Top all-time · #811
Tynan
Personal blog · tynan.comcultureproductivity
Tynan is a personal blog at tynan.com about culture and productivity. Since 2010, 80 different Hacker News readers have linked it 111 times, most often “Why Cruise Ships are My Favorite Remote Work Location”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-29, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 8 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Tynan's posts on minimalism, living in an RV or on cruise ships, and working remotely. The comments treat the posts as practical guides and reading recommendations.
- Recommended for · 8 comments
- One commenter calls his blog excellent and says it is required reading. Others call the gear posts a guide they highly recommend, a post good reading, and anoth
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.
I’m the creator of CruiseSheet and author of 6 books. Former poker player, one of the main characters in The Game, bought an island, called "King of the Nerds" by Gawker and "Quint...
Most-linked posts?
- Why Cruise Ships are My Favorite Remote Work Location7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2013-11-08
- Conversation Skills Essentials4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-01-01
- Living in a Small RV (2008)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2012-03-16
- Love Work3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2012-09-27
- /lifenomadic2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-07-26
- My Friends and I Bought an Island (2013)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-02-23
- Look what Tynan made - Cruise Sheet2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-10-15
- Building My E-Ink Tea Labeling System2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-01-28
- It or Nothing2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-01-29
- Gear Post 20262 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-02-06
What Hacker News says?
A blogger I read, Tynan ( http://tynan.com/ ), writes a blog post every day, however he posts only the best ones, in order to maximize quality (i.e. both from being selective and from the practice of writing).
Comment linking /
on “I'm learning to code by building 180 websites in 180 days. Today is day 115”Submitted My Friends and I Bought an Island as a story · 832 points
HN discussionhttp://www.tynan.com/living-in-a-small-rv-introduction/
Comment linking /living-in-a-small-rv-introduction/
on “Hi I’m Hank, and I bought a bus”Submitted Why Cruise Ships are My Favorite Remote Work Location as a story · 355 points
HN discussionIt's really poorly written, but here's what I wrote about it 8 years ago: http://tynan.com/the-infamous-ghetto-indoor-pool
Comment linking /the-infamous-ghetto-indoor-pool
on “My Friends and I Bought an Island”Submitted What Shape Are You? as a story · 230 points
HN discussion> There's probably some much cooler stuff I'm forgetting, but hey it makes perfect sense he'd be part of an island buying crew. He mentions these and more on this page: http://tynan.com/about
Comment linking /about
on “My Friends and I Bought an Island”Submitted How I Choose What to Work On (2023) as a story · 114 points
HN discussionI share this preference at times. At times I disappear somewhere quite for months to learn, focus, get stuff done. Most people I know doing that have a) no pets, b) only what's truly necessary. Have a look at some examples of packing lists below. It's a great experience on it's own to learn how little you truly need. The couple behind http://8milesfromhome.com/ is traveling with a dog and the couple behind http://al…
Comment linking /gear2014
on “Show HN: NomadList – The best cities to live and work remotely in”Submitted Investing Time vs. Spending Time as a story · 62 points
HN discussionThis is totally what you need to read. http://tynan.com/lovework
Comment linking /lovework
on “I'm a loser and I want to change that - now”Submitted Why Cruise Ships Are My Favorite Remote Work Location (2013) as a story · 50 points
HN discussion> if I could start on it A suggestion for getting yourself to spend time on large projects: http://tynan.com/ornothing "Do it or nothing"
Comment linking /ornothing
on “A Self-Learning, Modern Computer Science Curriculum”Submitted The Hustler's MBA as a story · 48 points
HN discussionI'm pretty sure it's the other way around: he wouldn't be launching a cruise deal aggregator site if he weren't so gung ho about working on cruise ships. http://tynan.com/cruisesheet
Comment linking /cruisesheet
on “Why Cruise Ships are My Favorite Remote Work Location”Submitted Why I Brought 12 Square Feet of Cake to Twitter HQ last Friday as a story · 24 points
HN discussionI hated small talk traditionally. It was very much a learned trait. One of the best conversation openers is “what keeps you busy?” and then ask open ended questions. Ask about their favorite travel destinations or even what are some interesting things about where they live. On the other hand, step outside your comfort zone and try something different so you have something to talk about interesting. https://tynan.com…
Comment linking /letstalk/
on “AI killed the tech interview. Now what?”Submitted A Rebuttal of XKCD's Pickup Artist Comic by one of the Characters from The Game as a story · 7 points
HN discussionI have relatives in Liberty ME and we Kayak (usually on the coast) quite often. We'll have to add this to our spots and check it out... Also, there was an article a while back on HN about some friends who bought an island: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6395148 Wonder how that's going... http://tynan.com/island2
Comment linking /island2
on “Cards Against Humanity’s Private Island”Submitted Building My E-Ink Tea Labeling System as a story · 6 points
HN discussionTynan lives in his van RV in SF and works on his startup full time. He's been living in it for years. If I was going to do this, I would get a roadtrek and remove the decals. They stand out the least. http://tynan.com/community/living-in-a-small-rv-introduction
Comment linking /community/living-in-a-small-rv-introduction
on “Living in a Van”Submitted The AI window is now as a story · 5 points
HN discussion"Headline: guy owns 15 things ... read article, guy owns more than 15 things." Haha exactly how I felt when I read it. This is a good blog post of gear for this kinda travel or lifestyle http://tynan.com/2010gear . The 14 things I own and the cost of each item. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsFrsoFjrGmgdFB...
Comment linking /2010gear
on “Extreme Minimalism: this guy owns just 15 things”Submitted Sacrifice as a story · 4 points
HN discussionGood article I especially like the perspective about one months income to one years travel. If your thinking about doing this one thing I would recommend is a much smaller backpack. With a 90L pack you are lugging it around everywhere, you will also look like a tourist everywhere you go. See http://tynan.com/2010gear , Tim Ferris also has a post on light packing I believe. A 22l can be done (although prob not with a…
Comment linking /2010gear
on “How to travel around the world for a year (2011)”Submitted Why you should probably buy bitcoins as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI have not reached that goal yet. I still own more things than I should. If you want inspiration, you can find it there: https://www.reddit.com/r/onebag/ Here's a good example: http://tynan.com/gear2017 I live in Canada, so it's not going to be as easy as if I lived in California.
Comment linking /gear2017
on “On Digital Minimalism”Submitted Why and how to learn to program as a story · 4 points
HN discussionA few years ago I ditched all of my belongings and bought the stuff outlined in tynan's gear posts [0][1][2]. I highly recommend his suggestions. It's nice to see people waking up to the idea that destroying your twenties by working in front of a computer is an unhealthy thing. Take the long view. Life is short. [0] http://tynan.com/2010gear [1] http://tynan.com/2011gear [2] http://tynan.com/packing2012
Comment linking /packing2012
on “Simplify”Submitted An Island, Vegas, Budapest for a Fraction of the Median House Price as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
