Ask HN: What are the most inspirational blog posts you've ever read?

- "You and your research" by Hamming, and his video lectures which expand on topics in the original talk:

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2FF649D0C4407B30

- "On teaching mathematics" by V. I. Arnold:

http://pauli.uni-muenster.de/~munsteg/arnold.html

- "Undergraduation" by Paul Graham

http://www.paulgraham.com/college.html

- "Learn and relearn your field", and many others in the same category, by Terrence Tao

http://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/learn-and-relear...

- Steve Jobs Stanford commencement address:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

- All articles on programming by Peter Norvig:

http://www.norvig.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

It's one of the most valuable skills you'll need to excel in a technical field, and when mentoring others its one of the most critical skills to impart.

The good ol' Raymond's How to Become a Hacker (http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html) will teach you the Hacker attitude, which you can apply to anything. It doesn't matter whether you're a programmer or not, either way you'll benefit from it.

"1. The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved.

2. No problem should ever have to be solved twice.

3. Boredom and drudgery are evil.

4. Freedom is good.

5. Attitude is no substitute for competence."

A Handyman’s Toolbox (http://ninjasandrobots.com/a-handymans-toolbox) taught me not to always chase the hot new tech and be confident in my skills. It may be common sense, but it's also well written and straight to the point.

Lastly, the following posts are all about traveling and/or alternative lifestyles. They show different POVs, but are all equally inspirational.

- http://alexwarren.co.uk/2013/06/27/how-i-live-and-how-i-work...

- http://jake-jorgovan.com/blog/remote

- https://medium.com/better-humans/6620882dde89

- http://blog.alexmaccaw.com/how-to-travel-around-the-world-fo...

Derek Sivers: http://sivers.org/below-average

http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pro...

A brilliant article which lets you know that coding is hard cause it's hard not cause you are stupid and that something can be hard and fun at the same time.

I share this with every new coder I help out.

It's not quite a blog post, but it's as close as one might have come in 1908.

I also like a whole host of articles from Matt Might's blog. I think my favorites are

12 resolutions for grad students

http://matt.might.net/articles/grad-student-resolutions/

and Responding to peer review

http://matt.might.net/articles/peer-review-rebuttals/

One last essay that I have enjoyed, also too old to be a blog post, is W.M. Turski's "I was a computer". It's here on Elsevier but fortunately it looks to be open access.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0167642395...

http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html

pmarca's The Only Thing That Matters post:

http://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html

Pretty much everything Steve Blank has written on Customer Development:

http://steveblank.com/category/customer-development/

Mark Cuban on How To Get Rich:

http://blogmaverick.com/2008/10/04/how-to-get-rich/

Mark Cuban on Success & Motivation:

http://blogmaverick.com/2007/12/24/success-and-motivation/

Jamie Zawinski's Groupware Bad post:

http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html

- Blueberry pancakes and battleships → http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/05/blueberry-pa...

- This Is All Your App Is: a Collection of Tiny Details → http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/05/this-is-all-your-ap...

- The Personality Layer → http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2012/07/18/the-personal...

- Asking Questions beats Giving Advice → http://insideintercom.io/asking-questions-versus-giving-advi...

How to Make Wealth - http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html How to Do What You Love - http://paulgraham.com/love.html Inequality and Risk - http://paulgraham.com/inequality.html

and Paul Buchheit's

My startup path - http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.in/2007/03/my-startup-path.html (I have actually printed a hard copy of this and have it my wallet. This is what finally convinced me to join a startup.)

http://zenpencils.com/comic/120-terence-mckenna-nature-loves...

- Reject the tyranny of being picked http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/03/reject-the-t...

- The World's Worst Boss http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/12/the-worlds-w...

"Could I be as good as them, if not better? Had I fulfilled my potential, or did I have more to give? Had I pushed my mind and body to the limit? If not, what were those limits? What stars was I capable of grabbing? Without giving it a shot I would never know. I never want to look back and say ‘what if’."

http://jeffjlin.com/2013/02/23/ang-lee-and-the-uncertainty-o...

http://www.stanford.edu/group/SHR/4-2/text/foerster.html

Obstacle is the way: http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/stoicismtoday/2013/11/26/the-obsta...

Not inspirational in the strict sense, but it's amazing to see a paper written more than 20 years ago and still with so many applicable insights in terms of psychology in gaming and virtual worlds. I keep going back and re-reading every couple of years.

[1] http://www.crockford.com/ec/lessons.html

http://bondero.com/kill-early-and-often-startup-methodology

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/02/how-to-be-the-luckiest-...

http://www.garann.com/dev/2013/how-to-blog-about-code-and-gi...

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/06/how-to-deal-with-crappy...

Made my life easier

http://inoveryourhead.net/the-complete-guide-to-not-giving-a...