The Greatest Blog Post on the Internet

what’s the greatest blog post on the internet?

i’m talking ‘violently shift your entire perception of reality’ blog post

The post received many views and lots of great suggestions.

Here’s a validated and curated list for easy consumption. Grab a coffee and start with the first five.

If you only read five

Reality Has a Surprising Amount of Detail by John Salvatier. Why you keep underestimating how hard everything is. (essay)
Meditations on Moloch by Scott Alexander. The invisible force behind every race to the bottom. (essay, long)
The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant by Nick Bostrom. Ageing, retold as a dragon we’ve quietly agreed to feed. (fiction)
The Egg by Andy Weir. A four-minute story that rearranges your sense of self. (fiction, short)
You and Your Research by Richard Hamming. How to do work that actually matters. (essay, long)

The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant by Nick Bostrom. (fiction)
The Egg by Andy Weir. (fiction, short)
Your Real Biological Clock Is You’re Going to Die by Tom Scocca. (essay)
Most Lives Are Lived by Default by David Cain. The quiet drift of an unexamined life. (essay, short)
On Self-Respect by Joan Didion. (essay, short)
My Spiritual Evolution by Tao Lin. (essay)
How to Be Perfectly Unhappy by The Oatmeal. (comic, short)

Meditations on Moloch by Scott Alexander. (essay, long)
How Complex Systems Fail by Richard Cook. Eighteen short laws of why big systems break. (essay, short)
Status as a Service by Eugene Wei. Social networks read as status-seeking markets. (essay, long)
Composers as Gardeners by Brian Eno. Growing a system instead of dictating its outcome. (essay)
Life After Lifestyle by Toby Shorin. What comes after brands colonised meaning. (essay, long)
Dynasty Mindset by Charlotte Fang. (essay)

You and Your Research by Richard Hamming. (essay, long)
How to Do Great Work by Paul Graham. (essay, long)
High Agency in 30 Minutes by George Mack. (essay)
Quit Your Job by Wolf Tivy. (essay)
How to Get Rich by Naval Ravikant. (essay)
Stay in the Game by Drew Dickson. (essay, short)
1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly. (essay)
Create. by Derek Sivers. The post people remember as “die empty”. See also Hell Yeah or No. (essay, short)
How to Fix Your Entire Life in 1 Day by Dan Koe. (essay)
The No BS Guide to Making Money Online by Victor Pride. Archived; the original site is gone. (essay)

How Social Media Shortens Your Life by Gurwinder Bhogal. (essay)
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. (essay)
6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person by David Wong. (essay)
What You Can’t Say by Paul Graham. Spotting your own era’s blind spots. (essay)
(Sub)Conscious (Re)Programming by Sean Pedersen. (essay, short)
How To Be Attractive by Hotel Concierge. (essay, long)

Thoughts on Flash by Steve Jobs. A masterclass in strategic plain speaking. (essay, short)
Things You Should Never Do, Part I by Joel Spolsky. Never rewrite from scratch. (essay, short)
The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence by Tim Urban. (essay, long)
Reality Has a Surprising Amount of Detail by John Salvatier. (essay)

The Kekulé Problem by Cormac McCarthy. Where language came from, and why the unconscious doesn’t use it. (essay)
How to Time Travel by Brian Chesky, the Airbnb founder. (essay, short)
My Fully Optimized Life Allows Me Ample Time to Optimize Yours by Holly Theisen-Jones. (satire, short)
Temp Hides Fun, Fulfilling Life From Rest Of Office by The Onion. (satire, short)
L.P.D.: Libertarian Police Department by Tom O’Donnell. (satire, short)
Rick and Morty and the Meaning of Life by Daniel Jeffries. (essay)
Brain Pilots by Breck Yunits. Archived; the live site was compromised. (essay, short)
Rising Sun: The Image of the Desired Japanese, Part One by I Talk You Bored. (essay, long)
I Am a Japanese School Teacher by “Azrael”. Archived. (essay)
Congo: Lubumbashi to Kinshasa on Expedition Portal. An epic overland travelogue, posted to a forum rather than a blog. (long)
The Beatles reviews by George Starostin. Music criticism as obsession. (long)
Open Letter to Open-Minded Progressives by Curtis Yarvin. Long, contrarian, and a lot of people find it objectionable. Included because it shifts perceptions, not because I endorse it. (essay, long)

Both are old favourites that somehow never came up, and both belong here:

I, Pencil by Leonard Read. Nobody on Earth knows how to make a pencil. (essay, short)
The Last Question by Isaac Asimov. Entropy, and the only question that matters. (fiction, short)