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The Egg

www.galactanet.com Essays & writing Essays & articles Culture & media Class of 2018-05 Hall of Fame
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Resurfaced independently across 16 calendar years, with breakout response in 2 of them.

submissions
35
submitters
25
observed span
2010–2026
peak thread · 153 comments
450 pts
latest 20+ return · 2018-05-24
223 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 guess I'm in the minority that doesn't find this story uplifting. The memory reset is the biggest problem, since it doesn't allow the main character to learn from his mistakes. At the end of time, the main character will have his memories and personalities merged. Then he'll look back on countless lifetimes of the same mistakes and regrets. It would be like if someone slipped you some Ambien (to prevent memory formation), played the same prank on you 20…

chroma·450-point thread·

Here's a fun "before he was famous" moment - Andy Weir did an AMA on Reddit pre-The Martian success where he talked about writing The Egg. Here he responds to a question about his other writing where he goes on to mention that he's disappointed that The Martian hasn't been successful. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/zt1n6/i_am_andy_weir_...

Reminds me of the story Feynman tells about Wheeler, who calls him up one day and tries to convince him that there is only one electron in the entire universe. This single electron is bouncing forward and background through time endlessly, creating the illusion of a multitude of particles (electrons when going forward in time, and positrons when traveling back): "I received a telephone call one day at the graduate college at Princeton from Professor Wheeler, in which he said…

Video adaptation: https://youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

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
819

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Total comments
233

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Every submission

DateTitle as submittedByPointsComments
2010-07-06The Eggpavs8020
2011-09-12The Eggolalonde10
2012-09-19The Egghobonumber130
2012-12-05The Eggslevin06310
2013-10-09The Egglandakram10
2014-02-08The EggFirst breakout · Best threadmickgiles450153
2014-10-14The Eggdkarapetyan20
2015-03-27The Egg – Short Story by Andy Weir20kleagues11
2016-03-22The EggTomte10
2016-11-20The EggTomte10
2016-12-19The Eggdkarapetyan20
2017-04-09The EggTomte20
2017-07-08The EggTomte20
2017-07-26The Eggagreen10
2017-11-17The EggTomte30
2018-05-24The Egg (2009)Hall induction · Latest 20+ point returnTomte22351
2019-09-02The Eggsnailletters41
2019-09-02The Egglobo_tuerto10
2020-12-29The EggStrauXX31
2021-02-10The EggTomte10
2021-09-02The EggTomte10
2021-09-04The Eggjs251
2022-02-10The Egg, by Andy Weirscaglio11
2022-05-08The Egg (Weir short story, 2009)codetrotter31
2022-05-10The EggTomte40
2022-06-09The Eggkrthr11
2022-10-15The Eggthunderbong10
2023-09-09The Egg (2009)drx30
2024-03-19The EggEndXA20
2024-06-09The EggEndXA21
2024-11-07The Egg by Andy Weirthenobsta20
2026-01-06The Egg, by Andy Weiroriettaxx10
2026-01-20The Eggkordlessagain11
2026-03-14The Egg (2009)basilikum30
2026-04-09'The Egg' by Andy Weir (2009)goekjclo60