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Stuff (2007)

www.paulgraham.com Essays & writing Essays & articles Economics & business Candidate
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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.

Top comments

Depending on how you look at it, I either own 20,000 plus five things, or just two plus five things. I'm exaggerating, but I've got a core point: There are two things that I spend a LOT of time on and get a lot of enjoyment from: * cooking * wood and metalworking I've got two meticulously organized sets of things that reflect that: * a great kitchen with all sorts of implements, frozen stocks, a hundred spices, etc. *…

tjic·127-point thread·

"How do you protect yourself from these people? It can't be easy. I'm a fairly skeptical person, and their tricks worked on me well into my thirties." It's much easier to never get in the habit of buying things in the first place. I remember two particular childhood events that dramatically shaped my consumption habits: In the first, I was 4 years old and in the toy section of Spag's (a discount warehouse near Worcester), and really wanted a new…

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.

HN stats

Breakout years
2

100+ points or 50+ comments

Total points
235

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Total comments
187

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Every submission

DateTitle as submittedByPointsComments
2007-07-31Stuff - Paul GrahamFirst breakoutsamb10592
2013-01-15Stuff (2007)Best thread · Latest 20+ point returngatsby12794
2016-01-31Stuff (2007)shin_lao10
2022-11-14Stuff (2007)dehrmann21