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Aaron Swartz: How I Hire Programmers

www.aaronsw.com Essays & writing Essays & articles Work & careers Candidate
Screenshot of www.aaronsw.com captured 2026-07-20
Page preview · captured 2026-07-20

Resurfaced independently across 5 calendar years, with breakout response in 2 of them.

submissions
5
submitters
5
observed span
2009–2025
peak thread · 97 comments
276 pts
latest 20+ return · 2015-05-22
138 pts

Submission timeline

2007–2026

One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.

First comments on top threads

HN comment order

I'm not aware of all the details of Aaron's career, but I was not under the impression that he has been in a position to hire that many people. Knowing who he was hiring for what size organizations and in what capacity would be useful information.

davidw·276-point thread·

I feel rather silly commenting as a voice of dissent here, against a man who cannot defend himself, but here goes. These are rather obvious metrics that a child could have drafted. Are you smart? Can do you do things? The problem is that these are subjective measures. A smart person, who sets the world on fire and gets things done, perhaps like Aaron did or could have done, has a different perspective than say a 50-something product manager. They…

axaxs·138-point thread·

Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20130114165255/http://aaronsw.co...

dvrp·2-point thread·

The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.

Breakout years
2

100+ points or 50+ comments

Total points
424

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Total comments
136

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Every submission

DateTitle as submittedByPointsComments
2009-11-29Aaron Swartz: How I Hire ProgrammersFirst breakout · Best threadmqt27697
2015-05-22How I Hire Programmers (2009)Latest 20+ point returngarymoon13838
2019-05-02How I Hire Programmers (2009)mooreds50
2024-07-25How I Hire Programmers (2009)janandonly30
2025-09-13How I Hire Programmers (2009)dvrp21