Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Developer tools, OSes, and infrastructure

  • Many dove into editor and keyboard ecosystems: Neovim (often via ThePrimeagen), NvChad, custom layouts, Colemak(-DH), split/ortholinear boards, home-row mods, and ergonomic mice/trackpads.
  • Linux and Unix rabbit holes are common: NixOS and Nix package manager, Linux From Scratch, Gentoo→“something stable” arcs, BSDs, V7 Unix on a PDP-11 emulator, NetBSD/OpenBSD.
  • People rebuilt dev setups: Docker, self-hosted services, Matrix bots, local LLM frontends, and media servers (Jellyfin/Veso, Immich, Synapse).
  • Others dug into lower-level systems: Linux kernel networking, eBPF/XDP, io_uring, etcd and distributed systems basics, Spring Boot config walls, and Postgres query planner/EXPLAIN.

Hardware, embedded, and retro tech

  • Homebrew electronics: ESP32/MicroPython altimeters, Meshtastic/LoRa nodes, USB/PD and custom device classes, BLDC motor control (VESC), pan/tilt camera rigs, and custom PCBs.
  • Retro computing and consoles: CP/M/Z80 emulation, PS3 homebrew, 8080/8086-based synths, decompilation/delinking of binaries, vintage synth firmware, and HD44780 LCD history.
  • Time-nut pursuits: GPSDOs, OCXOs/TCXOs, counters, disciplining oscillators, and Influx/Grafana monitoring.

Making, CAD, and DIY audio

  • Strong interest in CAD: Fusion 360, Plasticity, SolveSpace, FreeCAD debates, and CAD→CNC/3D-printing workflows, including rapid prototyping, fixtures, and even injection-mold tooling.
  • DIY audio: building speakers, amps, DACs and synth modules; beating commercial speakers on cost/performance; extensive recommendations of designers, kits, and communities.

Science, history, and formal study

  • Deep dives into black holes, Hawking radiation, primordial black holes as dark-matter candidates, and loop quantum gravity “bounce” ideas.
  • Historical and religious rabbit holes: early Christianity, Gospel of Thomas/Judas, Exodus/Sea Peoples/Minoan genetics, and San Francisco politics of the 19th century.
  • Formal methods, group theory, Collatz conjecture, research identifiers (DOI/PubMed/Bibcode), music theory, kinesiology, and wealth-tax literature.

Food, drink, and physical hobbies

  • Culinary science: milk punch and food filtration/chemistry; cocktails and mixology patterns; coffee gear and carbon-steel pan seasoning.
  • Physical pursuits: figure skating, running/workout planning tools, golf simulators, e-bikes/motorcycles with experimental batteries, and rocketry.

Games, media, and entertainment tech

  • Gaming-related: Linux-as-escape-from-gaming that became a career, Texas Hold’em with equity/Kelly Criterion, FPV drones, retro Atari games, MH370 investigations, and PS2 DVRs.
  • Audio/visual tools: iOS music apps/AUv3, loopers, Suno/Udio music generation, film photography and Kodak manufacturing, and PDF performance profiling.

Life, careers, and meta

  • Several trace major life changes to “small” rabbit holes (installing Linux, joining hackerspaces, tinkering with servers).
  • Others reflect on motivation loss, gaming vs life’s “grind,” and how deep exploration shapes long-term skills and careers.