Work & careers

Links about work & careers that Hacker News readers keep rediscovering.

Hall of Fame: 53
Candidates: 68
Types: 8
Median span: 6.2 yrs

Browse Work & careers by type

Every link below is about work & careers and belongs to the selected type.

8 types

Essays & writing 92 Work & careers links 41 Hall · 51 Candidates Books & learning 9 Work & careers links 3 Hall · 6 Candidates Reference 9 Work & careers links 4 Hall · 5 Candidates Software & code 7 Work & careers links 3 Hall · 4 Candidates Audio, video & images 1 Work & careers link 0 Hall · 1 Candidates Research & data 1 Work & careers link 1 Hall · 0 Candidates Sites & organizations 1 Work & careers link 1 Hall · 0 Candidates Tools, games & demos 1 Work & careers link 0 Hall · 1 Candidates

Strongest Hall records

53 items

The Gervais Principle, or the Office According to "The Office"

www.ribbonfarm.com Essays & writing 24 submissions · 24 people · 16.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-12 Resurfaced 2026-03-07

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Don't Call Yourself a Programmer, and Other Career Advice (2011)

www.kalzumeus.com Essays & writing 23 submissions · 22 people · 14.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2016-09 Resurfaced 2021-08-19

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Maker's schedule, Manager's schedule (2009)

www.paulgraham.com Essays & writing 20 submissions · 20 people · 15.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2015-12 Resurfaced 2023-06-24

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You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss (2008)

www.paulgraham.com Essays & writing 9 submissions · 9 people · 14.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2015-06 Resurfaced 2020-10-10

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Structured Procrastination: Do Less, Deceive Yourself, and Succeed Long-Term

www.structuredprocrastination.com Essays & writing 21 submissions · 20 people · 19.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2018-04 Resurfaced 2022-02-10

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Programmer Competency Matrix (2016)

sijinjoseph.com Reference 10 submissions · 10 people · 9.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2015-04 Resurfaced 2017-03-26

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Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B (2009)

improvingsoftware.com Essays & writing 8 submissions · 7 people · 14.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2019-07 Resurfaced 2019-08-02

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Johnny.Decimal

johnnydecimal.com Sites & organizations 15 submissions · 12 people · 7.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-09 Resurfaced 2025-02-21

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Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems

jsomers.net Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 10.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-03 Resurfaced 2025-12-15

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The days are long but the decades are short (2015)

blog.samaltman.com Essays & writing 12 submissions · 12 people · 10.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2019-09 Resurfaced 2023-04-19

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The Wetware Crisis: the Dead Sea effect (2008)

brucefwebster.com Essays & writing 17 submissions · 16 people · 15.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-02 Resurfaced 2024-02-06

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Fast

patrickcollison.com Reference 16 submissions · 15 people · 6.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-03 Resurfaced 2025-08-01

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Hiring Without Whiteboards

github.com Reference 10 submissions · 9 people · 6.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-02 Resurfaced 2020-07-28

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How Developers Stop Learning: Rise of the Expert Beginner (2012)

daedtech.com Essays & writing 12 submissions · 12 people · 10.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-07 Resurfaced 2023-09-17

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In Praise of Idleness (1932)

harpers.org Essays & writing 8 submissions · 8 people · 7.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-07 Resurfaced 2025-09-17

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My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

jeffhuang.com Books & learning 8 submissions · 5 people · 5.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-02 Resurfaced 2025-12-11

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Forgotten Employee (2002)

sites.google.com Essays & writing 8 submissions · 7 people · 9.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-02 Resurfaced 2022-10-19

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Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valued (2012)

www.kalzumeus.com Books & learning 8 submissions · 8 people · 11.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-09 Resurfaced 2023-07-02

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No Hello (2013)

www.nohello.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 6.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-03 Resurfaced 2024-04-30

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Things You're Allowed to Do

milan.cvitkovic.net Essays & writing 8 submissions · 8 people · 4.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-11 Resurfaced 2023-11-24

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Engineering management lessons (2014)

www.defmacro.org Essays & writing 8 submissions · 8 people · 9.1 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2018-09 Resurfaced 2018-09-07

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Big Companies vs. Startups (2015)

danluu.com Essays & writing 12 submissions · 12 people · 9.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-05 Resurfaced 2024-05-15

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Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

mtlynch.io Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 6.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-11 Resurfaced 2024-11-08

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DIB Guide: Detecting Agile BS (2018) [pdf]

media.defense.gov Research & data 10 submissions · 10 people · 5.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-07 Resurfaced 2024-07-25

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Hexing the technical interview (2017)

aphyr.com Essays & writing 9 submissions · 9 people · 7.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2019-12 Resurfaced 2021-10-29

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Developers who use spaces make more money than those who use tabs

stackoverflow.blog Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 6.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-08 Resurfaced 2021-05-17

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Treesheets: cross-platform, free-form data organizer app

strlen.com Software & code 8 submissions · 8 people · 12.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-06 Resurfaced 2021-06-24

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Typing the technical interview

aphyr.com Essays & writing 10 submissions · 10 people · 8.1 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-11 Resurfaced 2022-11-02

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Don't End the Week with Nothing (2014)

training.kalzumeus.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 8.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-03 Resurfaced 2021-03-21

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My [husband] works for Electronic Arts, I'm ... a disgruntled spouse. (2004)

ea-spouse.livejournal.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 13.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-07 Resurfaced 2022-07-15

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Smart Guy Productivity Pitfalls (2013)

bookofhook.blogspot.com Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 10.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2018-03 Resurfaced 2018-03-06

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Monica: Open-source personal CRM

www.monicahq.com Software & code 6 submissions · 6 people · 7.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-11 Resurfaced 2022-11-14

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Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test

www.gwan.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 5.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-01 Resurfaced 2022-01-01

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SCIM: Ncurses based, Vim-like spreadsheet

github.com Software & code 7 submissions · 6 people · 9.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-07 Resurfaced 2026-04-06

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Life is a game, this is your strategy guide (2014)

oliveremberton.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 9.1 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-03 Resurfaced 2023-03-05

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No hello – please don't just say hello in chat

nohello.net Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 3.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-06 Resurfaced 2025-06-17

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If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week?

hbr.org Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 6.1 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-09 Resurfaced 2024-03-01

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The Open-Office Trap (2014)

www.newyorker.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 10.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-08 Resurfaced 2025-08-21

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Get your work recognized: write a brag document

jvns.ca Essays & writing 10 submissions · 10 people · 4.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-12 Resurfaced 2023-12-31

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Normalization of Deviance (2015)

danluu.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 7.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-09 Resurfaced 2025-09-06

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Why I Strive to be a 0.1x Engineer

benjiweber.co.uk Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 6.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-11 Resurfaced 2022-11-10

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The Programmer's Price: Want to hire a coding superstar? Call the agent

www.newyorker.com Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 5.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-10 Resurfaced 2020-10-11

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Questions to ask at the end of a technical interview (2017)

smalldata.tech Books & learning 14 submissions · 3 people · 9.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-06 Resurfaced 2020-04-11

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How some good corporate engineering blogs are written

danluu.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 6.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-05 Resurfaced 2024-05-30

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Hiring Is Broken – My interview experience in the tech industry

medium.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 2.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2019-01 Resurfaced 2019-01-17

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Tools for Better Thinking

untools.co Reference 5 submissions · 5 people · 4.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-06 Resurfaced 2024-06-08

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The STEM Crisis is a Myth

spectrum.ieee.org Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 3.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2017-02 Resurfaced 2017-02-03

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How 'DevOps' Is Killing the Developer (2014)

jeffknupp.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 5.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-01 Resurfaced 2018-06-28

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To be great, be good repeatably

blog.stephsmith.io Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 4.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-12 Resurfaced 2023-12-18

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The Rise and Fall of Getting Things Done

www.newyorker.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 3.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-09 Resurfaced 2023-05-31

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It’s easier to manage four people than one person

staysaasy.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 4 people · 4.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-08 Resurfaced 2022-08-18

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Claude Shannon: How a Genius Thinks, Works, and Lives

medium.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 3.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-01 Resurfaced 2021-01-20

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What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional companies do not

blog.pragmaticengineer.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 2.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-09 Resurfaced 2023-09-17

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Recently resurfaced in work & careers

latest 20+ point return

SCIM: Ncurses based, Vim-like spreadsheet

github.com Software & code 7 submissions · 6 people · 9.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-07 Resurfaced 2026-04-06

420max pts

The Gervais Principle, or the Office According to "The Office"

www.ribbonfarm.com Essays & writing 24 submissions · 24 people · 16.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-12 Resurfaced 2026-03-07

325max pts

Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems

jsomers.net Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 10.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-03 Resurfaced 2025-12-15

513max pts

My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

jeffhuang.com Books & learning 8 submissions · 5 people · 5.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-02 Resurfaced 2025-12-11

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In Praise of Idleness (1932)

harpers.org Essays & writing 8 submissions · 8 people · 7.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-07 Resurfaced 2025-09-17

270max pts

Candidates

Browse 68 candidates

HOWTO: Be more productive (2005)

www.aaronsw.com Essays & writing 14 submissions · 14 people · 18.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-10-24

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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We only hire the trendiest

danluu.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 5.6 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-10-27

Needs:5 submissions

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So you want to be a consultant? (2005)

unixwiz.net Books & learning 10 submissions · 8 people · 17.9 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-08-20

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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How to lose time and money

www.paulgraham.com Essays & writing 8 submissions · 8 people · 13.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2011-11-14

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Taskwarrior

taskwarrior.org Software & code 9 submissions · 9 people · 13.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-08-27

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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People suck at technical interviews (2014)

seldo.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 4.8 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2019-06-12

Needs:5 submissions

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Seeking the productive life: Some details of my personal infrastructure (2019)

writings.stephenwolfram.com Essays & writing 8 submissions · 8 people · 5.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2025-11-12

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Developer hiring and the market for lemons

danluu.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 3.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-06-16

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Show HN: Trilium Notes – Scriptable note-taking application

github.com Software & code 9 submissions · 8 people · 3.6 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-07-17

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Work peak and professional decline (2019)

www.theatlantic.com Essays & writing 7 submissions · 6 people · 6.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-03-29

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Being Glue

noidea.dog Essays & writing 15 submissions · 15 people · 5.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-11-17

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Kinopio

kinopio.club Tools, games & demos 7 submissions · 7 people · 5.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-05-21

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Is it Time for You to Earn or to Learn?

www.bothsidesofthetable.com Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 12.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2013-03-19 archived copy

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

hbr.org Essays & writing 6 submissions · 5 people · 4.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-03-26

Needs:3 active years

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Driving engineers to an arbitrary date is a value destroying mistake

iism.org Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 3.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-08-06

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Org Mode – Organize Your Life in Plain Text

doc.norang.ca Books & learning 4 submissions · 4 people · 11.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-05-25

Needs:5 submissions

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Show HN: A curated list of remote jobs

github.com Reference 7 submissions · 6 people · 11.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2026-01-09

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Attention is your scarcest resource

www.benkuhn.net Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 5.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2025-07-29

Needs:5 submissions

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Sergey Brin's Resume as a Student

infolab.stanford.edu Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 9.4 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2019-08-03

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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A Pragmatic Guide to Getting Things Done

hamberg.no Books & learning 7 submissions · 7 people · 8.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-12-08

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Employees Who Stay in Companies Longer Than Two Years Get Paid 50% Less

www.forbes.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 6.9 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-06-05

Needs:5 submissions3 active years

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Things I Don’t Know as of 2018

overreacted.io Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 4.6 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-11-26

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart5 submissions

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Advice to new managers: don't joke about firing people

staysaasy.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 3 people · 5.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-09-20

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart5 submissions

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Gitlab and remote work

about.gitlab.com Reference 4 submissions · 4 people · 3.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-07-20

Needs:5 submissions

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Dad and The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming (2012)

blog.stephenwyattbush.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 9.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-01-15

Needs:5 submissions

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If you're busy, you're doing something wrong (2011)

calnewport.com Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 8.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2019-11-14

Needs:5 submissions

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Aaron Swartz: How I Hire Programmers

www.aaronsw.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 15.8 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2015-05-22

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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My dad's resume and skills from 1980

github.com Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 6.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-10-25

Needs:5 submissions

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Is developer compensation becoming bimodal?

danluu.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 3.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-02-15

Needs:5 submissions

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The trimodal nature of software salaries in the Netherlands and Europe (2021)

blog.pragmaticengineer.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 2.9 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-07-02

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart5 submissions

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GitLab Handbook

about.gitlab.com Reference 8 submissions · 8 people · 6.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-05-05

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer (2016)

haseebq.com Books & learning 4 submissions · 4 people · 5.6 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2025-04-05

Needs:5 submissions

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Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

www.deprocrastination.co Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 5.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-08-08

Needs:5 submissions

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Dropbox Engineering Career Framework

dropbox.github.io Reference 4 submissions · 4 people · 3.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2025-01-02

Needs:5 submissions3 active years

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Yes, And – How to be effective in the theatre of work

tomcritchlow.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 3 people · 3.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-07-18

Needs:5 submissions

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Do call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2013)

yosefk.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 4 people · 10.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-01-17

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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The Top Idea in Your Mind

www.paulgraham.com Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 11.6 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-03-23

Needs:5 submissions

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Why I am Not a Professor, or The Decline and Fall of the British University

www.lambdassociates.org Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 4.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2011-12-21

Needs:5 submissions

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The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

www.wsj.com Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 4.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-10-24

Needs:5 submissions

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People can read their manager's mind (2015)

yosefk.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 8.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-09-02

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart5 submissions

199max pts