This is perhaps the flip side of
I kinda regret creating that topic now, because asking people to post the most heartbreaking thing they’ve seen online is kinda not good for your soul, because hooooly shit there’s some heavy stuff out there on the Internet. Whatever your particular poison is, you can stare quite deeply into the abyss.
So let’s tip the scales in a positive direction. What’s the most inspiring single article you’ve ever read online?
I’ll go first! I have two that stick out in my mind.
As the seasons turn to spring, this eulogy for Camo Cat gets me every god damn time. every. god. damn. time. (Have I mentioned that you should donate to the Internet Archive? Please donate to the Internet Archive!)
It’s Up to You is why I will be an Amy Hoy fan forever. I met her as a fellow speaker at Webstock in New Zealand 2010 but I didn’t really know who she was. Now I do. Much respect. I also highly recommend her site for bootstrapping entrepreneurs, Unicorn Free.
Let ruminate on that and get back to you.
Btw, glad I missed the companion piece to this post; real life is already depressing enough, most of the time.
I’m sad there are so few posts in here.
I’m also sad I can’t come up with a single, inspiring article I remember reading.
There were a number of Yegge rants and Coding Horror posts that I greatly enjoyed.
Single most inspiring online article?
I don’t know if I really have any that don’t sound prosaic. There must be dozens that moved me to (non sorrowful) tears - but I can’t remember them now.
What I do remember, however is Teach Yourself Programming in 10 Years.
I asked on Twitter but I wasn’t blown away by the response, maybe I asked wrong. By that I mean plenty of responses but not much that I’d want to re-link. Plenty of geek canon stuff, but I’m not super into that these days.
Here’s a quick vet of the responses that I thought promising in some way:
Rasslin!
Jobs Stanford talk. I know everyone knows it, but this was Jobs at his best human being level.
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
Rands is on our board so I feel obligated by law to link this. It is good though.
Oh dear, someone said the f-word, twenty thousand times. Seemed good.
I am a sucker for a Paul Ford talk, the guy is amazing, on his own wavelength
http://contentsmagazine.com/articles/10-timeframes/
Reminds me of the other GQ article about the guy who walked into the Maine woods in 1985 and didn’t come out for almost 20 years
The KLF. Aware of it, solid.
Gruber, but short and sweet so I’ll allow it
David Wong is a great, great writer
http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/
Doesn’t rise above the level of interesting tech anecdote, but still, I love this story.
http://www.pacifict.com/Story/
heartbreak and quants on wall street
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/912d85e8-2d75-11de-9eba-00144feabdc0.html#axzz44Gj0h32g
I’ve read this before, a meditation on loving your mother in a family where love is not shown. It’s good.
Well, Actually – I will see Miguel next week and I still say this should be on his tombstone. It’s life-definingly good, and basically permanently restated all geek relationships.
http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2011/Feb-17.html
David Motherfucking Foster Wallace. That is all.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122178211966454607
Here we go:
That takes me back! And almost all the pieces are in place!
And, of course, you’re in the first wave of citizen/employees once we’re established, sir! You were one of the only ones who was there when I really needed the help. 
What’s neat is how little has changed…not that I mind all the incremental improvements but it’s really nifty to know that the starting point was that fundamentally sound.
I was drawing a blank thinking of something to post in this thread for a few days, and then I was like, duh! Of course. No-brainer.
This article on writer’s block changed the way I approach music, songwriting and to some extent, life in general for the better.
http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/songwriting/songwriting-writers-block/
I find Tim Urban a great source of a particular style of pop-sciency-personal-opinion article I enjoy. Here’s a (two-part) favorite.
The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence
The AI Revolution: Our Immortality or Extinction
A big, rambling read to be sure, but certainly the most inspiring I’ve read lately in the sense of making a subject suddenly feel like a must-know-more priority. Probably also the scariest. Bonus, I guess!
Did @codinghorror just improve my line spacing out of sheer typographical OCD? That’s neat. I could have used the help during design school.
Oh God how could I have left this one out. It is amazing and I have intentionally re-read it a few times
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