Programming is terrible—Lessons learned from a life wasted. EMF2012 on HackerTube: recommended by 3 Hacker News commenters across 3 separate months, 2015–2022.
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Tef's EMF 2012 talk on lessons from a career in programming, a candid and humorous look at why programming is so often terrible. Slides and a draft script are available online.
HN lists it among its favorite programming talks and fantastic technical speeches.
“Both of these talks are in my top 5.”
6 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
That and Hammock Driven Development: [link] Both of these talks are in my top 5. Edit (okay, here are the other 3): * All the Little Things by Sandi Metz [link] * Programming is terrible—Lessons learned from a life wasted. ▶ this video * Some talk I saw by Dan McKinley on making Data-Driven decisions. I can't find the original video, but here's a really similar one: [link]
in “Rich Hickey Fanclub” · View on HN
Rich Hickey - Hammock-driven development: [link] Brett Victor - Inventing on principle: [link] Programming is terrible: ▶ this video Dave Beazely - Python concurrency from the ground up (applicable to languages in general, with generator and corourine functionality) [link] Functional programming, with birds: [link] Short and classic: Wat [link]
in “Ask HN: Inspiring hacker talks and presentations?” · View on HN
1) Do not attempt to live code. change your code via version control, build small videos, copy and paste... whatever you do... do not try and live code 2) Read "The presentation secrets of Steve Jobs" ... its not really about Steve Jobs so much as its about how to be a great presenter. 3) building or writing a talk is significantly less important than the delivery... which means that more of your time should be spent on how to deliver the speech (recording I find is the best way to practice) 4) Pick a single thing and do it well, do not attempt to put too much into a talk or tackle something massively complex. 5) Make sure that everyone is walking away with something they can actually use. This doesn't require it be a hard skill... "Soft" or philosophical utilities are just as good 6) Have Fun and be funny... Speakers have a tendency to want to show off the size of their intellect, and the level their competency- having a speech be entertaining is way way more important. 7) DO NOT READ FROM YOUR SLIDES. know your shit. slides are supplementary Extra Credit. Here's a collection of some fantastic technical speeches: * [link] * [link] * [link] * ▶ this video * [link] * [link]
in “Ask HN: What are the things keep in mind while giving/preparing for a tech talk?” · View on HN
I think it's a rehash (conscious or not) of Thomas Figg's famous "Webapps, or as I like to call them: Skins around databases." -joke that he used in his "Programming is terrible—Lessons learned from a life wasted" talk from many years ago. It's no longer completely true, but honestly it's still kind of true. And I've been making my living writing them for years now ;) [0] ▶ this video
in “Godot Engine – A decade in retrospective and future” · View on HN
I don't mean to troll, but having ideas is nothing. Of course projects start with ideas but if the creator of the idea didn't pursue given concept - neither should you. ▶ this video
in “I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas” · View on HN
Just the slides do. Maybe he later thought the same and then omitted or replaced that suggestion in his talk. ▶ this video
in “Programming is terrible – Lessons learned from a life wasted (2013) [video]” · View on HN