Top all-time · #1315
Stephen Fry
Personal blog · stephenfry.comculturewriting
Stephen Fry's personal blog at stephenfry.com covers culture and writing. Since 2007, 56 different Hacker News readers have linked it 65 times, most often “Too many people have peed in the pool (2016)”. The last post was in 2023, but the archive is still widely read.
UK comedian, actor, writer, and presenter.
Most-linked posts?
- Too many people have peed in the pool (2016)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-02-17
- An Open Letter to David Cameron and the IOC3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-08-07
- The Way Ahead (2017)2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2017-05-29
- Stephen Fry: America’s Place In The World (2009)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-05-23
- Stephen Fry: Steve Jobs2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-10-06
- Only the Lonely2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-06-24
- iPad About2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-01-28
- Too many people have peed in the pool2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-02-15
- /2008/11/04/dont-mind-your-language%E2%80%A6/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-09-27
- Four and a Half Years On - A History of Smartphone Business 2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-04-03
What Hacker News says?
While the quotes are nice, at the same time ignoring curse words entirely is basically cutting off a significant portion of expression. While I'm not saying you should litter all of your sentences with them, they do get the point across much better than not. A (long) view on the subject by Stephen Fry that basically points out we shouldn't lament language change and other ways of expressing ourselves. http://www.ste…
Comment linking /2008/11/04/dont-mind-your-language%E2%80%A6/
on “Beta Late Than Never (Steam Linux Beta)”Submitted Too many people have peed in the pool as a story · 694 points
HN discussionWell, in this case the publishing medium is presumably owned/controlled by him since it's posted on http://www.stephenfry.com While he may not have the knowledge to modify the site himself, he could tell the people he's paying to remove the ad. It's most likely the case that he wants the ad.
Comment linking /
on “Off the Grid”Submitted Only the Lonely as a story · 395 points
HN discussionThere are lots of reasons why Silicon Valley became what it is today, but it seems that by far it is because William Shockley [0] was born there - "Shockley is the man who brought silicon to Silicon Valley." Shockley was working at Bell Labs over in New Jersey on solid state electronics, and was jointly awarded the Noble Prize for the discovery of the transistor effect. When he moved back home, angry at how the inve…
Comment linking /greatleapyears/
on “Nearly half of Bay Area residents say they want to leave”Submitted Off the Grid as a story · 313 points
HN discussionStephen Fry ranting on language nazis: Season 2, Episode 3: Language: http://www.stephenfry.com/category/media/audio/ I don't really know who he is, but he make some very convincing arguments.
Comment linking /category/media/audio/
on “Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences”Submitted Stephen Fry: Steve Jobs as a story · 212 points
HN discussionWhat the hell is Twitter turning into? A broadcast Messenger chat? It seems like to me that Twitter is increasingly promoting the mindlessness often found on sites like Reddit; In my opinion the attempt to increase the number of GIFs in an attempt to resume growth to millenials is misguided, and will lower the quality of Tweets overall (not that it was high to begin with), and will likely further alienate parts of i…
Comment linking /2016/02/peedinthepool/
on “Introducing GIF search on Twitter”Submitted Too many people have peed in the pool (2016) as a story · 151 points
HN discussionJust for those curious about the Fry quote, I think it might originate from his blog, himself quoting Alastair Campbell. At the very least there's a nice reference to it, and I'm happily crawling along the links enjoying it. http://www.stephenfry.com/2013/06/24/only-the-lonely/ http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog/2013/06/10/response-to-...
Comment linking /2013/06/24/only-the-lonely/
on “Scientists are suggesting that depression is a result of inflammation”Submitted Stephen Fry on binary choices as a story · 64 points
HN discussionI'm torn between wanting to close this tab immediately before I get irrationally furious at people who probably mean well, and wanting to battle this out with every comment like yours in the small hope that it changes at least one person's attitude towards depression. > The parent comment is suggesting that people with depression need to take control of their own life by recognizing what makes them unhappy in order…
Comment linking /2013/06/only-the-lonely/
on “The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf]”Submitted Stephen Fry on the History of the Smartphone as a story · 56 points
HN discussion> “If DAUs go down or stay flat, the stock could go under $10,” one former employee said. “I feel like if that happens most people at the company will just quit. I know several friends already looking to get out.” That might be optimistic on the part of the employee. Snap chat is in a bad position in that they don't have their Donald Trump like twitter to keep in in vogue, and they don't have their advertising cash…
Comment linking /2016/02/peedinthepool/
on “Confidential metrics for Snapchat features”Submitted Stephen Fry on the iPhone, Bold, Storm, and G1 as a story · 52 points
HN discussionGreat institution, though a bit expensive. I heard about it through a blog post by Stephen Fry, who is a big fan: http://www.stephenfry.com/2011/12/londonlibrary/ I did not join, but did go on one of their public tours, which was really interesting: http://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/about-us/public-tours-events
Comment linking /2011/12/londonlibrary/
on “Secrets of the London Library”Submitted iPad About as a story · 45 points
HN discussionStephen Fry is one source of the story. > I like to claim that I bought the second Macintosh computer ever sold in Europe in that January, 30 years ago. My friend and hero Douglas Adams was in the queue ahead of me. For all I know someone somewhere had bought one ten minutes earlier, but these were the first two that the only shop selling them in London had in stock on the 24th January 1984, so I’m sticking to my st…
Comment linking /2014/01/mac-at-30/
on “Bill Atkinson doxxed Douglas Adams in 1987”Submitted Thoughtful outsiders take on the US by Stephen Fry as a story · 41 points
HN discussionThis kind of article is mostly clickbait at this point. There's a lot of "interest" in these kinds of topics and they attract a lot of attention on -funny enough- the same social media platforms. I believe the main problem with those social media apps is not an issue of time, but of productivity and determination/will-power. Think of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, etc... These are not socia…
Comment linking /2016/04/off-the-grid/
on “Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media”Submitted Stephen Fry on the Blackberry as a story · 38 points
HN discussionHe's leaving because of the pc culture. http://www.stephenfry.com/2016/02/15/peedinthepool/
Comment linking /2016/02/15/peedinthepool/
on “Everyone’s offended these days”Submitted Stephenfry.Com 2.0 as a story · 17 points
HN discussionThat's strange considered he published a semi-famous essay taking grammar and language pedants to task. http://www.stephenfry.com/2008/11/04/dont-mind-your-language... How does your link make Fry out to be as dumb as a bag of hammers? You may dislike him personally (shrug) but that does not make the man stupid. I would also agree that the Register are being needlessly cruel by inviting readers to comb though his sta…
Comment linking /2008/11/04/dont-mind-your-language%E2%80%A6/
on “The Last Days of the Polymath (2009)”Submitted The Way Ahead (2017) as a story · 10 points
HN discussionI often find myself in agreement with Fry's seemingly incompatible interests. Like his appreciation for the Free Software movement[1] as well as Apple's achievements[2]. [1]: http://www.gnu.org/fry/ [2]: http://www.stephenfry.com/2010/01/28/ipad-about/
Comment linking /2010/01/28/ipad-about/
on “Stephen Fry on binary choices”Submitted An Open Letter to David Cameron and the IOC as a story · 9 points
HN discussionSingle page version: http://www.stephenfry.com/2012/04/03/four-and-half-years-on/... Has it really been such a short time? It feels more like a decade.
Comment linking /2012/04/03/four-and-half-years-on/single-page/
on “Stephen Fry on the History of the Smartphone”Submitted Stephen Fry: Poles, Politeness, Politics, and Twitter (Oct. '09) as a story · 9 points
HN discussion
