... any blog post that had a major impact on your life, workflow, career, understanding, etc. qualifies.
Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?
1–10 of 393 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?
#2I don't look back on it that fondly nowadays, but it would probably be Mr Money Mustache's classic "The Simple Math of Early Retirement". I am not on a path to FIRE really, but in my early twenties it was really incredibly eye-opening.
At that age, I had very much assumed that the world had to work according to "work hard for 45 years, get the biggest house you can, buy as much stuff as you can, on your 65th birthday your company hands you a final salary pension that will last the rest of you life". Something had always felt a bit wrong about consumerism and the hedonic treadmill, but it took the brusque and entertaining prose of MMM to really stop and make me think.
Funnily enough, I now find him very grating, but he absolutely set me on a path of rethinking my life in my early 20s to truly think about what matters to me.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?
#3I don't look back on it that fondly nowadays, but it would probably be Mr Money Mustache's classic "The Simple Math of Early Retirement". I am not on a path to FIRE really, but in my early twenties it was really incredibly eye-opening. At that age, I had very much assumed that the world had to work according to "work hard for 45 years, get the biggest house you can, buy as much stuff as you can, on your 65th birthday…
Link here:
Basically he talks about how when you retire depends on one number, percentage of money you can save from your pay. If you save 50% of your pay and invest it, you can retire in 16 years. Pretty eye openning
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-si...
Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?
#4I like re-reading this once every few months, and taking stock of how little I've internalised it:
https://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-y...
Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?
#5I don't look back on it that fondly nowadays, but it would probably be Mr Money Mustache's classic "The Simple Math of Early Retirement". I am not on a path to FIRE really, but in my early twenties it was really incredibly eye-opening. At that age, I had very much assumed that the world had to work according to "work hard for 45 years, get the biggest house you can, buy as much stuff as you can, on your 65th birthday…
Link here: Basically he talks about how when you retire depends on one number, percentage of money you can save from your pay. If you save 50% of your pay and invest it, you can retire in 16 years. Pretty eye openning https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-si...
The problem I've always had with that story is that most people are struggling just to live on what they make. Saving 50% of your income when you are trying to make rent is a pipe dream. Even making decent money, if you have a family, saving is tough. The idea that we are poor because we buy lattes is over-simplified, and borderline insulting.
Life is more complicated than a blog post with some arithmetic.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?
#6Not really life changing but still my favorite blog post of all time
https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anythin...
Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?
#7Maybe not a life-changing thing but something that truly unlocked a lot of things: https://milan.cvitkovic.net/writing/things_youre_allowed_to_...
HN discussion about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25513713
Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Link here: Basically he talks about how when you retire depends on one number, percentage of money you can save from your pay. If you save 50% of your pay and invest it, you can retire in 16 years. Pretty eye openning https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-si...
The problem I've always had with that story is that most people are struggling just to live on what they make. Saving 50% of your income when you are trying to make rent is a pipe dream. Even making decent money, if you have a family, saving is tough. The idea that we are poor because we buy lattes is over-simplified, and borderline insulting. Life is more complicated than a blog post with some arithmetic.
I could list more than 10 people I personally know who have probably permanently stunted their lives via credit card debt from door dash and uber eats.
The the world doesn't owe you a standard of living. If you want to have more money, spend less money. Or don't. It's your choice. Nothing insulting about it.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?
#9It wasn't a blog post, but CGP Grey's "This Video Will Make You Angry" has been a tremendously helpful tool in understanding the behavior of people online and in controlling my own behavior.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?
#10I don't look back on it that fondly nowadays, but it would probably be Mr Money Mustache's classic "The Simple Math of Early Retirement". I am not on a path to FIRE really, but in my early twenties it was really incredibly eye-opening. At that age, I had very much assumed that the world had to work according to "work hard for 45 years, get the biggest house you can, buy as much stuff as you can, on your 65th birthday…
Link here: Basically he talks about how when you retire depends on one number, percentage of money you can save from your pay. If you save 50% of your pay and invest it, you can retire in 16 years. Pretty eye openning https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-si...
> The most important thing to note is that cutting your spending rate is much more powerful than increasing your income.
I believe that part isn't exactly right, because you can increase your income way more than you can reduce what it takes for you to live. If you're a software engineer making let's say 70k, you can find a job where you make 150k, 200k or even more. If you currently spend 50k every year, it's way more effective than trying to spend less. You also have to take into account that once you retire you can live somewhere where the cost of living is lower.