Skip to content
HomeVideosBooksBlogs
AllTop postsTopics
Podcasts
HistoryListsWatch laterLiked videosFollowing

The videos, books, blogs and podcasts Hacker News keeps recommending, all in one place.

VideosBooksBlogsPodcastsAboutPrivacySettings

Data from Hacker News, HackerTube, HackerBooks, HackerBlogs and Open Library. Credits · Not affiliated with Y Combinator.

HomeVideosBooksBlogsPodcasts
Ctrl K
    U

    Useful Fictions

    usefulfictions.substack.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2024

    A Substack on personal agency, motivation, and self-change, with essays on willpower, thinking habits, and one author's experience with testosterone treatment.

    Visit blogHN submissions
    PsychologyProductivity
    What HN says

    HN links it for its writing on agency; one commenter points to a TED talk post there as an interesting treatment of a term often used but rarely defined.

    Stats for nerds
    22HN people shared it
    44linked in comments
    1.7Kstory points
    Nov 2025last shared

    Top posts on HN

    1. 1
      Maybe you’re not trying
      4 people · 458 points · first shared 2025 · 188 comments on HN
    2. 2
      The Moat of Low Status
      1 person · 397 points · first shared 2025 · 167 comments on HN
    3. 3
      How to Be More Agentic
      4 people · 297 points · first shared 2024 · 201 comments on HN
    4. 4
      Are you stuck in movie logic?
      2 people · 242 points · first shared 2025 · 190 comments on HN
    5. 5
      How to increase your surface area for luck
      1 person · 213 points · first shared 2025 · 101 comments on HN
    6. 6
      In Praise of Quitting
      1 person · 34 points · first shared 2025 · 3 comments on HN
    7. 7
      Fuck Willpower
      2 people · 15 points · first shared 2025 · 1 comments on HN
    8. 8
      Testosterone gave me my life back
      3 people · 13 points · first shared 2025 · 2 comments on HN
    9. 9
      Rightness Is a Prison
      2 people · 13 points · first shared 2025 · Discussion on HN
    10. 10
      Are You a Jerk, or a Liar? On talking past each other
      3 people · 6 points · first shared 2024 · 1 comments on HN

    What HN people wrote when they linked it

    • jimbokunNov 2025

      This Ted Talk from his wife is also very interesting:

      https://usefulfictions.substack.com/p/behold-my-ted-talk

      The topic is agency. Which is a word I hear often used by rarely defined or described in detail.

      She talks about agency as being the key to going from drug addict to CEO of a successful organization, and the specific habits that process involved.

    Related

    LessWronglesswrong.com2.4k people

    The Best Textbooks on Every Subject

    LessWrong
    Publication · last shared 2026
    In Over Your Headinoveryourhead.net34 people

    Things I Should Have Known at 20

    In Over Your Head
    Personal · last shared 2014
    Philosophy & Logicmedium.com/philosophy-logic25 people

    Okay, Feminism, It’s Time We Had a Talk About Empathy

    Philosophy & Logic
    Publication · last shared 2016
    Raptituderaptitude.com136 people

    Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

    Raptitude
    Personal · last shared 2026
    Life Learningmedium.com/life-learning158 people

    Your Life Is Tetris. Stop Playing It Like Chess

    Life Learning
    Publication · last shared 2020
    Sasha Chapinsashachapin.substack.com48 people

    My stages of learning to be a socially normal person

    Sasha Chapin
    Personal · last shared 2026
    Keep Learning, Keep Growingmedium.com/keep-learning-keep-growing33 people

    Good CEOs aren't busy

    Keep Learning, Keep Growing
    Publication · last shared 2016
    Impossible HQimpossiblehq.com26 people

    Impossible food sues to cancel earlier trademark owners

    Impossible HQ
    Personal · last shared 2023