Critter Blog
critter.blog · Personal blog · on HN since 2019
Critter Blog is a personal blog by an engineer on writing habits, wikis, workplace practices, and avoiding unnecessary learning.
What HN saysCommenters cite its post on writing 5x more but 5x less, and the author shares a story of a service Google shut down.
20HN people shared it
7linked it in comments
117stories submitted
2.1Kstory points
1 year agolast shared
2019people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Write 5x more but write 5x less5 people · 18 points · first shared 2020 · 2 comments on HN
- 2Declare bankruptcy and don’t be ashamed of it3 people · 9 points · first shared 2020 · 3 comments on HN
- 3Wiki Bankruptcy2 people · 168 points · first shared 2020 · 139 comments on HN
- 4Parenting doesn’t do what I thought. “It’s all genetics”2 people · 6 points · first shared 2020 · 1 comments on HN
- 5Learning technology you don't need right now is a waste of time2 people · 4 points · first shared 2020 · discussion on HN
- 6Atomic Blog Posts2 people · 3 points · first shared 2021 · 1 comments on HN
- 7If it will matter after today, don't talk about it in a chat room1 people · 751 points · first shared 2021 · 315 comments on HN
- 8That coworker who never stops refactoring1 people · 363 points · first shared 2020 · 258 comments on HN
- 990% of Everything Is Crap1 people · 154 points · first shared 2021 · 90 comments on HN
- 10Five Second Feedback1 people · 152 points · first shared 2020 · 46 comments on HN
- 11Plan the Sprint, Not the Project1 people · 89 points · first shared 2020 · 119 comments on HN
- 12I schedule my friendships like I schedule my meetings1 people · 59 points · first shared 2021 · 56 comments on HN
- 13Your calendar should be an allowlist, not a blocklist1 people · 39 points · first shared 2020 · 72 comments on HN
- 14Your calendar should be a whitelist, not a blacklist1 people · 31 points · first shared 2020 · 15 comments on HN
- 15The “You Get One Diagram” approach to architecture documents1 people · 17 points · first shared 2020 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
latexr · 2025-09-07
The whole post is the same short thought repeated over and over.
My recommendation to the author is to read and reflect on “Atomic blog posts”¹, by Mike Crittenden. I’ll reproduce it here in its entirety:
> There’s no law that says a blog post needs more than one idea or more than one sentence.
¹ https://critter.blog/2021/01/06/atomic-blog-posts/
mcrittenden · 2021-07-18
For what it's worth, I built something very similar to this and it ran for 7 years until Google shut it down for violating the terms of service. Here's a blog post I wrote with specifics, I case it also applies to your service. https://critter.blog/2020/08/04/a-farewell-to-toogles/
dsaravel · 2025-03-11
I am a new manager (around 5 years of non-continual experience).
I stole this format from Mike Crittenden [1] and made some modifications to it. It has worked wonders for me and my team.
It helps us to create our Brag Document [2], introduced by Julia Evans, together.
1 - https://critter.blog/2022/03/25/my-new-and-improved-1-1-format/
2 - https://jvns.ca/blog/brag-documents/
runjake · 2023-10-06
The way I see things, the bar is lower than ever to be a good engineer. You put in some minor level of effort and you're 80% above everyone else.
Now, if you scope it to the top 20% of engineers and ask the same question, I'll give you a much different answer:
After you became a decent generalist, I'd refer you to concepts like "invest in yourself, not your job"[1] and just-in-time learning[2].
1. https://critter.blog/2023/10/05/invest-in-yourself-not-in-your-job/
2. https://critter.blog/2020/08/14/learning-a-technology-you-dont-need-ri… (coincidentally, by the same fellow as in link #1)
tyingq · 2021-09-10
The linked original source in the article has a more clear phrasing..."Write more often, but make each thing you write shorter."
https://critter.blog/2020/10/02/write-5x-more-but-write-5x-less/
smoyer · 2021-09-10
The article cited by this post is at - https://critter.blog/2020/10/02/write-5x-more-but-write-5x-less/
nexthash · 2021-02-14
An interesting way to approach the documentation issue discussed in this article is 'wiki bankruptcy': when a wiki goes stale, simply tell all devs to save what they think is important before deleting the whole thing outright. Then, they can recreate those pages into a new wiki. Read more about it here:
https://critter.blog/2020/08/10/wiki-bankruptcy/
He also talks about using this 'bankruptcy' philosophy in other aspects of life, which I thought was intriguing:
https://critter.blog/2020/09/24/declare-bankruptcy-and-dont-be-ashamed…