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Joe Armstrong - Keynote: The Forgotten Ideas in Computer Science - Code BEAM SF 2018

Joe Armstrong - Keynote: The Forgotten Ideas in Computer Science - Code BEAM SF 2018 on HackerTube: recommended by 4 Hacker News commenters across 4 separate months, 2018–2022.

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Erlang co-creator Joe Armstrong's Code BEAM SF 2018 keynote revisits good ideas from the history of computing that were dropped, and asks which should be revived. It also touches on Erlang and Elixir.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN people recommend it as a reading list of historical CS ideas worth knowing, and as a favorite among Armstrong's talks, especially after his death.

people recommended it
4
separate months
4
strong recommendations
0
discussed on HN
2018–2022
“Ted has a knack for reframing things in ways that make the arbitrariness of certain historical decisions clear”
— enkiv2, Apr 2018, in “Ask HN: What is your favourite tech talk?”

What HN commenters said

7 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

jeffreygoestoNov 2022Recommends

Definitely! I also like "How we program multicores" [0], it made "iff you want the same guarantees Erlang gives you, you'll be in the same performance ballpark in any language, yes, C++ also" click for me. Joe could explain the basic ideas and where they came from so concise and humble [1], you can probably just binge watch this whole list, one other gem being "The forgotten ideas in computer science" [2]... [0] [link] [1] [link] [2] ▶ this video

in “Why I program in Erlang (2012)” · View on HN

nameloswApr 2019Recommends

This is so sad. RIP Joe. I'll miss him so much. Erlang is one of the most Perlis languages for me. I'm always a little bit cynical and think Erlang deserve more attention. Several months ago Joe post this tweet about a game company refused to tell other people they are using Erlang. [link] I just watched his great talk last year not long ago - The Forgotten Ideas in Computer Science: ▶ this video

in “Joe Armstrong has died” · View on HN

smilesndDec 2018Recommends

I love any talk with Joe Armstrong or Alan Kay in it. Joe Armstrong - Keynote: The Forgotten Ideas in Computer Science - Code BEAM SF 2018 ▶ this video

in “Ask HN: Best talks of 2018?” · View on HN

enkiv2Apr 2018Recommends

Ted Nelson's Computers for Cynics probably doesn't contain technical information that's new to any of you, but Ted has a knack for reframing things in ways that make the arbitrariness of certain historical decisions clear: [link] On the subject of hypertext, The Web That Wasn't gives a nice history of the idea (for anybody who thinks it starts with TBL -- surprisingly many people!): [link] Another reframing-oriented talk is Clay Shirky's "It's not information overload, it's filter failure", which ultimately leads to Shirky suggesting the kinds of user-oriented filtering features that Mastodon has implemented: [link] At the intersection of neurology and information science, Peter Watts always has something interesting to say, and as a former marine biologist focusing on the nervous system of starfish, this is absolutely in his wheelhouse: [link] This one ("moving away from defensive programming") justified strong typing in a pretty clear way: [link] Dan Dennett is just as relevant as Doug Hofstadter when it comes to metacognition: [link] Forgotten Ideas in Computer Science starts slow, but if you don't have much of a historical background (like, if you're only vaguely aware of what happened in CS in the 70s), it's a laundry list of things you should look up and be aware of before you start your next project: ▶ this video Everybody should understand procedural generation: [link] Likewise, since AI is hyped up right now, we should all remind ourselves that IA is a thing too: [link] M

in “Ask HN: What is your favourite tech talk?” · View on HN

cryoMar 2020Cites it

"[Read] everything from Ted Nelson" – Joe Armstrong Keynote: The Forgotten Ideas in Computer Science - Code BEAM SF 2018: ▶ this video

in “The Call of the Ocean: Hypertext, Universal and Open (1988)” · View on HN

ignoramousApr 2019Cites it

Devastating. I'd like to point out a recent tweet @joeerl shared [0][1] that contained things he felt were good wisdom but lost over time: -- Ideas that we forgot: 1. Flow based programming. 2. Pipes. 3. Linda Tuple Spaces. 4. Hypertext (=/= HTML). Computer Science 101: 1. Observational equivalence. 2. Isolation. 3. Composition. 4. Causality. 5. Physics. Two papers to read: 1. The Emperor's Old Clothes - ACM. 2. A Plea for Lean Software - Nikalus Wirth. Two videos to watch: 1. The Computer Revolution Hasn't Happened Yet - Alan Kay. 2. Computers for Cynics - Ted Nelson. Four old tools to learn: Emacs, Bash, Make, Shell. Three books to read: 1. Algorithms + Data Structure = Programs. 2. The Mythical Man Month. 3. How to Win Friends and Influence People. Correct a typo: ?? Learn git -> locate program that creates page -> locate typo -> correct -> send push [sic] request. !! Select text -> type in correction -> people see change. Two projects: 1. Link to content hash not a name (request content by sha256, immune to pepole in the middle). 2. Elastic Links (links should not break if you move an endpoint). -- Easily one of the best thinkers of his generation [2]. RIP. [0] [link] [1] ▶ this video [2] [link]

in “Joe Armstrong has died” · View on HN

Show 1 more comment
alexashkaApr 2018Cites it

It seems like what Paul is describing, is the niche filled by libraries/frameworks. When you have a website to build, you reach for an existing web framework, because it has already done the bottom-up steps for you. The same could be said of choosing a language, OS, hardware, etc. Existing technologies allow for increased productivity, at the cost of it becoming increasingly difficult to understand the bigger picture. The 'bottom-up' part at this point, is choosing which Ruby/Java/Python/etc libraries to use. The productivity bar has been set high, leaving little time for bottom-up decision making or education. Hence MongoDB and the never-ending tales of mediocre solutions gaining adoption due to marketing hype. Curiously enough - academia isn't able to solve this problem well, because they're encouraged to produce 'novelty', rather than sit down and digest the mess we're in, to help clarify matters a little. They're in the same rat-race, of getting things done on a 6-12 month schedule. There's a quote that I really like - "Prolific programmers contribute to certain disaster." [0] Ah well :) [0] ▶ this video

in “Programming Bottom-Up (1993)” · View on HN

Topics & tags

History of computingFunctional programmingTech pioneers & interviewsjoe armstrongerlangforgotten ideasprogramming historykeynote