Submission timeline
2007–2026One 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 orderSee also the Gish Gallop, which is a kind of applied Brandolini’s Law https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop “Overwhelm your opponent by providing an excessive number of arguments with no regard for the accuracy or strength of those arguments.” It is, in a way, fun to watch this in action and how often it’s employed, now that I know the name for it.
There is a famous quote assigned to Goethe in German, which roughly says »A fool can ask more questions then 7 wise men can answer«. The internet just increased the visibility of fools. Let's ensure wise men don't stop to share their wisedom, because that's what participative education is all about.
Only problem is, both "sides" are perfecting their benefit from this law from a game theoretical perspective. Which is unsurprising, but surprisingly low in the perception of the political debate.
Any information asymmetry will produce incentives to exploit Brandolini’s law. If you pay attention, you will begin to notice frequent examples.
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
- Total points
- 422
- Total comments
- 177
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-06-04 | Brandolini's Law | f_kai | 15 | 0 |
| 2020-10-25 | Brandolini's law | hhs | 3 | 0 |
| 2020-11-16 | Brandolini's Law | enraged_camel | 2 | 0 |
| 2020-12-11 | Brandolini's Law | endymi0n | 2 | 0 |
| 2021-01-29 | Brandolini's LawFirst breakout | ivanmaeder | 132 | 59 |
| 2022-09-06 | Brandolini's Law | isaacfrond | 1 | 0 |
| 2022-10-06 | Brandolini's Law | alas44 | 8 | 2 |
| 2022-10-08 | Brandolini's law: the bullshit asymmetry principle | alas44 | 8 | 1 |
| 2022-10-19 | Brandolini's Law | sogen | 9 | 0 |
| 2023-01-05 | Brandolini's Law | memorable | 5 | 0 |
| 2023-03-04 | Brandolini’s law – bullshit asymmetry principle | BooneJS | 2 | 0 |
| 2023-04-14 | Brandolini's LawHall induction · Best thread | xrd | 179 | 110 |
| 2024-10-24 | Brandolini's Law | smig0 | 4 | 0 |
| 2024-11-18 | Brandolini's Law | throw0101c | 15 | 3 |
| 2025-02-02 | Brandolini's Law | throw0101a | 6 | 0 |
| 2025-02-04 | Brandolini's law – Amount of energy needed to refute bullshitLatest 20+ point return | punnerud | 27 | 2 |
| 2026-05-07 | Brandolini's Law | nvahalik | 4 | 0 |