Top all-time · #250
Steve Pavlina
Personal blog · stevepavlina.comcareerphilosophyproductivity
Steve Pavlina's personal blog at stevepavlina.com covers career, philosophy and productivity. Since 2007, 186 different Hacker News readers have linked it 255 times, most often “Polyphasic Sleep: One Man's 6-Month Experiment (2005)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-06-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Often recommended · 21 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Steve Pavlina's self-help posts on sleep, habits and productivity, such as polyphasic sleep and 30-day trials. Commenters find them helpful, though one calls his recent work crazy.
- Recommended for · 21 comments
- Called worth a read, fascinating, helpful and good; one commenter says a post changed their life.
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?
- Polyphasic Sleep: One Man's 6-Month Experiment (2005)21 people · 21 mentions · first linked 2008-02-13
- How to get up right away when your alarm goes off13 people · 14 mentions · first linked 2008-06-25
- Sleep hacks: How to Become an Early Riser10 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2008-02-13
- Do It Now 8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2007-04-30
- 30 Days to Success5 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2009-12-30
- /5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2008-07-02
- Reasons You Should Never Get a Job5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2007-02-28
- Polyphasic Sleep – Steve Pavlina4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-05-05
- How to Get From a 7 to a 103 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2007-08-08
- /blog/2005/06/self-discipline/3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2009-07-09
What Hacker News says?
If I'm going to believe anything, I'd need a longitudinal study of about 5 years. I find 5 years to be a good hallmark to see whether something had an actual strong impact in my own life (e.g. regarding reading self-help books such as Search Inside Yourself [1] or Steve Pavlina's blog post on how to rock at university [2] -- sorry for being slightly off-topic but these two things changed my life). [1] https://www.am…
Comment linking /blog/2006/05/10-tips-for-college-students/
on “Four-day week trial: study finds lower stress but no cut in output”Submitted Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook as a story · 187 points
HN discussionAlso worth a read, this piece by Steve Pavlina on Overcoming News Addiction, all the way from 2006: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/09/overcoming-news-add...
Comment linking /blog/2006/09/overcoming-news-addiction/
on “News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier”Submitted Sleep hacks: How to Become an Early Riser as a story · 74 points
HN discussionThe author of the Ubersleep book is an example of someone actually sticking with it. http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/the-ubersleep-book/ Another well-documented example is Steve Pavlina. http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/
Comment linking /blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/
on “Sleep as a Competitive Advantage”Submitted Do It Now as a story · 71 points
HN discussionYou mention that less sleep makes you feel better, Have you tried Polyphasic sleep? http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/ I'm sure you have, but your initial positive reaction to a massive dose of Vitamin D made you much better. Have you investigated what further large doses would do? (under doctor supervision of course) I mean much larger than the initial prescription.
Comment linking /blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/
on “Save My Life - help a fellow HN'er”Submitted Steve Pavlina releases 1000+ personal development articles into public domain as a story · 61 points
HN discussionTry this series by Steve Pavlina http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/
Comment linking /blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/
on “Blind man shocks researchers with what he sees.”Submitted Polyphasic Sleep: One Man's 6-Month Experiment (2005) as a story · 60 points
HN discussionThis reminds me of Steve Pavlina who successfully slept 2-3 hrs per day for 5.5 months and reported no ill effects. source: https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/ We definitely need more people to try variations on this. If you're in confinement, this is actually a great time to try.
Comment linking /blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/
on “The effects on cognition of sleeping 4 hours per night for 12-14 days”Submitted Becoming Addiction-Free (2017) as a story · 52 points
HN discussionBeen down in the deep depression pit of darkness myself. Your career isn't worth losing your life. There's lots of good advice in these comments. Don't make any final decisions in your current state of mind. Seriously. Seek help out of the darkness. Finding a therapist who is a good fit may take some doing. For some great perspectives: http://www.stevepavlina.com/ http://theancientwisdomproject.com/
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Failed interview, feeling unemployable and depressed – what do I do?”Submitted Jobs vs Passive Income as a story · 49 points
HN discussionsomeone suggest the opposite[1]: If you sleep set hours, you’ll sometimes go to bed when you aren’t sleepy enough. If it’s taking you more than five minutes to fall asleep each night, you aren’t sleepy enough. You’re wasting time lying in bed awake and not being asleep. Another problem is that you’re assuming you need the same number of hours of sleep every night, which is a false assumption. Your sleep needs vary f…
Comment linking /blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-early-riser/
on “Sleep: Everything You Need to Know”Submitted Do It Now (2005) as a story · 35 points
HN discussionThis is Gold, Jerry, GOLD. And the best advice on creating these rituals, or HABITS is Seifeld's "Don't break the chain", coupled with Pavlina's 30-day trials. http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-se... http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/04/30-days-to-success/
Comment linking /blog/2005/04/30-days-to-success/
on “The Only Way to Get Important Things Done ”Submitted Dropping Adsense - Saying Goodbye to $100K Per Year in Easy Income as a story · 28 points
HN discussion"If lots of [employees] are flocking to a new business unit, that's a good sign that the opportunity is a good one. . . . If a business unit can't attract people very easily, that's a good sign that it's a business Enron shouldn't be in." - Jeff Skilling, former president of Enron http://www.gladwell.com/2002/2002_07_22_a_talent.htm Contrast that with the Facebook approach: "Resourcing for projects is purely volunta…
Comment linking /blog/2011/01/leaving-facebook/
on “How Facebook Ships Code”Submitted The Value of Ideas as a story · 27 points
HN discussion> It's a bit like jumping out of the bed before the brain realizes what you're doing and has no time to scream "I don't want to wake up!" :) Here's a good technique for training yoũrself to get up in the morning: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/04/how-to-get-up-right... It's the same technique that you suggested: train yourself to get up as more of a reflex of hearing the alarm, not as a series of mental motiv…
Comment linking /blog/2006/04/how-to-get-up-right-away-when-your-alarm-goes-off/
on “I never finish anyth”Submitted How to Be a Man as a story · 26 points
HN discussionNice, thanks for pointing this out. I am amazed by the quality of writing! Nice random nugget: https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/05/herd-stupidity/ > This isn’t a situation where you should look to the masses for guidance. When you see idiotic behavior, don’t let the fact that everyone else seems fine with it persuade you that it’s probably okay. Stupid behavior that’s popular is still stupid. A bar full of idi…
Comment linking /blog/2020/05/herd-stupidity/
on “Blogging Is Not Dead”Submitted How to Become More Successful as a story · 19 points
HN discussionThere are problems with all three techniques. The problem with adopting a prevention focus is that it doesn't work. Or, rather, it might work when the fear of failure is the only fear at stake, but -- at least for me -- it seldom is. For example, one might have thoughts like "I really need to be doing this, otherwise it might be too late ... hang on, it already might be too late ... I really should check ... but wha…
Comment linking /blog/2006/04/how-to-get-up-right-away-when-your-alarm-goes-off/
on “How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To”Submitted Reasons You Should Never Get a Job as a story · 18 points
HN discussionAbout 10 years ago Steve seemed really on the level of someone like Joel regarding software development and general life advice. Now it seems Steve is all crazy stuff. For example this is Timecube level thinking: https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2019/02/your-10-dimensiona...
Comment linking /blog/2019/02/your-10-dimensional-self/
on “Ask HN: What are good resources for life advice?”Submitted Self-Discipline: Hard Work as a story · 12 points
HN discussionI was going to suggest Dr. Peterson, but Ctrl+F revealed a veritable graveyard of downvoted comments about him already. That's too bad. So I'll go with Steve Pavlina's [0] work instead. Steve Pavlina's blog is a mix of solid personal development advice mixed with a journal of his self experimentation. His most interesting work is on belief systems, and on deliberately installing new belief systems to improve your li…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: What are good resources for life advice?”Submitted How to beat the competition (Steve Pavlina) as a story · 8 points
HN discussion
