Slava Akhmechet
Slava Akhmechet, co-founder of RethinkDB, writes about Lisp, functional programming, startups, and engineering management.
What HN says
Commenters recommend his Lisp essay highly, and note his own caveat that the older posts come from a more naive time.
Stats for nerds
169HN people shared it
111linked in comments
7.5Kstory points
Jun 2024last shared
Top posts on HN
- 1Startup idea checklist2 people · 1.3K points · first shared 2019 · 194 comments on HN
- 2Engineering management lessons (2014)12 people · 975 points · first shared 2014 · 109 comments on HN
- 3How to pick startup ideas9 people · 765 points · first shared 2015 · 103 comments on HN
- 4The Nature of Lisp54 people · 674 points · first shared 2007 · 91 comments on HN
- 5Useful Mental Models (2016)5 people · 589 points · first shared 2018 · 73 comments on HN
- 6Startup lessons10 people · 569 points · first shared 2013 · 163 comments on HN
- 7Functional Programming For The Rest of Us17 people · 416 points · first shared 2007 · 67 comments on HN
- 8RethinkDB: why we failed (2017)14 people · 413 points · first shared 2017 · 227 comments on HN
- 9How to build great products7 people · 356 points · first shared 2013 · 29 comments on HN
- 10Writing A Lisp Interpreter In Haskell8 people · 188 points · first shared 2009 · 31 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
- pcOct 2016
RethinkDB is one of the developer tools that we at Stripe most looked up to.[1] The team had so many good ideas and rigorous, creative thoughts around what a database could be and how it should work. I'm really bummed that it didn't work out for them and have enormous respect for the tenacity of their effort.
I'm also excited to have them join us here at Stripe. As we've gotten to know Mike, Slava, and the other Rethinks -- and shared some of our plans with them and gotten their feedback -- we've become pretty convinced that we can build some excellent products together in the future. I'm looking forward to learning from all of them.
[1] (And, for me, even before Stripe -- I started learning Haskell with Slava's Lisp-interpreter-in-Haskell tutorial back in 2006... http://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/lisp-in-haskell.html)
- tmamicAug 2020
In the words[1] of @spakhm appointment software for doctors is not a showstopper and definitely not a gamechanger.
I've been researching medical market a lot. There are many reasons why appointment and practice management software isn't a great business. But the number one reason is that it doesn't create a great value for doctors. Patients will still come and use the same doctor, insurance companies will still pay them the same, it won't bring new patients, it will not make it easier for doctor to manage his practice since he still has to have a nurse which does this.
On another hand, it makes it easy for their patients to go somewhere else since EHR need to be completely available to patient. This is an unnecessary risk.
[1] https://www.defmacro.org/2013/09/26/products.html
- TeMPOraLOct 2020
> This is maybe the best introductions to Lisp i have seen, especially for a js dev like me it could hardly get more approachable and convincing.
The classical one is "The Nature of Lisp"[0], which introduces data-as-code through XML and Java build tools. Same idea, just with examples more relevant at the time of writing. Still worth a read for non-webdev programmers.
Having learned Lisp, it's half funny, half disheartening to watch the industry repeatedly tries to rediscover "code as data", as people's configuration or data files in markup language du jour grow in complexity and eventually start directly encoding executable code... and then stop shy of embracing the code/data duality.
--
[0] - https://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/lisp.html
- ZephyrBluJun 2024
This is a tech-focused selection from my personal list, with a few more business-y sources thrown in:
- https://erikbern.com
- https://lethain.com
- https://commoncog.com
- https://scattered-thoughts.net
- https://danluu.com
- https://ideolalia.com
- https://staysaasy.com
- https://collabfund.com
- https://blog.nelhage.com
- https://jacobian.org
- https://equalventures.substack.com
- https://defmacro.org
- https://spakhm.com
- https://apenwarr.ca
- https://scarletink.com
- https://benkuhn.net
- https://cpojer.net
- https://brandur.org
- https://zeptonaut.com
Let me know if you want some reading recommendations for any of these!
- dirtyauraFeb 2015
Lots of startup advice seems obvious once you have heard or read it a few times. But you only understand the value of such advice when you fail to follow it.. For example, I read the fantastic list "57 startup lessons" by Slava Akhmechet when it was published. But only after I personally failed in many of these, I really understood how hard it is to follow even simple, obvious advice. When I read this same list after my startup failure, the deep wisdom of this list really stung hard.
As a startup founder, you should go through this kind of list regularly to keep yourself in check.
http://www.defmacro.org/2013/07/23/startup-lessons.html
- sah2edMar 2018
> I prioritize technology ahead of marketing, and am currently struggling to flip this around.
May I ask why you feel strongly about a technology-first approach?
I can think of someone that tried your exact approach, but it didn't end well. He happens to be a member of this community [0] and he wrote a great blog post [1] introspecting as to the reasons why technology-first approaches don't work in the world we live in.
If you've not read it, I encourage you to do so.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=coffeemug
[1] http://www.defmacro.org/2017/01/18/why-rethinkdb-failed.html