Chris Sells
sellsbrothers.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2008
Chris Sells, a software developer and former Microsoft employee, writes about programming, Microsoft history, and tech events.
What HN saysHN mostly links his Feynman-at-Microsoft satire, which commenters cite in discussions of the 'why are manhole covers round' interview question.
27HN people shared it
12linked it in comments
16stories submitted
495story points
4 months agolast shared
2008people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft (2002)8 people · 213 points · first shared 2020 · 199 comments on HN
- 2Round manhole covers, or if Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft4 people · 70 points · first shared 2008 · 33 comments on HN
- 3If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft (2002)1 people · 189 points · first shared 2010 · 77 comments on HN
- 4WebAssembly explodes client-side programming1 people · 5 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 5My Day with Edward Tufte1 people · 3 points · first shared 2020 · discussion on HN
- 6BillG's Last Review1 people · 3 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 7Fluent-Style Programming in JavaScript1 people · 3 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 8Stages of AI Grief1 people · 2 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 9Enabling the Tip Calculator in Your Brain1 people · 1 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 10Fluent-Style Programming in JavaScript1 people · 1 points · first shared 2010 · 1 comments on HN
- 11Building a modern, mobile-first app1 people · 1 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
- 12The Downside of Transparency1 people · 1 points · first shared 2009 · discussion on HN
- 13Sells Manor: Running 64-bit Win8 on My MacBook Air1 people · 1 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 14Directory Descendants in C# v Clojure1 people · 1 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 15Applied XML Developers Conference (2004)1 people · 1 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
roenxi · 2022-01-05
Agreed, but that is why I'm ... basically complaining, I suppose. Feynman's reputation was never "dude who comes up with lots of solutions". Invoking Feynman is for when:
* There is a difference between the name of the thing and what it does (very much his style).
* When bureaucracy is disconnected from physical reality (alluding to the Challenger incident).
* When a blisteringly intelligent person can just get it right by thinking from first principles (dude was wicked smart).
Which is why the original article cited [0] worked so well. Feynman's name was being invoked for someone who immediately and insightfully tore the pro-forma question apart as having a faulty premise where the name of the thing didn't imply it was round. It is still words in his mouth, but that is on character for Feynman stereotypes.
Throwing out lots of ideas that don't quite work isn't really a good time to invoke the name.
[0] http://sellsbrothers.com/12395
post-it · 2022-10-25
That reminded me to reread "If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft"
https://sellsbrothers.com/12395
imglorp · 2022-05-04
Maybe not Von Neumann at google, but how about Feynman at Microsoft?
https://sellsbrothers.com/12395
Reelin · 2020-05-25
> a number of reasons why it was round
Except that question in particular is a fairly silly one. A satirical rendition exists that illustrates why, and happens to have been discussed long ago on HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=569897) but apparently the original article has moved (https://sellsbrothers.com/12395).
latch · 2015-01-26
There's another, shorter one, answering the "why are manhole covers round" question: http://www.sellsbrothers.com/posts/details/12395
CodeCube · 2013-01-03
Chris Sells added reference counting to the open source "Rotor" release years ago. This was to test whether GC overhead was indeed an overhead over deterministic finalization.
http://www.sellsbrothers.com/writing/refcount_rotor.doc
I'll let you come to your own conclusions about the results :)
joshwa · 2009-04-20
blogspam: original is here:
http://www.sellsbrothers.com/fun/msiview/#Feynman
Deestan · 2009-02-24
I never meant I didn't like that kind of riddle - I really do enjoy most of them.
But I don't think they have any use in an interview setting, since they too often just test if the interviewee is up to date on the latest list of interview questions (Eg. http://www.sellsbrothers.com/fun/msiview/default.aspx?content=question… or not.
weemadarthur · 2008-04-14
Complete Feynman interview - http://www.sellsbrothers.com/fun/msiview/#Feynman
YZF · 2023-03-06
You're thinking Microsoft:
https://sellsbrothers.com/12395
robocat · 2023-01-01
vishnugupta · 2021-08-02
Obligatory
https://sellsbrothers.com/12395