Confreaks
17 HN recommenders · recommended in 19 months, 2013–2026
53:22 · 66K views · Nov 11, 2012
Jim Weirich's RubyConf 2012 talk derives the Y combinator step by step, live-coding in Ruby lambdas. It builds up an understanding of functional programming and lambda calculus from first principles.
HN recommends it repeatedly as one of the best and most entertaining programming talks, and as the talk that makes the Y combinator click, even for people who do not use Ruby.
20 comments from Hacker News
Finally made an account to post in this thread. I'm rather early in my career doing mostly Ruby, Python and JavaScript things. As you might expect, I consume mainly Ruby, Python and JavaScript related talks. The first two talks that really blew my mind are: - K Lars Lohn's PyCon Keynote from 2016: [LINK] - Jim Weirich's (RIP) "Y Not" talk from RubyConf 2012: this video There are many other presenters who I have a good opinion of: - Raymond Hettinger: his presentation/teaching style is something I'd like to model my own after, also he gave the first talk on writing proper threaded/concurrent python that I was able to understand and make use of. - Brandon Rhoades: another speaker with a presentation style that I've found easy to follow, also he takes a little shot at the dd utility about 18 minutes into [LINK] ) - Sandi Metz: I started out in Python land and moved to Ruby land, where I was introduced to Sandi's talks. She doesn't talk about incredibly complex topics, but she's got insight into some really basic things that's helpful to new people who can't see the forest through the trees. - Robert Martin: I gather that his OO principles are not universally revered, but I find his talks useful. - Gary Bernhardt: his talks are interesting and entertaining in ways that most are not The list goes on, but I can't think of them all right now.
Jim Weirich's "Y Not - Adventures in Functional Programming"[1] is perhaps the most entertaining and interesting technical talk I've ever seen. It would absolutely not be as cool or as fun without the live coding. Additionally, the incremental process by which he arrives at the conclusion makes the topic much more approachable. 1. this video
If anyone wants this in a humorous 1 hour format, watch the legendary Jim Weirich (rip) explain it here: this video Don't be discouraged that it is in Ruby as the concepts are completely general. Great watch even though I never coded a line of Ruby.
If you are curious about the topic, I strongly recommend watching these videos: Y Not- Adventures in Functional Programming by Jim Weirich this video Programming with Nothing by Tom Stuart [LINK]
For those (like me) that prefer learning through talks and demonstrations, Jim Wierich gave an incredible talk on the Y Combinator at RubyConf 2012. Video: this video Code: [LINK]