# Ranking #1 on HN in the December Dead Zone

Original: https://swyx.io/lspace-2022
Published: 2022-12-30

> For those who weren't aware (you would be if you were subscribed on email!), I started a separate AI blog, L-space Diaries, this year to 1) try out Substack in anger and 2)…

For those who weren't aware (you would be if you were [subscribed](https://lspace.swyx.io/subscribe?simple=true&next=https://lspace.swyx.io/) on email!), I started a separate AI blog, [L-space Diaries](https://lspace.swyx.io/), this year to 1) try out Substack in anger and 2) create a focused feed on a topic rather than a person (I also started [DX Tips](https://dx.tips/) for devtools/devrel writing, but have been accordingly distracted).

Yesterday my first piece to hit 1st place on HN happened and I figured I would share some stats for those who cared.

## Stats

It was on front page of HN for 15 hours on Dec 28: https://hnrankings.info/34165522/
![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/6764957/210023934-c4e0d515-3fa8-4d14-9be6-adfe54378449.png)

I had mild traction on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/swyx/status/1608197747592794112?s=20) and [Mastodon](https://sigmoid.social/@swyx/109593202106904206) as well but nothing to write home about. 

![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/6764957/210024325-1435b05b-1a5c-4ff5-8073-bb73a26ce6cf.png)


It was also featured on [the Ben's Bites](https://bensbites.beehiiv.com/p/reverse-prompt-engineering) daily recap (currently at 15k subs) today.

This brought in 27k views and 150 new subs, vs 7k/62 for a "normal" issue.

![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/6764957/210024027-98255c18-5611-4b59-acda-75fa7ca3b015.png)

## Feelings and Behind the Scenes

The piece probably took about 12 hours to write in total, from doing the initial work on Notion AI, to writing it up (which involved a complete repro of the work to create the reverse prompt engineering tutorial) to publication and post-publish social support.

I've been enjoying the AI blogging as it is The Current Thing, but feel quite a bit of impostor syndrome since I have no background for it and the knowledge here is very steep.