Hacker News: dang submitted

The $LANG Programming Language

dang — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:17:19 +0000

This afternoon I posted some tips on how to present a new* programming language to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46608577. It occurred to me that HN has a tradition of posts called "The {name} programming language" (part of the long tradition of papers and books with such titles) and it might be fun to track them down. I tried to keep only the interesting ones:

https://news.ycombinator.com/thelang

Similarly, Show HNs of programming languages are at https://news.ycombinator.com/showlang.

These are curated lists so they're frozen in time. Maybe we can figure out how to update them.

A few famous cases:

The Go Programming Language - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=934142 - Nov 2009 (219 comments)

The Rust programming language - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1498528 - July 2010 (44 comments)

The Julia Programming Language - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3606380 - Feb 2012 (203 comments)

The Swift Programming Language - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7835099 - June 2014 (926 comments)

But the obscure and esoteric ones are the most fun.

(* where 'new' might mean old, of course - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23459210)

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46610557

Points: 267

# Comments: 72

Sigmund Freud's Begonia

dang — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 21:27:10 +0000

Article URL: https://observer.co.uk/news/first-person/article/emma-freud-sigmund-freuds-begonia

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46559599

Points: 53

# Comments: 10

In Pursuit of Clancy Sigal (2021)

dang — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 20:21:12 +0000

Article URL: https://yalereview.org/article/in-pursuit-of-clancy-sigal

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46358538

Points: 21

# Comments: 7

Pablo Picasso's poetry

dang — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 03:13:55 +0000

Article URL: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/art-bites-picasso-poetry-2669332

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45368899

Points: 35

# Comments: 9

Tell HN: Help restore the tax deduction for software dev in the US (Section 174)

dang — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 16:28:51 +0000

Companies building software in the US were hit hard a few years ago when the tax code stopped allowing deduction of software dev expenses. Now they have to be amortized over several years.

HN has had many discussions about this, including The time bomb in the tax code that's fueling mass tech layoffs - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44180533 - (927 comments) a few days ago. Other threads are listed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44203869.

There's currently a major effort to get this change reversed. One of the people working on it is YC's Luther Lowe (https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=itsluther). Luther has been organizing YC alumni to urge lawmakers to support this reversal. I asked him if we could do that on Hacker News too. He said yes—hence this thread :)

If you're a US taxpayer and if you agree that software dev expenses should be deductible like they used to be, please sign this letter to the relevant committee members: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1DkRGeef2e_tU2xf3TyEyd2JLlmZ....

(If you're not a US person, please don't sign the letter, since lawmakers will only listen to feedback from taxpayers and we don't want to dilute the signal.)

I'm sure not everyone here agrees with us—HN is a big community, there's no total agreement on anything—but this issue has as close to a community consensus as HN gets, so I think it makes sense to add our voices too.

Luther will be around to answer questions and hopefully HN can contribute to getting this done!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44226145

Points: 2439

# Comments: 907

Remembering George A. Miller (2012)

dang — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 00:28:42 +0000

Article URL: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/remembering-george-a-miller

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43816377

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Tell HN: Announcing tomhow as a public moderator

dang — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 16:49:56 +0000

Hi all,

Tom Howard is going public as HN moderator today. He has been doing HN moderation work for years and knows the site and its practices inside-out, so the only new thing you'll see is mod comments from Tom showing up in the threads the way mine do. I'm not going anywhere, so you'll have two of us to put up with going forward :)

I've known Tom since he was sctb's and my batchmate back in YC W09. Many of you know him as the kind and thoughtful community member tomhoward (https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=tomhoward). He's still kind and thoughtful, but he's going to post as tomhow from now on (https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=tomhow), the same way I switched to dang when I went through this rite of passage years ago.

Below is a bit from Tom about himself. Please join me in welcoming him to this new status which he was crazy enough to say yes to!

---

YC and HN have been a huge part of my life for nearly two decades. I read pg's essay How to Start a Startup in 2005 after my friend (and later, co-founder) Fenn found it on Slashdot, and it opened our eyes as to how to go about building products and companies. I first signed up in late 2007, and since then HN has been the place I come to find interesting news and discussions.

Hacker News gave me a window into the big wide world of technology and startups, that had previously seemed so remote and opaque from where I lived (and still live) in Australia. We were lucky enough to be accepted into the W09 batch of YC, and since then HN has been a place where we could share announcements about the startup, but also where I could share the challenges and struggles I experienced in the startup journey and other aspects of life, particularly to do with health and wellbeing.

From the discussions that have happened about these topics I've ended up making enduring friendships with people all over the world, and have been able to learn many things that have improved my life in profound ways. I love HN's ethos - of being a place people come to engage their curiosity. That's what it's always been for me and what I hope I can help it to be for everyone!

--Tom

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43558671

Points: 1825

# Comments: 462

The history of the epigraph from Appointment in Samarra (2022)

dang — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 19:01:40 +0000

Article URL: https://subsublibrarian.com/2022/04/13/the-history-of-the-epigraph-from-appointment-in-samarra/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42101902

Points: 31

# Comments: 11

Task-Switching Experiment (2015)

dang — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 19:43:57 +0000

Article URL: https://www.psytoolkit.org/experiment-library/experiment_multitasking.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41752383

Points: 54

# Comments: 15

Joseph Jastrow and his duck – or is it a rabbit? (2004–2020)

dang — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 19:03:21 +0000

Article URL: https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~jfkihlstrom/JastrowDuck.htm

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41752117

Points: 35

# Comments: 13

Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

dang — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 20:33:36 +0000

(Usually I put an "Apply to YC" thing in the HN footer [1] but I forgot this time, so here is my pitch to make up for it.)

If you've ever thought about applying to YC, here's a tip: just do it. It doesn't take long and could change your life, like it did for me and many others.

In particular, if you have either of these two bogus thoughts, ignore them pronto and just go to https://apply.ycombinator.com and apply:

(1) "probably not good enough / won't get in" - you'd be surprised at how many people feel that way, whether because of impostor syndrome, lack of credentials, whatever—and often they turn out to be among the best founders. So this a terrible reason not to apply!

The nice thing is, it's YC's job to evaluate that, not yours. They're looking for aptitude which doesn't look like what most people (probably including you) assume. You needn't look impressive, and you don't have to be a competent founder—you learn that from doing YC. Just be yourself as you are, fill out the application and don't worry about it.

(2) "too early" - there's no such thing. YC looks for good potential founders—meaning anyone who can learn what they teach—and nothing else. You're already yourself, which is all you need.

Some of YC's big successes start off as last-minute applications on a whim; and many start with totally different ideas than what ends up succeeding. It's YC's job to teach you how to play the startup game, and that can start at any time.

("Too far along already" is another bogus notion but I'll stick with the top 2 for today.)

If you know the game Snakes and Ladders [2], YC is a massive ladder in an area where there are no snakes. Sure it's a dice roll, but what reason do you have not to? If you're uninterested in the game, no problem—but if you have any impulse to participate, do it! If you're the "out of nowhere" type of founder YC loves to fund, your chances are likely a lot better than you imagine.

Apply by 8pm PT on Monday 4/22 to get a decision by May 29: https://apply.ycombinator.com.

---

[1] like last October - https://web.archive.org/web/20231011022307/https://news.ycom...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_and_ladders

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40091622

Points: 382

# Comments: 420