No problem. I had been meaning to do it for a while, but a discussion on HN (and some help from a HNer) prodded me to actually getting it done.
I like to think there's an idea or three that are pretty valuable on the blog. The problem was that without organization, you had to dig through a couple hundred thousand words of flotsam (no joke) to get to them.
Just an FYI, I had problems with "Rizal al Mashoor‘s MicroISV on a Shoestring Reader" after several posts (I want to say ~20-40 it's been a month or so). I'm not complaining by any means, I just googled for the article it broke on and continued from there.
Was I downmodded because someone didn't find this collection useful? Jeez... just trying to express gratitude as someone who casually follows Patrick's experiences but doesn't have time to read everything. Sometimes curation is helpful!
For some reason HN seems to frown on the occasional 'thank you' post. I can see how if all there was was thank yous that it would get boring quickly but I don't think we're quite there yet.
I think the people that would downvote a 'thank you' that is more than just two words are scared of something that is not a problem.
Wanted to say thanks for somehow finding the time to share with the startup community. I've listened to your interviews, so I know how little time you have to spare.
What's amazing is how consistent you've been over the years. I remember seeing a steady flow of good advice from you 5 or 6 years ago on the Business of Software discussion boards. Best of luck in your latest endeavors and thanks for the cheatsheet.
This is good and all, but does this give us new news? I'm new to HN and even I have seen some of these linked directly before. Wouldn't it make more sense to have a HN trophy room or something that we link to?
It's not news, but Patrick is probably the most prolific high quality contributor to HN and it is helpful to have the stuff that he thinks is good in one place.
After someone convinces me that spending a few months slaving over editing and promotion is more fun than writing software, better paying than consulting, more helpful than teaching language lessons, more impressive to a Ms. Right than time at the gym, etc.
Much like taking investment, it would be flattering but not get me anything I really want right now.
I've always really enjoyed reading your posts on HN. I saw that you were quoted in The Register with some identifying information, and I finally put 2 and 2 together and realized that you were the author of some of my favorite posts over at TMF too. Those were some hilarious stories. I hope you find the time in the future to share some more of them over there, but can completely understand what a time sink it is to write material for an audience of strangers on the interwebs. On behalf of those strangers, I would like to say that it was much appreciated while it lasted. Thanks for all of the laughs and knowledge that you've shared.
I am not going to claim that it is either of those, except possibility impressive to Ms Right, depending on who she is.
But it will help you get consulting gigs if you can say you wrote a book about X, where X is somewhat related to the consulting.
Whether that is worth it to you, is obviously something you would have to decided. I would by any book about how to run a small software company, organic seo, ab testing with rails or similar you write and I do believe many other here would too.
Obviously it depends on you. But I think having a book published gives you:
1) Warm glowy feeling + bragging rights.
2) A lot more "longevity" than just a blog.
3) It makes the world a slightly better place (and makes some people really happy).
I say 3) because I love reading, love collecting (good) books, and having more good books to read is always better. I read a ton of blogs and read HN every day, but books are still the best media for serious works, and I'm sure my book collection will be my pride and joy many years in the future, long after I've forgotten half the blogs I read now.
All of that is really just my way of saying, please spend the time. I'd love to have your book in my library!
A. I'm not sure I believe this. I have bought three or four books which were compiled from blogs. They all felt really dated within a couple of years. I read each of them zero to one time and then sold them off; after all, the material is there online if I need to refer to it again. And sometimes the online version even gets refreshed.
B. Books only have more "longevity" than blogs if you are a librarian, or at least an amateur librarian. You must keep them around on your shelf for a long time, dust them off, carry them from place to place. It pains me to say this, as a former book collector and the son of two book collectors, but in the networked era print book archiving is like collecting and preserving fine art: A vital activity for a handful of professionals, but a niche hobby for everyone else. Especially for content that was born in digital form.
C. Books don't collect links. Except possibly to (e.g.) Amazon, which helps Amazon's SEO but contributes nothing to your own. It might be the height of irony for Patrick to publish a dead-trees book which advises you to publish everything on your own web site where it can attract inbound links.
I know they get a bad rap around here, but... this really is the use-case for traditional publishers. You package the posts into a book, they do the rest (if they like it).
I know that this was said in jest (and I think patrick has no interest in dead-treeing his blog), but I would LOVE a pre-compiled mobi version of his greatest hits to take on the road for my kindle...
Thank you for taking the time to edit this list and share it.