Tech Signals: The Most Popular Blogs of Hacker News in 2025
Today's analysis reveals a notable shift in Hacker News readership, with "The Most Popular Blogs of Hacker News in 2025" scoring 74.5 out of 100 based on user engagement metrics. Nine key signals, including comment volume and share frequency, indicate a growing interest in future-focused tech discussions.
#1 - Top Signal
A 2025 analysis of Hacker News “most popular bloggers” ranks individual-run blogs by HN upvotes, with Simon Willison #1 for the third consecutive year. Willison’s 2025 output exceeded 1,000 posts (118 full-length), and his edge is framed as vendor-neutral, high-signal curation that brings ideas from walled gardens to the open web. Jeff Geerling placed #2 with 10,813 upvotes in an extremely tight race (only 9 upvotes ahead of #3), driven by hardware/self-hosting content and text-first companion posts to YouTube videos. The community highlights that top bloggers are also prolific HN commenters, and the dataset is available as CSV with open CORS—enabling third-party analytics products and tooling.
Key Facts:
- Article title: “The Most Popular Blogs of Hacker News in 2025”; site theme: effective writing for software developers.
- Methodology defines “blogger” as an individual blogger (personal blog) rather than company/team blogs; example: counts John Graham-Cumming’s personal blog but not Cloudflare’s company blog.
- Simon Willison ranked #1 for the third straight year on HN popularity among bloggers.
- Simon Willison wrote 1,000+ posts in 2025; 118 were full-length articles.
Also Noteworthy Today
While exploring "The Most Popular Blogs of Hacker News in 2025," a notable trend is the increasing attention towards innovative tech products and educational content. This interest is mirrored in Subtle's release of noise-canceling ear buds and the growing popularity of resources like "Neural Networks: Zero to Hero," both of which point to a community eager to embrace cutting-edge technology and deepen their technical expertise.
Subtle releases ear buds with its noise cancelation models
Techcrunch · Read Original
Voice AI startup Subtle launched $199 wireless earbuds (“Voicebuds”) ahead of CES 2026, positioning them as a hardware+subscription bundle for clearer calls and more accurate transcription in noisy environments. The earbuds ship in the U.S. “in the next few months” and include a 1-year subscription to Subtle’s iOS and Mac app for dictation, voice notes, and AI chat across apps. Subtle claims “5x fewer errors” than AirPods Pro 3 paired with OpenAI transcription, and demonstrated whisper-level capture in noise to TechCrunch. The move signals a shift from pure software noise-isolation models toward an end-to-end “voice interface” product category where differentiation may come from wake/lock-screen integration, cross-app dictation, and model+hardware co-design.
Key Facts:
- Title: “Subtle releases ear buds with its noise cancelation models.”
- Source: TechCrunch; Date on prompt context: 2026-01-04; URL provided.
Neural Networks: Zero to Hero
Hacker News · Read Original
Andrej Karpathy’s “Neural Networks: Zero to Hero” is a hands-on course that starts from implementing backpropagation (micrograd) and progresses through character-level language modeling (makemore) to building a GPT-style Transformer from scratch. The syllabus is structured as multiple long-form videos (roughly ~1–2 hours each) emphasizing implementation details, tensor mechanics, and manual backprop to build intuition. Hacker News commenters describe it as unusually effective compared to traditional courses, but also debate practical ROI for most people who will primarily consume foundation models via APIs. The strongest product opportunity is not “another course,” but tooling and guided practice layers (autograd/shape debugging, graded exercises, eval harnesses, and project scaffolds) that convert passive video learning into measurable competence.
Key Facts:
- Source is Hacker News; URL is https://karpathy.ai/zero-to-hero.html
- The course positions language models as an effective way to learn deep learning concepts that transfer to other areas (e.g., computer vision).
Market Pulse
The positive reaction to the dataset's availability highlights a key opportunity for tech founders: the demand for open data access. By providing datasets in accessible formats like CSV and supporting open CORS, companies can encourage innovation and derivative analyses. This openness fosters a community of builders who can develop tools and solutions that enhance the original offering. Founders should consider how they can leverage open data to build trust and engagement within their user base, potentially leading to new partnerships and innovations.
Operational and data-quality concerns, particularly around domain migration and identity resolution, signal potential pitfalls that founders must address proactively. Commenters' concerns about aggregation and canonical behavior point to the importance of maintaining data integrity and clear attribution. Founders should prioritize robust data management systems that ensure accurate identity resolution and seamless transitions during domain migrations. Addressing these issues is crucial for maintaining user trust and ensuring the platform's long-term viability.
Subtle's entry into the competitive dictation market with a focus on dedicated hardware, noise isolation, and lock-screen wake features points to a growing trend towards ambient and voice-first interfaces. For tech founders, this suggests an increasing demand for specialized, high-quality voice interaction solutions. While the market shows rising interest, the lack of explicit buyer pull indicates that broader reviews and user feedback will be essential for validating product-market fit. Founders should closely monitor user reviews and industry trends to refine their product offerings and better meet market needs.
In summary, tech founders should focus on leveraging open data, addressing operational challenges, and closely monitoring user feedback in the evolving voice-interaction market. By doing so, they can position their companies to capitalize on emerging opportunities while mitigating potential risks. With the market dynamics continuously shifting, staying informed and agile will be key to sustained success.
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