Analysis of 2025's Most Popular Hacker News Bloggers and Their Success Factors
By
mtlynch
4mo ago· 6 min readenInsight
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Summary
The article analyzes the most popular personal bloggers on Hacker News in 2025, with Simon Willison ranking #1 for the third consecutive year. It examines what makes certain bloggers successful on the platform, noting that Willison's popularity stems from his authentic, non-commercial approach to writing about AI as a power user rather than a salesperson. The analysis explores the characteristics that resonate with the Hacker News community, including technical depth, genuine expertise, and lack of promotional intent.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledFor the third straight year, Simon Willison was the most popular blogger on Hacker News.
Simon isn't selling you anything. Simon writes about LLMs as a power user not as a sales pitch from some startup's VP of product.
At first, Simon's position at #1 feels obvious: he wrote about AI in a year when everyone's obsessed with AI. But there are tons of AI bloggers, and Simon is the only one who's popular on HN, so what sets Simon apart?
Who were the most popular personal bloggers of 2025, and what made them successful on Hacker News?
