ryan Holiday's recommendation ( http://www.ryanholiday.net/reading-list/ ), I highly, highly advise you to go with the Gregory Hays' translation ( http://amzn.to/XQSimT )! I have a copy of Long's and it doesn't do it justice. If you want to dive deeper consider Pierre Hadot's 'The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius" - http://amzn.to/YuWyvh I am also fond of these YouTube lectures on the Medi…
Comment linking /reading-list/
on “The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius”Submitted It’s Not Enough to Be Right–You Also Have to Be Kind as a story · 7 points
HN discussionHere's an article by someone using a similar system where I think how it's actually used in practice is described pretty well: https://ryanholiday.net/how-and-why-to-keep-a-commonplace-bo...
Comment linking /how-and-why-to-keep-a-commonplace-book/
on “Luhmann's Zettelkasten”Submitted Books Every Young and Wildly Ambitious Person Should Read as a story · 7 points
HN discussionI remember reading this similar (though not as polite) criticism in 2010: https://ryanholiday.net/this-is-what-real-analysis-looks-lik...
Comment linking /this-is-what-real-analysis-looks-like/
on “Redesigning the airport boarding pass (2010)”Submitted Sleeping enough is a perquisite for sanity and success as a story · 6 points
HN discussionI do that with my browser bookmarks, but not with Pocket, I usually read everything I save there. You are essentially building an anti-library: http://www.ryanholiday.net/building-your-antilibrary/ I have had numerous problems come up that I knew immediately where to look for a solution, even I haven't read all those articles.
Comment linking /building-your-antilibrary/
on “Do you really read?”Submitted In Harness as a story · 6 points
HN discussionI think this is great! It may not work if you're trying to build a five-minute-a-day daily habit, it may not work for everyone, but there's def something to it! There's also a pattern of some pretty productive people making playlists of a few upbeat but simple songs they'd never listen to otherwise, and putting that on repeat when they go heads-down on something, see e.g. one of my favorite examples: https://ryanhol…
Comment linking /the-guilty-crazy-secret-that-helps-me-write/
on “Montage fallacy”Submitted 100 Things I Learned in 10 Years and 100 Reads of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThis article is entitled "There's No Such Thing as Quality Time." It's oriented towards families, but it makes the case that there's no levels of time, just...time, we spend together. Things happen in the cracks between scheduled events that matter. https://ryanholiday.net/quality-time/ When you work remote, everything is scheduled, almost by definition. No conversations happen that are not task-directed. You lose s…
Comment linking /quality-time/
on “Ask HN: What is your strongest argument against remote work?”Submitted Texas Forever: How I Found the American Dream in the Lone Star State as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThis may be a controversial opinion, but I think people put too much stock in mentors. They can be extremely valuable, no doubt. But often the advice they'll give is out in the world if you just know where to look. I've found that carefully controlling the flow of information reaching my brain - reading books (not just business books - the classics, history, psychology, etc.), cultivating a Twitter feed of people th…
Comment linking /finding-a-mentor/
on “Ask HN: How can I find a good mentor?”Submitted How and Why to Keep a “Commonplace Book” (2014) as a story · 4 points
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