An open-ended question for you @dang — why don't you think You and Your Research gets more attention from the HN community? It's a good talk by a highly reputable source, about having an impact with the work you do. I personally hold the talk in high regard, and I'd expect it to do well on HN, but it seems like that isn't the case.
> There are very famous quotes from Richard Hamming (see "You and Your Research") and Richard Feynman (see "Surely You're Joking!") about the importance of working on problems that seem trivial at first. Not only do they help you enjoy problem-solving for its own sake, but if you work on enough silly problems, then eventually the odds are good that you'll stumble upon something that other people will later think is really important.
seems to use it as advice not to work on the important problems in your field, but to go down rabbit holes doing frivolous research..
Oh I think it's well known and has gotten a lot of attention. In fact HN probably did a lot to expand awareness that it existed, since a lot of people here originally found out about it from PG's site. It's a bit of a puzzle why there weren't more comments on those old threads, but that's a different question.
You've got to be a good reader to begin with plus have an interest in research which there is plenty of interest.
Maybe once you get through the whole thing you have to be able to pick your jaw up off the keyboard to make a comment or there is no record of it happening?
