Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?

It isn't a prescriptive book at all, and perhaps very bleak in a sense. He describes how we've lost much of the ritual and innate temporal rhythms which have historically given us a greater sense of time, place, purpose, closure, and so on. Similarly, he suggests we live in a world now which is arguably incompatible with these things, because it is designed to eliminate the conditions in which this rhythm can exist at all. We're trapped in a sense. The thing we crave is mutually exclusive with the environment we now live in.

Similar to the Burnout Society, he writes a lot about our hyper-individualistic culture which is obsessed with personal optimization and productivity. These are not ideals which are conducive to communal, cultural events and connections which transcend the individual. Yet one could argue that they're quite important to humans, and increasingly absent from our lives.

Another important concept is the fragmentation of time and how everything now blurs together.

There's much more to it. I'm only highlighting the parts which stood out clearly and are coming to mind now. Like burnout, it's short enough to read in a day, and well worth it. Han really speaks to me and his essays are absolute page-turners.

If you want something a bit more substantial and argumentative where conclusions are backed with clearly established points and data, it isn't the right kind of read. He also doesn't offer solutions. For me the pleasure is derived from a sense of understanding, appreciating an eloquent perspective on something I feel I'm experiencing, and Han's signature ability to crystalize the malaise of contemporary life. I know some people who would find the book irritatingly thin in too many places, or lacking any kind of rigour in explaining how he arrived at certain ideas or why he's making certain statements. If you can see past that, it's excellent.

I think the key is remembering that he isn't writing a scientific paper or treatise so much as a provocative essay to share his exploration and wonder about an amorphous, vague, yet visceral and pertinent matter.

Also about halfway into Mastering the Lightning Network.

To anyone interested not just in reading it but asking it questions here's the app I wrote https://reminder.dev

I got an American traditional rendition of the symbol of the Almighty with a sword through it and the Knights Radiant motto encircled

“life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination”

It’s on my forearm

I don't watch much movies, but haven't seen Op. 9 No. 1 often in many places. I hope it remains that way! No 2 is wildly popular for its lovely long opening melody.

> preludes (raindrop etc) for example and they have softer key and louder key parts and I want to blast the softer side without overblasting and distortion

Yes, the preludes are lovely. But please -- you don't need to "blast" this music. This is not rock :-) Yes, there are a lot of "dynamics" (soft and loud and some gradations: pianissimo, forte, etc), but don't overthink it.

Just use a reasonably high-end speaker (e.g. I use an old, Bose "SoundTouch 20") and pick one of the recent recordings from Deutsche Grammophon. I'm currently listening to the nocturne interpretations by Kun-Woo Paik.