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Anne Helen Petersen

annehelen.substack.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2019

Anne Helen Petersen is a journalist who writes a newsletter on work, burnout, labor, and social trends in the United States.

What HN saysHN commenters cite it in discussions of remote work and labor, including its "LARPing your job" post and its take on low-wage businesses.
55HN people shared it
3linked it in comments
69stories submitted
2.3Kstory points
3 months agolast shared
2019people per year2026

Most-shared posts

  1. 1
    Labor shortage or terrible jobs?
    5 people · 563 points · first shared 2021 · 993 comments on HN
  2. 2
    The diminishing returns of productivity culture (2021)
    4 people · 328 points · first shared 2021 · 177 comments on HN
  3. 3
    The Expanding Job
    3 people · 3 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
  4. 4
    Is everything an MLM
    2 people · 454 points · first shared 2019 · 284 comments on HN
  5. 5
  6. 6
    The Social Media Sea Change
    2 people · 6 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
  7. 7
    How to Build a Better Boss
    2 people · 4 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
  8. 8
    The Friendship Dip
    2 people · 3 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
  9. 9
    The Optimization Sink Hole
    2 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
  10. 10
    The Myth of the Productive Commute
    2 people · 2 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
  11. 11
    Live Action Role Playing at Your Job
    2 people · 2 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
  12. 12
    Archiving Your Teen Self – By Anne Helen Petersen
    2 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
  13. 13
    Are people bad at their jobs or are the jobs just bad?
    1 people · 289 points · first shared 2025 · 309 comments on HN
  14. 14
    Revenge Bedtime Procrastination
    1 people · 279 points · first shared 2021 · 131 comments on HN
  15. 15
    What Happened to People Magazine?
    1 people · 86 points · first shared 2024 · 52 comments on HN

What HN people wrote when they linked it

jpm_sd · 2023-07-18
"LARPing your job" on Slack seems to be a common issue with remote work. https://annehelen.substack.com/p/larping-your-job https://www.theawl.com/2015/04/are-you-just-larping-your-job/
splatcollision · 2021-04-29
“If a business can’t pay a living wage, should it be a business?” - https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-capitalism-is-broken-economy
gniv · 2019-09-07
There is another dynamic at play, not mentioned in the article: the smaller cities are actively trying to become better places to live. Here's a nice writeup: https://annehelen.substack.com/p/this-land-is-your-land Quoting from that blog post: "“Cool,” which is to say, a certain type of bourgeois, with a certain aesthetic that unites it with larger cities while still maintaining a feeling of quaintness. In Tulsa, for example, there’s a gorgeous new book store, an ever-expanding number of breweries, co-working spaces in rehabbed brick buildings, coffee shops in rehabbed brick buildings, airy restaurants with farm-to-table menus in rehabbed brick buildings. There’s a walkable downtown, a First Friday art walk to get people there, a cultural tourist site (the Woody Guthrie Museum) and public (in this case, actually private) outdoor space (The Gathering Place)."

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